I didn’t get my 2021 goals written down yet, but I did go ahead and get started on them. In short, my goals for 2021, at least for the first couple months, is to do something positive for myself everyday, and to work on cleaning and organizing around the house.
Combining Goals
If you’re feeling like you’re ‘in deep’ and like there’s no way you can manage everything you want to achieve in 2021, look for places where you can combine goals, and get more than one thing done at once.
I’ll share my example from today to give you an idea what I mean:
One thing I did today that pulled double duty was steam cleaning the upholstered living room furniture. (My son helped and may even have done the harder parts.)
It pulled double duty because it turned out to be a lot of exercise, and because it made the room look better. Plus, the furniture has a bright, lemony fragrance now.
Look for the Positive in Simple Tasks
Don’t let yourself feel dragged down by the chores that make up your everyday routine. Things like cooking and cleaning are no fun if hate them, but if you can adjust your thinking to see them as a way to make life nicer for the people you love, and for yourself, then it’s possible to make chores much more enjoyable.
I’ll also share an example of this from my day:
I also made a fairly labor intensive evening meal, biscuits and gravy with home fries. (I know… there goes my extra exercise.) And, while the food was cooking, I worked on cleaning and organizing the kitchen, so it looked a bit better after I made dinner than it did before.
Instead of looking at making a labor intensive meal as a chore, I thought of it as an honor, because I was spending my time preparing a meal my sons enjoy, and that nourishes their bodies and their spirits. Sure, it was a little heavy on the starches, but it’s not something we have often.
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Well, 2020 has been quite a year, and while it’s never good to wish your life away, it’s kind of nice seeing 2020 move into the rearview mirror; so as part of my goodbye to the year, I thought I would do a recap on my new year’s resolutions article from last year.
New Years Resolutions Party Dogs Image by markito from Pixabay
New Year’s Resolutions or Goals for the New Year?
In a way, New Year’s resolutions and goals for the new year are the same thing, but at the same time, they’re different because goal setting involves several steps that increase the likelihood of follow-through.
Examples of New Year’s Resolutions
To shine some light on the difference, I thought I would drop a few common New Year’s Resolutions here before going deeper into the goal setting for the new year aspect.
Lose weight
Be more organized
Keep the house cleaner
These are all things that would benefit your lifestyle if you achieve them, if they’re issues for you, however, when stated as resolutions, they’re more like wishes – and wishes kind of float away in the wind like dandelion seeds when they aren’t backed by anything.
It can be more effective to think of your new year’s resolutions as long-term goals, and then back them up with goal-setting sessions that list the short-term goals you need to achieve in order to make the long term goals work.
Goal Setting Ideas for Weight Loss
It’s easy to know how much weight you want to lose, and it’s common sense to know the way to do it is to eat less and exercise more – however – it isn’t that easy. If it were that easy, everyone who wants to be thin would aleady be thin.
To use goal setting strategies to help you succeed in this type of resolution or long-term goal, think of specific things you can realistically do each day to get to where you want to be.
Set Smaller Realistic Goals
For example, exercise: You know you need to exercise, and say you’ve picked running or weight lifting as your chosen physical activity. If you jump right in and work out intensely for an hour or two at a time, you’re likely to quit the first day, or at least within the first week.
So, instead of choosing to work out intensely, consider what types of exercise you can realistically – and safely – do – such as walking for ten or twenty minutes a day with a goal of increasing the number of steps you take each week.
Commit Your Goals to Writing
Put these smaller goals in writing – add the details to your calendar or planner. I’ve often heard people say to tell your friends or family, so others can hold you to it. For me that doesn’t work, though writing them down does seem to help. I’ve found that the people who SAY they want to help are often the people who really don’t want to see success.
Set a Date to Revisit Goals
Make a date with yourself a few weeks out to revisit your goals and measure your success. If that date comes, and you aren’t where you wanted to be, refresh your goals, and move the dates out to achieve them. Then, start over or pick up from where you are.
Life is an ongoing process, so if you haven’t achieved the goals you set during your new year’s goal setting session, don’t be hard on yourself. Adjust, pat yourself on the back for anything you have achieved, and move forward.
