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Do you set goals each year? 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. help get you started I have a simple 4 step guide to writing your own 2018 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

Energy

Fun

Growth

Grateful

Happiness

Honesty

Integrity

Laughter

Love

Matter

Openness

Positivity

Relationships

Respect

Surrender

Trust

For example, for 2017 my themes were:

• Fun
• Love
• Joy

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:

Fun: I committed to San Diego by choosing to show up and commit to people in my community and life and to be open to a committed loving relationship (which ties in with the love theme).

Love: to give and receive love in the relationships I already have and the ones I want. I combined love and joy in being able to witness the birth of my new nephew and Godson, Jack in March. I’m still bursting with love and JOY For that little man who is now 9 months old!

Joy: looking to find joy in most situations in life, to choose another perspective. You can do this too with some of my posts (under positivity) here, here here and here. This was especially helpful when I would get down on the work I was doing for the blog, so I would try to turn my thinking around. See my first year of blogging post here.  

I also found so much joy in reaching a few of my goals for 2017, read more below.

2018 I’m choosing:

• Adventure & Travel
• Happiness  
• Abundance

Step 2. WRITE DOWN your goals.  

So yes, I do mean write them down with an actual pen and paper 🙂

When when I write down my goals I choose the following to write about:

• 1-3 goals for my personal life (health/wellness/family/relationships)
• 1-3 goals for my professional life (career/professional/network/development)
• 1-3 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 adding at least ONE SCARY GOAL to your list.  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!

Below is an example of two of my SMART goals I wrote for this year when I wanted to grow my instagram and reach a goal for my Pancreatic Cancer Action Network fundraiser. The second one was also my scary goal! I also write my goals starting with, “I AM”  to manifest  the /intention that they are  happening. See below:

• I am going to end the year with 10k instagram followers and one blog post per week in December. I will achieve this by batch content planning and spending 2 hours a day on instagram posting, reaching out to others and participating in a holiday giveaway.

• I am going to raise 10k for my PurpleStride Pancreatic Cancer team for the 10 year anniversary of my father’s passing. I will do this between June and October by creating a cross country fundraising campaign, hosting events and utilizing social media to raise funds. I will host events in San Diego and Boston during that time along with send weekly emails and 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 but exceeded both of my goals, I’m so blown away! Today I’m at 15.5k instagram followers (THANK YOU GUYS) click here to follow me if you’re not and I blew away my 10k goal and I was the TOP, #1 individual fundraiser at PurpleStride San Diego raising 13.5k. I was called on stage and given a medal. It was an absolute honor, I cried with joy and love (themes for the year ;)) and was overwhelmed and grateful for all that can be done for the future of people touched by this terrible disease with these funds! And with my team of over 30 people, in total raised 14K+, wow! I am so blessed! You can see my page here. 

You can view some photos from my fundraising events here. And the PurpleStride walk, here.

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

The thing that made the difference in achieving these goals, I wrote them down and had an action plan to make them happen.

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 mantel 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, take inventory and keep them close.

I like to check in with my goals quarterly to see how I’m doing and make any amendments I need to to achieve or tweak them.  I encourage you to check your progress and keep striving to achieve them by the end of the year.  It is also helpful after you’ve completed writing down your goals to keep them in close proximity. Keep them somewhere you can look at them and read them often.  (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 2018 be your BEST YEAR YET! Comment below with some of the themes you are choosing or goals you are setting for 2018! Let’s support each other.

Here’s your Bicoastal Beauty Tip of the week:

I love using moleskin notebooks for writing my goals and I have linked a few others for you to check out, below. Happy New Year, friends!!

Here

Here

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Here

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