This is what generally happens to me right after Christmas. While I'm trying to decide what to do with all the left-over turkey or agonising over the morality of simply tossing out three unused rolls of Christmas wrapping paper because I really don't have room in my tiny apartment to store stuff like that..I begin to picture the year ahead - and this is what I see. I see a beautifully ploughed field complete with rich soil in neat, evenly spaced furrows, just waiting to be planted with seed from my fertile imagination. I see a blank page just waiting for me to write my dream life on it. I wonder if any of you can relate to this. Yes? The new year is like a magical land of opportunity in its ability to produce whatever I want it to.
Before I know where I am, New Year's Eve is upon me and I find myself with a pen in my hand and a pristine, brand-new journal open in front of me. And then..I START JOTTING DOWN NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS. Am I alone in this? Even though I know that that little bit of jotting is the world's biggest waste of ink I NEVERTHELESS DO THIS.
But not this year. This year is panning out quite differently and here's why. I have discovered that resolutions are useless, meaningless and soul-destroying but that goals are not. And I have found a way to not only set goals, but also, to achieve them! I made this discovery a few weeks ago when I realised that I had actually accomplished a financial goal that I had set myself earlier in the year. I was delighted but also shocked. How had I managed to do this? I decided to sit down and analyse exactly what I had done so that I could repeat the process in future. And here's what I found out - setting a goal that you can actually achieve is as easy as A, B, C, D - except backwards, so D, C, B, A. Are you with me? Great, here goes.
D = Decide what you want to achieve
Decide exactly what you want to achieve because that is the difference between a resolution and a goal. Don't be vague, as in, "I want to lose weight"; be very specific about the goal you are setting for yourself, as in, "I want to lose 8kgs". Maybe you'd like to own a really good, designer handbag. Do your research, settle on exactly which bag you'd like to purchase and find out what its going to cost you and where you can buy it. Maybe you'd like to get fit. Decide exactly what that's going to look like. Is it going to look like you can run a 5km distance in 30 minutes or less? Or is it going to look like you are stronger and more supple? Have you noticed that for a goal to be realistic and achievable, it must be measurable. If you can't measure it, its not a goal, its a wish.
C = Commit to a deadline
As soon as you've set your goal, decide on the by when. By when are you going to be swinging that handbag off your arm? By when are you going to clock up that 5km run? Its so important to include a deadline in our goal-setting. That information goes into your brain and sets a creative, problem-solving process in motion. Plus, once you've committed to a deadline you know the amount of effort you have to put in between now and then to see your goal achieved. Setting a deadline is also a step of faith. In setting a deadline you're saying to yourself "I have already achieved this goal" and that is not only motivating but powerful in a spiritual sense.
B = Break it down
Now that you know what you want to achieve and by when you want to achieve it, you can decide what the steps along the way should be. If you've decided that you want to be able to run 5kms in 30 minutes or less, by the end of April 2017, then you could follow a beginner's running programme that will gradually build you up to that distance. You may have found out that your designer handbag is going to cost you R20 000 and you've decided that you'd like to have that by the middle of the year. If you save R100 per day, it will take you 200 days to save up for your handbag. Can you do that? In the breaking-down step, you may discover that the deadline you have set for the achieving of your goal is unrealistic..so adjust it until you think you have a goal that is challenging, yet achievable. There's no point saying "I want to be a billionaire by the end of the year" - you're just setting yourself up for failure.
A = Action your decision immediately
You know exactly what you want to achieve. You know by when you want to achieve it. You've broken your goal down into measurable steps and you've seen, not only that your deadline is realistic, but exactly what you need to do in order to meet your goal within the time you've given yourself. So now's the time to take action. The very first thing I did when I set that financial goal earlier in the year was commit it to the Lord. I already knew that my goal was in line with God's will so I prayed with faith and asked God to help me realise it. So do that. Commit your goal to the Lord. Now go and transfer R100 from your current account into a special savings account right now. Great. You're one step closer to owning that handbag. Go and download the Couch to 5k running programme right now, see what you need to do today, put on your running shoes and go do it. You're on your way to being able to run 5kms in under 30 minutes.
As a general rule of thumb, try not to set too many goals at once. Instead, think of your life in terms of categories - faith, fitness, family, lifestyle, work, finance - and select only one goal per life category. Once you've achieved that goal, you can set another one. I'm looking forward to hearing your success story. Until then, I'm wishing you a very happy new year!