In closing, I want to thank everyone who has visited intrinsic Vicissitude in 2020. It’s meant a lot to me to see all the visitors stopping by for a little boost of positivity. Please stop back often in 2021, and feel free to visit the Intrinsic Vicissitude Facebook page to join in the conversation and positivity.
I love the idea of starting fresh (as much as possible) each new year. So, I spend some time the last day or two of each year and then spend some time setting goals for the coming year during the course of the first day or two of each new year.
The year 2020 provides a great opportunity, in my opinion, to add some long-term goal setting to the mix, too.
Some of My Ideas for 2020 Goals
For 2020, I’m working on goals that focus on my career and my health, and I plan to add a lot of chit-chat and some facts about things that interest me, here on Intrinsic Vicissitude. So, for tonight, I thought I would combine my personal tips for goal setting with my personal goals, as examples that show ways to apply the tips.
Picture Where You Want to End Up
This visionary step is the classic ‘begin with the end in mind’ and to apply it to my 2020 goal of focusing on my career, I am picturing how much time I want to invest in my writing work, and how much I would like to have earned by the end of 2020. I’m picturing how it will feel, the things I’ll buy, the things I’ll do, and how New Year’s Eve 2021 is going to look at my house.
Commit 2020 Goals to Paper
This commitment-forming step is for your 1-year or less short-term goals. Okay, it doesn’t have to be actual paper if you’re a digital type, but it’s important to write goals down because the written form puts something solid and real in front of you. Moving on to my goal of focusing on my health for this example, I’m writing down my commitments to:
Drink more water
Eat more vegetables
Either walk, do resistance exercises, or yoga stretches at least five times per week.
Notice, I picked ‘gentle’ exercises that I find enjoyable to make it easier for myself to stay on track.
Add Some Long-Term Goals Since It’s a New Decade
You can set long-term goals anytime, but the start of a new decade is a great time to do it because it gives you an easily remembered date and time frame to work with as you aim for your goals. Like short-term goals, long-term goals should be written down to help you focus on them and make them more concrete. Allow yourself room to adjust them, though, because what you want today may not be what you want next year or five years from now.
Make a Success Plan Based on Your Goals
This step may take several days to complete, and it doesn’t matter if it takes longer than you originally expect. The important part is that you DO it. It’s practically impossible to go from point A (where you are now) to point C (your successfully reached goals) without filling in the point B (roadmap) details.
I’ll add a lot more about this in future posts, but basically, list a few things you KNOW you have to do in order to reach your goals. Want to make more money? What options do you have to do that? Get a new job or a second job? Charge more for your services? Consider all your options, and make a list of the things you’re going to do – that YOU GET TO CHOOSE from your list, and commit them to written form along with your short-term 2020 goals and long-term decade goals.
Set Deadlines for Completing Steps to Achieve Your Goals
Imagine if you were planning a trip, because the journey to reaching your goals is a type of trip in many ways. Typically, you would have a destination in mind, and know how far you plan to travel each day, and things you want to do. With goal-setting, the stops along the way are a vital part of your roadmap for the journey.
Deadlines help you stay on track, and as you reach each step successfully, you get to enjoy the success of having completed a leg of your journey to success. Plus, if you notice you’re falling way short, you can quickly adjust the things you’re doing – or not doing – so you can get back on track and work toward still reaching your short-term and long-term goals.
Want someone to talk to for encouragement and support as you work toward your short-term and long-term goals? You’re welcome to add you comments below or stop by the Intrinsic Vicissitude Facebook page and click like so you can join in the conversation that’s going on there – or start a conversation about whatever you want to talk about
I really appreciate you taking the time to stop by the site, and I hope you find something of interest here in the information I shared, or elsewhere on the site. Browse around the site to check out some of the other articles, too.
Motivation and positive thinking are finely tuned, highly functional muscles in the body, spirit and mind that are often neglected. Just as you would not go to the gym once and expect to be extremely fit and healthy, you can not simply read a self-help book, or do one set of affirmations and anticipate motivational success.
Motivation Note Card Tips image courtesy of Pixabay
How to Use the Weekly Motivation Note Card System
By IWrite4U!
