Making New Year’s resolutions that are easy to keep! – creating the vision (3 min read)

I hope you had a wonderful and inspiring week. If you have been following the guide from last week’s article  Making New Year’s resolutions that are easy to keep! -get inspired, then you should now be really clear about where you are in your life and where you want to be.

Creating the vision is one of my favourite parts. It’s about finding and setting your goals. One of the best bits of advice I can give here is BE REALISTIC and make your goals manageable. Don’t set yourself up for a fail. For example don’t set one of your goals as to be a millionaire by Christmas this year if you are currently in a low paid part time job. Your goal to be a millionaire can be realised in say 5 years, but right now you need to set a goal of improving your financial situation and beginning to lay the groundwork which will bring you closer to your millionaire goal.

So how to set realistic manageable goals? actually it’s quite an easy process. If you follow the simple guidelines below then you will by the end of this week have a crystal clear vision for your new year’s goals.

Identify your goals

From your findings last week pick out 4- 6 things that you need to change to improve your current life quality. And remember folks this process is all about improving your life quality. You can have goals for your family but those goals need to be centralised around your life changes. You only have the power to change your own life. So identify the most immediate changes you need to make.

Completion date.

Set an completion date for the goals. I always set mine for October. A completion date makes your goals focused and accountable. Simply you know when I have to be done by. This does not always mean a goal or dream is completely finished. It may be that you have an end goal to buy your own house but it will take two years to save up the deposit. So tis years goal becomes save one half of the deposit by October. It is still working towards your main goal, just in a realistic and achievable way.

Evaluation date

Choose a half way point in your year as an evaluation date. Personally I always start my evaluation at August  when the harvest is being brought in.The evaluation is important. It is an evaluation of progress so far and lets you identify the work left to be done. How to evaluate comes next week. For now just set the date in your calender.

Forming your vision

Now this part is fun, especially if you are a creative person. It’s time to make your vision more concrete. It’s time to create a vision board. Collect pictures and phrases  this week that represent your goals for this year. Also find a picture of yourself where you are truely happy. Now take a piece of cardboard ( I use 2 A3 pieces stuck together) and glue the happy you in the center. Divide your board into 4 to 6 sections and group the pictures and images that correlate to each other in a section. I love this part. Make time over the weekend to create your vision board. I like to make this a celebratory event and when complete I toast my vision with a glass of wine. Set time aside this weekend to create your vision board and when you have done hang it somewhere where you will see it every day. If you cannot think of somewhere I suggest putting it across from your toilet, after all you are in there every day!

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So that’s part two of creating new year’s resolutions that will last. By spending time on this process of creating your vision you will make your journey this year so much clearer. Think of it like a recipie book. You start with a picture of the finished product, just as you are doing with your vision board. Then there is a set of instructions on how to make the recipie. And next week we will be looking at how to make the recipie for your goals and dreams to be met this year.

For now enjoy creating your vision and giving yourself clarity to your dreams. Don’t forget to take sometime to thank yourself for dedicating yourself to improving your life. (I plan to take this week very slowly and make time to give myself a daily pampering 🙂