Setting yourself up for a successful year!

So many of us love to start the new year by pulling out our journals and setting new intentions or goals to achieve throughout the year. But many of us struggle to maintain the momentum as the days and weeks tick by, and before we know it, we are wrapping up another year without achieving much of what we had hoped to.

Without a structure and steps to follow, plus effective ways to stay motivated, it can be really challenging to make progress towards achieving your goals.

In this blog, I share my own very simple four step process for how to set new year goals in an intentional way, then take the steps to achieve them (or as I like to call it, manifest them!)

I recommend that you set aside some time where you can be alone without distractions to complete the below over a few different sittings, in a way that feels special or sacred. You may like to light a candle and start with a meditation. Whatever feels most comfortable for you.

The steps are:

Step One: Reflect on the year that has been

Step Two: Write out your goals

Step Three: Present your goals in a visual way

Step Four: Regular Practice & taking action

Step One: Always start by reflecting on the year that has been

When we spend time reflecting and celebrating our achievements over the year that has been, we subconsciously set ourselves up to begin our new year from a more confident and capable starting point. Take some time to write in your journal some responses to the below journal prompts. You will be so pleasantly surprised with how much you achieved and grew over the past 12 months.

Celebrations and Highlights

• What were the happiest times you experienced?
• What are you proud of?
• What are you grateful for?
• How have you uplevelled as a person?
• Who were three people who brought you joy?
• What did you successfully manifest with intention?
• What did you manifest unintentionally (ie. you may have attracted something in to your life when you manifested the opposite, however it worked out for the better)

Lessons and Growth

• What challenges did you face? How did you grow through those challenges?
• What were some of the biggest lessons you learned?
• How have you shown resilience? Courage?
• How did you change from the beginning of 2021 to the end of 2021?

Now, take a moment to visualize yourself at the end of this year

• How will you feel, how will you look, what will you be doing?
• At the end of 2022, what do you want to be celebrating?

And in order to arrive at this place and be celebrating these achievements…:

• What limiting beliefs fed to you by your ego or inner critic do you need to let go of?

(i.e. I am not smart enough, attractive enough, rich enough to achieve this…)

You may like to list out your limiting beliefs and then rewrite each of them from your soul voice, rather than your ego or inner critic.

• What boundaries need to be put in place? (ie. re-evaluating relationships, putting yourself rather than others first in certain situations, not taking on more work than agreed with your boss)

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

Carl Jung

Step Two: Write out your goals

Your goals should be backed by intentions that are aligned with your desires and values as a person. For example, if you set a goal to start a family, but the only reason you are doing this is because your partner is pressuring you and deep down you are not ready to become a parent, your intuition will sabotage you from taking the correct actions to bring this about.

I used to personally find myself in self-sabotaging situations regularly (before I quit drinking and worked on myself to become the person I am today). I once accepted a role as a Marketing Director, knowing I was under-experienced but being led by my ego because of the high salary, the perks and status plus how it would ‘look on my CV’ (LOL!). Needless to say, I ended up burnt out, on the edge of a nervous breakdown, drinking a bottle of wine plus a night, turning up to work hungover and highly anxious and being made redundant at my 6 month review. If at first I had asked my intuition (back then I didn’t know that I had one) if taking that role was the right thing for me to do, she would have screamed at me ‘HELL NO!!!’.

So get intentional when you set your goals, and ask your intuition for guidance with setting these so that they are aligned with your highest self values.

Your goals should be challenging, distinct, measurable, spark emotion within you and achievable within the 12 month period. Try not to get too detailed about the elements of the goal – the universe will be more open to delivering you wonderful things when you allow it to; in its own way.

It is important to not let self-doubt or any other negative and limiting beliefs hold you back from reaching for the stars. As Henry Ford said: “Whether you think you can or think you can’t – you’re right”. Successfully achieving goals and manifesting your dreams is a possibility for everyone. I am living proof of this (along with millions of other people around the world)! So don’t hold back here, really dig deep and let your passion and ambition fly free.

If at this point your inner critic or ego begins to try and talk you out of anything, or bring you down, go back to step one and rewrite the story, change the belief and remind yourself of your powerful capability. You may even like to write out the new belief that supports and serves you on a piece of paper and place it in a prominent position in the house so that you can change your subconscious beliefs.

