My TV best friend, Carrie Bradshaw, once stated that “as we drive along this road called life, occasionally a gal will find herself a little lost. And when that happens, I guess she has to let go of the coulda, shoulda, woulda, buckle up and just keep going”. I coulda lived without that purchase, I shoulda saved more, and I woulda done it like this if… Well folks, one of my favorite things about going into the New Year are the ability to reflect and refresh. It’s time to move toward your goals/resolutions for the future.

Replace Your Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda with Been There Done That! 

Write your goals out. Sometimes putting pen to paper makes things so much more real. Mental goals will always stay within the mind if you don’t take this first step.

Keep It Real. Sure, I would love to save $10,000,000 in a years’ time…wouldn’t everyone and buy a yacht? For my lifestyle, though, that would be a highly unrealistic goal. Impractical goals are the enemy of progress. I’m not saying lower your standards. I’m saying that setting attainable goals and completing them makes you want to push forward to reach even higher.  In contrast, setting unrealistic goals simply enforces a defeated attitude.

Set a Goal Date. There are many procrastinators in my life…me being one of them. Setting a goal date is like doing crunches and knowing you have five more to go… it just pushes you to complete it. Now imagine just doing crunches without knowing how many you have left to go. After a while, you will abandon your goal, right? Set a date and strive to hit it.

 

Tell Someone. Find someone or several people and tell them your goals. Not only will you have someone to help keep you accountable, but if you have someone who actually wants to see you succeed, they will help eliminate triggers that will get you off task. This may mean that you will hear the word “no” when you need to hear it but aren’t ready to accept it.

 Check-In. Last year, I was able to accomplish many of my goals/resolutions because SMC reader, Audrey, asked for an update. Little did she know, it made me reflect on the goals that I wrote about and published for the world to read (steps 1 and 4) and made me want to follow through on those long-lost goals. In fact, I ended up writing two update reports for those that follow SMC.

I challenge you to push forward.  Maybe you need to revisit a goal that was abandoned.  Maybe you have new goals.  Take a day or two and really think about where you want to be and thing create a roadmap on how to get there.  Good Luck!