Ready…Set…GOALS!

Four Easy Steps to Write Your 2019 Goals & Intentions

Merry Christmas! I hope you had a great holiday. Now that one holiday is down, on to New Years! Do you set goals each year? If you have been following me you know that for the past few years it’s something I’ve been doing and love the process. I have created a ritual, Every New Year’s Eve morning I take time and sit in the morning with my coffee and write out my goals and intentions for the new year. I also take some time to review any goals I didn’t achieve from the year before and amend them as needed.

I like to write goals and intentions for the year as opposed to resolutions. I feel when I’m intentional about something it means I’m consciously striving for it, whereas with resolutions, they can be broken and I’m not as committed to them. Writing your own goals and intentions doesn’t have to be complicated, to help get you started I have a simple 4 step guide to writing your own goals and intentions!

Step 1. Pick a theme

This will be a few words for your overall feelings towards what you want the year to look like. You can choose one two or three (but try to keep it to three so it’s manageable).

Theme Ideas to Choose from (but not limited to):

Abundance

Feel Alive

Adventure

Commitment

Connection

Fun

Growth

Gratitude

Happiness

Honesty

Integrity

Laughter

Love

Openness

Presence

Positivity

Relationships

Respect

Surrender

Trust

For example, for 2018 my themes were:

• Adventure & Travel
• Happiness  
• Abundance

My goal was to incorporate these themes when making everyday decisions and when choosing my goals. For example, for last year’s themes this is how I incorporated them into my life:

Adventure & Travel: In 2017 I had 11 weddings (I know, ELEVEN)! I attended 8, all over the country and didn’t have the time or budget to do a big trip so in 2018 I wanted to travel abroad again and made that a 2018 goal. So in 2018 I went back to Italy to several cities I had never been yet, Santa Margherita, Portofino, Cinque Terre, Vicenza and then I also went back to Florence and Venice after last being there 20 years ago! What an amazing adventure, are you interested in Italy blogs in 2019? Comment below and let me know!

Happiness: I practiced happiness by looking to find joy in most situations in life, to choose another perspective. This was especially helpful when I would get down on the work I was doing for the blog, when I wanted to give up, so I would try to turn my thinking around. See my first year of blogging post here. I would get back to the reason I started and focused on what I am excited to share.

Another thing that’s easy to get down on is TRAFFIC! Sheesh. My commute has gone from 40 minutes on a bad day when I moved here to 1h10min everyday. It’s horribly frustrating to know I won’t be anywhere after work until over an hour after I leave as I sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic. So instead of EYE ROLL haha and complaining, I am working on choosing a different perspective. I cannot change it; I am not getting a new job any time soon and I’m not going to move so, acceptance is the answer. I decided to listen to some online courses with Gabby Bernstein and audio books during the commute and to use the time to call people to check in to see how their day went to get out of focusing on the traffic. This way I can be productive, multi task and I learn/ and catch up with friends! Bonus 🙂

Abundance: to choose an abundant mindset takes practice and that’s what I did. Similarly to choosing the positive perspective of situations, I practiced  every morning by writing a gratitude list. I believe the more I give, the more I get back in return and to do that I need to be in a place of gratitude to raise my vibration. See some of my positivity mindset posts, on manifesting what you want in your life here, going with the flow of the universe here, keeping an attitude of gratitude here, and mantras here.

2019 I’m choosing:

• Surrender
• Laughter
• Commitment

Step 2. WRITE DOWN your goals, yes, I do mean with a pen and paper!

Choose:

• 1-2 goals for personal life (health/wellness/family/relationships)
• 1-2 goals for professional life (career/professional/network/development)
• 1 or 2 more of anything else that’s been on my mind that I’ve been striving for to add

Step 3. Create Your Goals the SMART Way! Write them out following the SMART guide for each one, below:

• Specific (simple, sensible, significant)
• Measurable (meaningful, motivating)
• Achievable (agreed, attainable)
• Relevant (reasonable, realistic and resourced, results-based)
• Time bound (time-based, time limited, time/cost limited, timely, time-sensitive)

BONUS: I also recommend making one of the goals above a SCARY GOAL.  What is ONE thing, one dream that has been in your heart that you keep avoiding, disregarding or putting off? WRITE it down. Write a smart goal around it to do a few things this year to achieve it! YOU CAN DO IT!!

