At the beginning of year we are inundated with countless articles, advertisements, and blog posts about making resolutions and goals for the year. There’s got to be some tips to making meaningful goals because some people like resolutions. Yet, for others, they’d rather avoid it altogether. Why make goals when I’m not going to keep them anyway?
So what is the difference?
Why do some people make goals only to walk away from them, while others like to make them and actually do what they say they will do?
In order to have goals that are successful—that you actually do—you must make your goals deeply meaningful. Goals that are deeply connected to your heart and what you want in your life. How do you do this?
3 Tips to Making Meaningful Goals
1) Continue to Ask Yourself Why
Those who thrive on making and keeping their resolution started with asking the right question. Why? Why am I making this resolution in the first place? Then when they answer that question, they ask it again, why? They keep asking why until it gets down to their heart—the reason they make the resolution or goal is ultimately connected to what really matters. It is at that point that it really becomes meaningful and as a result—it will deliver—you will do what you set out to do.
One of my mentors recently said that when she was a personal trainer, she would help her clients to set New Year’s Resolutions and goals for themselves. One example she gave, was a man who wanted to lose a significant amount of weight by early Spring. She pressed him a little more by continuing to ask, “Why?”. What they were able to finally come up with, was that he wanted to be healthy when he got older so that he could walk his daughter (very young at the time) down the aisle when she got married.
2) Make Up Your Mind to Be Resolved
Goals are critical to moving a person forward. In fact it’s documented that writing down your goals makes you 700% more likely to achieve success. The bottom line is that you can be successful if you make up your mind to be resolved. Being resolved is a choice. It’s something that you can train yourself to do. It is making a decision and not going back on your own word. If you exercise your resolve with small stuff then when it comes to bigger things—like resolutions—you will have practiced success already. And…if you’ve done it once, you can do it again! For those people who don’t keep their resolutions, well it’s really simple to say that they weren’t “resolved” in the first place. They didn’t make goals that really had a deep meaningful connection for them. You can read more about the power of a made up mind in I Made Up My Mind.
3) Push Yourself to Your Limits
I’ve realized more and more over the years that if I don’t push myself—really challenge myself—then I don’t grow.
A couple years ago, I started my journey of memorizing whole books of the bible. I always wanted to memorize scripture, but I always struggled with being successful at keeping at it. God’s Word was very important to me and I wanted it written on my heart. After all, meditation transforms and renews the heart. on it. It wasn’t until I pushed myself to memorize whole books that I actually have been successful.
Live Your Goals
How does this fit into my goal being meaningful? I realized that in the process of memorizing a whole book, that I was actually living the scripture rather than just memorizing it to memorize it. I’m so grateful that I was finally able to connect my goal of memorizing to a deeper why. It is now my new normal. I know several people choose verses of the year, but what if…what if you chose a whole book for your year, or even month? Right now I’m working on memorizing Philippians. I actually wrote about this not too long ago—about throwback resolutions and that you can start goals anytime of the year. There is no magic in January first! You can read more about memorizing scripture in Freedom to Be the Best You. What would pushing yourself to your limits look like?
What Do You Really Want?
As you look at your life, what do you really want it to look like? Being purposeful and setting goals doesn’t have to happen just at the first of the year. Lara Casey often says, “There’s no magic in January 1”. You life is filled with opportunities. What things have you been thinking about that you want to do? How do you feel about it? Do you think you’ll be able to keep your resolution? I’d love to hear what resolutions you’ve made. Hop on over to Facebook—or join The Living Room to share your story and comments.
One of my inspirations is to set goals that make me want to jump out of my bed in the morning. I started my goal setting using PowerSheets this past week. You can see my PowerSheets vision board on Pinterest and check out my post on why I started using PowerSheets— The Secret to Living a Life that Matters. My prayer is that you will have goals that make you feel the same way.
