#InspireMondays: Design your 2015

Most of us start each year the same way. The fresh hope of new beginnings, resolutions, renewed vigour to chase our dreams, double up on our hustle and make real lasting changes in our lives. That’s what the New Year is usually about, a fresh chance, a time to press the reset button and give it another go. But sometimes it pays to actually think back to what went wrong with our previous resolutions and feelings of fresh chances.

I’ll be honest. There is hardly a New Year resolution I have kept. From hard ones like being better with money to simple things like waking up early, everything seems to revert to status quo by the second week in January. I’ve thought long and hard about this and I have come to a conclusion. Missing strategy. Any goal, resolution or self determination effort, without a realistic strategy aimed towards achievement, is simply a penny thrown into a pond.

This is why Marstin Kipp of the Daily Love’s video is so instructive. I actually took notes!

1. Get really clear

This is another way of saying write the vision and make it plain. Take every aspect of your life from romance, career, and health to spirituality and friendships and actually write down what you want to achieve in those areas. Ask yourself, what kind of relationship do I want? What kind of career do I want? What will you no longer put up with? What do I want to create? What do I want my life to look like?

2. Understand the intention behind your goals

It isn’t just about asking yourself these questions, you need to ask yourself ‘why’. Why do you want that kind of career? For me this is the poignant part of framing your vision because as soon as you ask yourself why, it stops being just a dream or another wish. It gives you the motivation for achieving the goal and makes you intentional about achieving them.

3. How can you help other people

 It’s strange but we always make the New Year about ourselves. What we want, what we want to become. Scarcely do we think about others. Will we be better friends? Listeners instead of complainers? How will we show support for our loved ones? How will we show them we care about them? How can we help those less fortunate? Sometimes, it is in the serving others that we find ourselves.

4. Make your goals visible

So it isn’t just about writing down your goals and letting the dust settle on them till next year. You know what they say….‘out of sight is out of mind’. So in order to keep your goals in the forefront of your mind, you have to see them daily. Some people have vision boards in their rooms. But one thing I know I look at every day is my computer. So guess what, I am making mine my screen saver! Giving your goals visibility also ensures persistence and faith towards achieving them

5.  List your courageous actions

Goals no matter how visible will remain words on a paper, if there is no action to back them up. So now you have your goals, you understand why you want to achieve them and how you are going to help others…..the next step is implementation, implementation. And if your goals are about change i.e. loosing weight, getting a new job or changing career, getting closer to God….it will require a different course of action from the previous years. But courageous action is a little more than just implementing your goals…it means heart based action. No doubt pursing your dreams and goals may be scary and will require some heart based action. It may mean repeatedly facing your fears or going against the grain.

I hope this video was as inspiring for you as it was for me…..here’s to a goal setting and achieving 2015!