It’s that time of year again. You’re taking a minute to look back at 2019 and looking ahead to 2020. You’re ready to take on new challenges. You’re also likely asking yourself how you can avoid the trap of setting a goal and abandoning it shortly after you’ve taken it on. 

It all starts in your mind and with your thoughts. Bringing awareness to why you set the goals and why you want to achieve them can be a crucial element in your success. Here are some tips on how to begin:

Find a goal that is personal to you and that you feel passionate about. You can’t borrow your best friend’s goals. You have to find one that gets you out the door to achieve it. Finding a goal with personal meaning makes a huge difference. 

Identify why you want to achieve the goal. Are you hoping to feel more accomplished after the goal is achieved? Does the goal come from a desire to be good enough? Here’s a little secret– you already are good enough. Try setting your goals from a place of abundance and happiness for where you already are. 

Decide how you will feel once you have reached your goal. In order to achieve the goals that you want for yourself, it’s helpful to start by generating the feelings that you think you will feel once you achieve the goal. It might seem like the opposite is true–that you have to achieve the goal before you get to feel the feelings. However, when you start with abundance and belief you are much more likely to get there. Hating yourself into achievement isn’t very effective (or fun). 

Believe you already are who you want to become. For example, you might want to qualify for the Boston Marathon in order to feel like a successful runner. What if you just choose to believe that you are already a successful runner? It’s much more likely that you will qualify for Boston from this place of belief than if you wait to feel successful until you’re already there. If you already identify as successful, the behaviors will follow; you will complete workouts, eat well, get enough rest, and believe that you can get there. 

You will find that by looking at your goals from this new perspective, you will not only have a better capacity for attaining them, but you will also gain a deeper respect for and faith in yourself and your abilities.