Happy New Year! One thing that I personally love about the new year is that I get some time off of work to just focus on me. Of course, work is a part of me, so I am definitely thinking about it, but it is within a bigger picture. This is one time of year that I purposefully look at the past year and evaluate how I can learn from the past to make the future better. I’m also setting goals for the next 12 months and getting myself set up for success.
It is interesting to me however that this is often the ONLY time of the year that people give themselves permission and time to do this. I am continually checking in on my goals, re-evaluating, setting new intentions and keeping myself accountable. If I screw up (and I’m prone to doing this!), then I notice and move on in the next moment. I don’t wait until tomorrow, next week or next year to reboot, I do it in the moment.
I was talking to a friend last week about her 2013 goals and she told me that two of her goals she stopped working on within the first couple months of the year. When I asked her why she didn’t start again she gave me that confused dog look and said it hadn’t occurred to her. Goals are continuous, not instantaneous. To achieve your goals and to keep the benefits, then creating new behaviors, new habits and even new beliefs are useful.
If a person can set a goal today and achieve it tomorrow, I’m not sure that is a goal. To me, it sounds more like a task. I know my personal goals for this year will take me a few months to accomplish and then more time to set them in stone and ensure their longevity. Even if something is concrete like ‘buy a house’ – there is continued maintenance and ‘work’ to be done to ensure that goal continues to be met even after it has been purchased.
Each year we have this momentous time of year we call the New Year. However, every moment is new. You can start again and again and again if you need to – if you give yourself permission to!