The Weekly Note Card is a great organization habit to keep you focused, goal-centered, and driven throughout each week. The idea is that you fill a personalized note card each week with a positive quote, goal, reassurance, affirmation and where you would like to be at the end of the week and then carry it with you at all time and reference it throughout.
What You’ll Need
In order to get started, all you will need to purchase is a pack of standard 3×5 note cards. I prefer packs that offer a variety of colors so I can use the different colors to have different overall meanings, for instance:
Red Card: a very emotionally exciting color, red actually increases respiration and heart rate – I will use if I have a big week of projects or major test or presentation Yellow Card: associated with joy, creates a warming effect – will use if it is a rainy week or there is possible gloom on the horizon Green Card: symbolizes growth, harmony, and freshness – will use if I am feeling stagnated or anxious
How to Make it Work
Once you have your selected your preferred card it will be time to fill it! Try to lay out a schedule for yourself in when and where you create the card and also reference it at home. I find that Sunday evenings work best for making the new card for the week as it lays out your mental road map. In practice, I will keep the card on my nightstand if I am home, or on my bathroom counter, so that it is the first thing that I see when I wake up and last at night.
Allow yourself to be creative in your composition but try to stick to the card format of:
Affirmation: Speak in the first person and be specific. Some examples:
– I am in charge of my mood
– I have everything that I need to make this a great day
– When I breathe I inhale confidence and exhale timidity
Positive Quote: Search and select something that resonates with you. Some people keep books they quote (Bible, Collections, Poems) or some just reference web searches – either works!
Goal: What would you like to accomplish this week?
– Spend more time with kids
– Take wife out on date
Thing to work on: What would you like to see different in yourself?
– Be more patient with your employees
– Be humble about your successes
Compose your card and keep it on your person at all times throughout the week (wallet or purse works great). Whenever you have a moment pull out the card and reference it and overlay it with your present moment to check in and exercise the ambition and positivity muscles. At the end of the week, look into what you could have done better and where you ended up, and use it as a platform for your next card! Have fun with the practice and enjoy the positive growth that is summoned within you!
The new year is kind of like a blank notebook – you get to write the story that emerges in it, so setting some new goals – at the start of the year – or any time – is a way to start fresh on your terms, but do you know how to set goals you can stick to?
Life Gets in the Way
Unlike writing a new story in a new notebook, when we are talking about real life issues, we don’t get to start completely fresh.
We still have to deal with the same old baggage that’s been a problem in our lives, and setting new goals without giving a nod to that baggage sets us up for failure.
Think about goals, such as New Year’s resolutions you’ve set in the past; how long did they last? A few hours? A week? A month? (Did you know only
(Did you know only 8% of the people who set new year’s resolutions actually achieve them?)
How to Set Goals That Stick
Instead of thinking of your new goals as big, major, life-changing things that you need to achieve in a single year, think of the really big changes you need to make as long-term goals, and set some short term goals you need to do while in pursuit of your long-term goals.
Brainstorm and plan.
Break the process of setting goals into several steps and build success into each step.
Start with an awareness of your long-term goals.
Planning without an eye on where you want to end up would be kind of like taking off across country on foot with no destination in mind – sure – it could be an adventure – but more likely it will be a failure.
Be very specific in your goal setting.
Using weight loss as an example, instead of making the goal an 80 pound (or whatever) weight drop, set small goals around the steps involved in losing weight, such as giving up second helpings or increasing activity levels by walking 20 minutes per day, three times a week.
Set attainable short-term goals as your resolutions.
If you do the steps as short-term goals, the big results will come, plus you get to feel inspired and successful as you meet each short term goal.
Build in adaptability.
Give yourself a break.
It’s hard to make life changes.
Instead of setting yourself up for failure by creating rigid goals, expect to adapt them after the first week, or even during the first day.
If you set more than one goal at once, know in advance that you will most likely make rapid progress on some and struggle with others.
Give yourself at least one fun, totally positive goal.
This is a total confidence builder!
What is something you enjoy doing but rarely, if ever do?
Set aside ten or fifteen minutes a day (or longer if you have the time) to enjoy that thing.
Keep your new goals to yourself if you are surrounded by negative people.
Nothing can crush your motivation faster than hearing something negative from someone whose opinion is important to you – so just don’t tell them.
