New Year, New Goals
Happy New Year! Wishing you an amazing 2024.
With the start of the new year, many of us are thinking about our goals for the year. I spent the weekend doing some annual planning for this year and reflecting on 2023. I met 2 of my 3 big goals last year and am still analyzing how I can make this year even more impactful.
This year's process includes listing 10 reasons why I want to achieve my business goals. I also reflected on my CEO life and considered what my levelled up life will look like. I then costed out what it will take to make my vision a reality. Surprisingly, the total was not as high as I thought, which was a pleasant surprise because my dream car is not as expensive as I imagined! This costing exercise showed me that my goals, although lofty, are achievable, and to a high achiever like me, this is gold!!
Determining the cost of your goals and dreams is a helpful way to focus your energy and identify your priorities. It can also help you identify the activities that are not aligned with your goals and can be removed from our to-do lists, you know the lists that are never finished?! In addition to the cost, consider the timeline. Some huge goals may take more than 12 months to complete. For example, one of my personal goals was on my list for two years before I achieved it. Although it was frustrating, I finally realized I needed to change my mindset around it and once I did that…poof it was done. Just like that.
Our mindset, which includes our beliefs, attitudes, and thoughts plays a huge role in preventing or enabling our success. What are the things you say to yourself? Is your self-talk negative or positive? For many of us, we speak very negatively to ourselves and by doing this we program ourselves to fail. And often what we tell ourselves is not true, but we keep repeating it anyway. I am challenging myself this year, and more importantly, each day to speak truthfully and positively to myself.
Changing these deeply rooted beliefs may seem difficult, but it isn’t. Creating new self-talk requires us to create new healthy, honest, and loving thoughts and speak to ourselves in that way. Consciously doing this every day will help to reprogram our thoughts. I am doing daily affirmations in the morning and at night. I use visualization and my vision board to help me see and daydream about my life and goals. My business coach has challenged me to do something this quarter that allows me to start living my goal. I have decided I am going to test drive my dream car! Email me and let me know one thing you will do before March 31, to start living your dream.
Our beautiful lives are too sweet to not be lived fully. I encourage you to dream a huge scary dream, set big goals, and work on them each week, each month, and every quarter this year. By December 31, I promise you will be surprised by what you have accomplished.
Michelle
CEO
Your Workplace DEI Consultant