Now it’s time to take out your journal and write down your goals. I like to write these on the inside cover of my journal, so they set the tone and lay the foundation for the year to come.

When writing out your goals, take a moment to ‘feel into’ the feeling as though you have already achieved this goal. How does your body feel? What is your energy like? Write this down – the feeling behind your goal is extremely important.

Example:

Goal 1 – Find the perfect family home to rent, with friendly neighbours, walking distance from the kids school, with a bath and a fireplace.

Feelings when I achieve this: Safe, secure, comfortable, connected (really allow your body to feel into these feelings).

Goal 2 – Launch my online business and generate $50,000 in revenue and 1000 Instagram followers.

Feelings when I achieve this: Successful, accomplished, passionate, rewarded, excited and motivated.

Step Three: Present your goals in a visual way

I always love to also present my written goals in a visual way by creating a vision or action board. Dr Tara Swart refers to vision boards as action boards because their purpose is to inspire and manifest your future through your actions, rather than a vehicle for daydreams.

In her book ‘The Source’, Dr Swart states, “Actions boards are incredibly powerful tools – images track instantly to your brain’s visual centres, bypassing conscious thought, which means the brain’s filtering systems can’t edit them out or dismiss them. They are emotive and symbolic, inspiring energy and action in the real world.” She believes that compared to a written list of goals, an action board will have more impact on your brain and your future behaviour.

So sit down with a blank canvas, your goals, some magazines, your laptop if you want to print out pictures, or even a paint brush and let your intuition guide you towards how to bring your goals to life in a visual way. There are plenty of online resources and Instagram accounts to help you create a powerful action or vision board, or just let your intuition guide you and make it up as you go!

Step Four: Regular Practice & taking action

Wouldn’t it be so great if we could set our goals, say a prayer to the universe and then sit back and let it all happen for us? Unfortunately, this is not usually how it works. Actions and Regular Practice are vital to achieving your goals.

After you have confirmed and written down your goals it is time to set the actions you need to take in order to achieve your goals. Then, periodically go back and reflect on the actions that you have set to make sure you are progressing and also to see if there are any new actions that need to be set to give you moving forward. You may like to set times in your calendar (the new and full moons are popular times) to remind you to do this.

Everyone’s Regular Practice will vary, depending on what suits your lifestyle and can involve a process of trial and error as you find a practice that feels good for you. I personally have an almost Daily Practice, where almost every day, before my children wake up or after they go to sleep, I meditate for about five minutes, then visualize achieving my goals, feeling into the feelings as though I have already achieved them, then write down three things I am grateful for and three things I am proud of. Even on the days I am feeling low vibe, I make a point of pushing myself to do my practice, and I always feel so much better after.

Think about how much time you have to commit to your own Regular Practice and also when is a suitable time for you and your family. You may find that once a week is all you can find time for to begin with, and that is perfectly fine! The important thing is to create a habit out of this Regular Practice by repeating it as often as you can, without it feeling like a chore, so you continue to progress towards achieving your goals.

The important steps to include in your Regular Practice are:

1. Tapping into your intuition for guidance (meditation is a great tool to get you there)
2. Visualising and feeling into the feelings as though you have already achieved your goal/s – really flood your body in these beautiful feelings
3. Practice gratitude for the things you already have – allow yourself to revel in the beautiful feelings of the joy and abundance in your life – no matter who you are, you can always find something to feel grateful for
4. Revisiting and setting new actions to keep you propelling forward
5. Regularly look at your vision board; I choose to look at it right before I fall asleep at night

The rest can be up to you, based on what feels good.

Step Five: Let go, trust & flow!

There is so much power in surrendering and letting go of what the future holds and trusting that everything is working out exactly as it is supposed to (what sweet joy!).

When we try to control, we restrict the flow of what is coming, we become anxious and low-vibe which deters us from receiving the magic the universe wants to deliver.

When you feel yourself entering a fear spiral, worried about failing, whether you can achieve your goals or perhaps something else that the future may hold, try to ground yourself by taking some deep breaths, and then just surrender. Hand over the control to something beyond you, and trust that:

If it’s not this, then it will be something better.

So, why not use this year ahead to prove to yourself that you can be or do anything your heart truly desires. We are given one opportunity in our current physical bodies, on this beautiful planet earth. There really is no better time than now to create the life you have always dreamed of.

No matter what and with no limitations. I am so excited for you!