Below is an example of two of my SMART goals I wrote for 2018 when I wanted to create my theme of travel and to reach a goal for my Pancreatic Cancer Action Network fundraiser. I also write my goals starting with, “I AM”  to manifest the/intention that they are happening. See below:

• I am going to take an international trip to visit places in Italy I have not yet seen. I am going to use amex points for my flight and save $100 a month towards the trip and start planning the travel agenda in March 2018.

• I am going to raise 10k for my PurpleStride Pancreatic Cancer team. I will do this between June and October by creating a cross country fundraising campaign, hosting events and utilizing social media/emails to raise funds. I will host events in San Diego and during that time along with send emails and social media posts with requests for donations. I will have a team of 30+ people and their contributions will also go to our overall goal.

I wrote these goals down and guess WHAT?

I not only met both goals but exceeded my fundraising goal, I’m so blown away!

As I mentioned above, our travel adventure to Italy was spectacular (we even attended a wedding while we were there, omg)!! And I blew away my 10k goal for PanCAN and I was the TOP, #1 individual fundraiser at PurpleStride San Diego for the SECOND year in a row raising 12.5k. I cried with happiness and felt so abundant for all that can be done for the future of people touched by this terrible disease with these funds (themes for the year 🙂 And with my team of over 30 people, in total raised 16K+, wow! I am so blessed! You can see my page here.

You can view some photos from my past fundraising events here

Yoga & Run Event

And the walk, here and here.

Check back, coming soon to the blog, The Top Ways to Fundraise Like a Boss!

The thing that made the difference, I wrote them down and had an action plan.

Here’s the thing, as you know, because I’ve already mentioned above several times….so you know what’s coming… the secret is WRITING IT DOWN. It doesn’t hurt to say them out loud. I am a believer in intentions, law of attraction and energy. I choose to practice having thoughts that match my intentions in hopes of drawing that energy/intention to me. (It takes work and practice so don’t worry about it happening overnight).  I have also read that people who write down their goals (not just think about them) are 90% more effective in achieving them than those who don’t write them down and just think about them! *I also have a vision board and spiritual alter and will talk about those in a later post if you’re interested in making your own? Comment below.

Step 4. Check in with your goals.

I like to check in with my goals quarterly and encourage you to check your progress and keep striving to achieve them by the end of the year.  It also helps after you’ve completed writing down your goals to keep them in close proximity, somewhere you can look at them and read them a few times a year.  (I keep them in my notebook and carry them around with me wherever I go).

Now that you have a simple plan, go ahead and get yours down on paper before the new year! Good Luck and know that I am setting the intention for all of you to have 2019 be your BEST YEAR YET! Comment below with some of the themes you are choosing or goals you are setting for 2019! Let’s support each other.

Here’s your Bicoastal Beauty Tip of the week: This week I have two tips,

1. This is a BONUS to get these goals working in your life faster! After you write your goals down, to help manifest them to existence try to FEEL how good they would make you FEEL to achieve them. Not just to say, I want 10k, but how about, how would it FEEL to have an extra 10k earning in your life and – not just yours but how would it ripple to help others in the world if you had more money? For example, for my goal to raise 10k, which was exceeded, it probably was due to how much good it would bring to others! The universe loves to give you things when it knows you’re going to be able to in turn, use it for good for others too. Let me know what you think!
2. Next tip – below are my favorite planners, write your goals out in these and let me know which ones you use
   

I love this one too – it only takes a few minutes and it starts my morning off right and helps hold me accountable to ONE major task to get done each day.

So let me know what some of your goals are and let’s hold each other accountable! Happy New Year, the best is yet to come!