How to achieve your new year goals.

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Emily, a mentee of mine, sent me her new year's resolutions in this order:

1. Spirituality
2. Finance
3. Career
4. Relationship

She asked me to help her in achieving the above listed goals. That was after she might have confessed to her inability to achieve them, year after year.

The problem of starting the year with great hope, energy and positive vibes, but getting lost along the line is not peculiar to Emily; almost everyone is a victim of this.

Armani, a good friend of mine have this to say:

"If only we can sustain the drive, the excitement, and the strong motivation we always have at the beginning of a new year, at least, for the next 3-6 months..."

I see a whole lot of sense in what he is saying.

It looks like we do begin a year with a whole lot of motivation, which keeps dwindling as we navigate through the year.

I believe, there are measures we can take, which will help us to maintain our quest and strong drive for success all through the year.

I will share some of them.

1.Thoughtfully Pinpoint the things you wish to improve on:

Don't just make a list because others are doing so. You have to think through it.

What is the one area of life you think you're lagging behind? It might be more than one.

What would you love to delve into?

Give each question due thought and then supply the answers.

Your answers would act as your goals for the year.

2. Change year resolutions to tasks:

Your resolutions, if you choose to call it that, should not look like Emily's own. You can begin it that way, but when you're done, break each item down to achievable tasks.

Here is what I mean:

If my goal this year is to be better grounded spiritually, to avoid a namby-pamby situation, I need to ask myself some vital questions;

"what do I need to do inorder to grow spiritually?"

As soon as I get my answer right. I woud like to include that in my to-do list.

That's not all.

I have to ensure that I keep at those activities all through the year.

3. Approach each day with a fresh drive:

Motivation is the fuel that drives the the engine of your aspirations.

Just like the literal fuel, it do dry up. It needs to be refilled.

The refilling ought to be a daily process. Since you need to spend each day walking towards your set down goals.

How do you then renew your motivation?

Inorder to answer this, you might want to understand what motivation means in the first place.

Motivation is derived from the word, 'motive'; which simply means reason?

What is your reason for deciding to take a particular action?

Remember my first point; you were to thoughtfully pinpoint areas where you need improvement.

Your reasons would determine how far you would be willing to go in achieving a particular goal. So you need to remind yourself each day, of the reason you decided to toe a particular line.

The validity and the strength of the reason(s) would keep firing you up.

For someone like me, increasing my finances is one of my topmost priority this year. And I'm not just wishing, I have taken strong steps towards that.

Apart from just having the privileges and troubles that comes with possessing enormous wealth, my strongest reason is my mum. If comfort were a tradable commodity, I would want to buy truckloads of it for that lady.

I moved her to a better apartment, just as we ended last year, and I want to move her to even a better one, next year. She has suffered so much for me.

Reminding myself of my reasons, fuels me up each day.

Remind yourself of your reason, it will renew your drive and passion to go for what you want.

4. Give yourself a deadline

Some goals can be likened to long distance journeys; a kind that can't be completed in day. But each day some distance have to be covered.

To every task you engage in, the aim should be to achieve a certain objective.

You should be able to know what your set of actions would fetch you, say in a week, or a month time.

I have digital marketers friends, who do set a hundred thousand naira a day target for themselves. Some do set 5 million naira a month.

Some people do much more than that, depending on their individual capacity.

It is not about how gigantic your progress seems. Just make sure that you're making process. Being 0.1% better than your former self everyday isn't, a bad idea.

Infact one of the reasons people don't achieve their goals is because they are not realistic.

5. Always pick yourself up after you might have failed.

We have been told that consistency is a key to success. No doubt, it is. But I'm afraid that most of us have gotten the concept of consistency all wrong.

Some of us think that being consistent is about never failing. How wrong we have been!

A baby who is learning how to walk, who falls for countless time, but keeps picking himself up, is a true picture of consistency.

Consistency is in never quitting despite many failings.

Your strength is not really expressed in how many times you've succeeded, but in how many times you were able to pick yourself up, after you failed.

know this: against your wish you'll fail several times, but make up your mind to dust yourself up and continue in your pursuit after you might have failed.

@mmykel, a young man is cheering for your success.

Happy new year once again.

May we succeed.