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5Steps to Making 2017 the best year yet!
by Kieran Gordon - Founder of Underpinnings Facebook: PrettyUnderpinnings
Email: kieran@underpinnings.com
Website: www.prettyunderpinnings.com
I’ve broken more New Year Resolutions than I care to remember. There’s something about January 1 that inspires many of us to create lists of things that we think we should do but funnily enough these are often lists of things that we don’t actually want to do! So a few years ago I actively decided not to make New Year Resolutions, instead, I chose to spend time thinking about the few things that, if I accomplished them, would really make the upcoming year a success. Here’s the process I followed:
1. Focus on only a handful of goals.
Instead of making a mile-long lists of goals (hello overwhelm... and inaction!), it helped me to focus on three major areas of my
life, myself – meaning my physical and emotional health, my relationships - ensuring I made time to connect with family and friends, and, of course, my business – what did I want for Underpinnings and my customers. In each category I then identified 1 or 2 outcomes that would make a meaningful positive impact if they were to be achieved.
For example, maybe one of your desired physical outcomes is to have more energy and vitality on a daily basis. Examples of goals in that category could be something as simple as “get 7 or more hours of sleep at least 5 nights a week” or “engage in physical activity 3 times a week”.
2. Make your goals actionable.
Ok, so we’ve all heard this one before. Goals should be specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-bound (SMART). I’ve never liked the idea of “realistic”, since I find that it can limit our creativity in finding solutions. Instead I’ve replaced “realistic” with “relevant to your current life circumstances”. Feel free to use whichever ‘R’ speaks to you more.
Notwithstanding my tangent, thinking “SMART” has a lot of merit. What specifically are you going to do that will move you closer to
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