We’ve all been there, or at least I have, it’s a New Year and you want to set resolutions but you can’t seem to remember what your resolutions were from the previous year. I think it’s time to say goodbye to post it note new year resolutions that you won’t find at the end of the year.
I am the queen of a misplaced well-intentioned post it notes, but I’ve found that post-it notes just won’t do when it comes to goal setting and making progress towards your goals.
I gave up setting myself up to fail at New Year Resolutions a few years ago. Yeah, it wasn’t that long ago.
Have you ever found yourself looking for, say a pen in your desk drawer, and come across a list of resolutions from 1995 and say, “so that’s where that’s been”. Permission to laugh is granted.
I know that this time of year, everyone is making their list of new year resolutions, and if you want an alternative or if you’re ready to say goodbye to post it note new year resolutions, here is a little bit about my journey that is a work in progress, but one that has worked well for the past year.
A great influence in my life in the area of goal setting has been Michael Hyatt. I’ve listened to countless podcasts of This Is Your Life with Michael Hyatt that have added so much value to my life and especially in the area of goal setting.
Have you ever gotten in your car, started to drive, and ended up at Target and said to yourself, “how did I get here?”. I know things always make into our shopping cart at Target that are not on the list, but you never just get in your car and start driving and end up at Target.
No, we have a destination in mind when we get in our car. We’re going somewhere intentionally.
Michael Hyatt’s talks about not drifting through life without a plan, or goals, or a destination in mind, have certainly been beneficial for me as I considering setting goals.
When I listened to Season 4 Episode 8, I had to stop and take notes. The light bulb moments were countless for me as I filled the pages of my journal. It was perfect timing because I was in a place where I was ready to say goodbye to post it note resolutions.
In this episode, he talks about setting SMARTER goals.
S-specific goals-I want to have a weekly menu plan.
M-measurable because you can’t manage what you don’t measure.
A-actionable-I want to eat more fruits and vegetables.
R-realistic, but not in the delusional zone.
T-time-every goal needs a deadline.
E-exciting-you want your goals to be compelling.
R-relevant to your season of life. This is a lesson that I’ve learned over and over. You can’t measure your season by someone else’s season.(Michael Hyatt said that) Maybe in your season of life, you can only workout twice a week because you have a toddler at home. Adjust accordingly to your season of life, and let that be your cadence for your goals.
After you have identified your SMARTER goals, write them down, review them frequently, and share them selectively. All of these were important nuggets that were shared from the podcast. I’ll include links the below.
I also discovered Audible.com, my favorite way to read books. I listened to the book the Compound Effect and it helped me to focus on the balance that I needed for goal setting in all areas of my life. I knew that I didn’t want my goals to become entirely business focused and neglect myself and the most important people in my life. The goal planning sheets available here as a free download, helped me think through each area of my life: spiritual, myself, my marriage, my family, health, relationships, and business.
But, it didn’t stop there. I knew that my goals had to be SMARTER, I knew that each of them had to be filtered through my value system, I knew that they had to be balanced, I knew that they had to be visible and referred to monthly, weekly, daily, and most of all I knew that I needed an action plan in place for each of them in small tiny steps in order for any progress to be made.
I copied them down onto 5×7 sized cardstock to hang in my office, one was framed, one inside my desk drawer, and another easily accessible inside my monthly homemade planning binder.
I officially said goodbye to post-it note new year resolutions.
Another huge step that I made was making appointments with myself each month specifically for goals review. I would assess my progress, plan action steps for the next month, and think and reflect on what was working and what was not. It was easy to hold myself accountable to my review time, but it was extremely hard during my busiest wedding season months of September – October.
During my goals review time in October and November, I began to think about 2017 and I stumbled across Lara Casey’s Powersheets. I had heard of Powersheets but had no idea about the purpose that they could serve in my life and business. After reading reviews, and flipping through the online sample, I was hooked. Oh my goodness!! I shared on my Insta story spending a Saturday morning in Panera Bread getting some of the prep work done, and to say it was intense is an understatement. Thinking about how I want to see my life at 80 years old is intense, but needed. Remember, you don’t want to drift through life.
Things I love about Lara Casey’s Powersheets:
1 – It is an intentional goal planner. The prep work alone will make you dig deep, consider what matters most, and set you on a path of intentional goals. This planner will also help you to keep the drifting at bay.
2 – I’m able to use it with other tools that I have learned about goal setting. I still used these sheets from the Compound Effect because having a balance of goals in my life is important to me.
3 – It helps me to keep the day to day to do list separated. Sometimes, even today, I had to remind myself to focus on my number one goal of writing a blog post, and not to get bogged down in my to-do list. I love checking off boxes from my to-do list, but I’ve found that if I’m not checking the small boxes on small action steps each day towards my goals, then I’m really not getting what’s important done.
4 – My goals are visible and referred to often. A review is built in at the end of each month, and I love that the review is focused celebrating the small wins and giving yourself grace for what you did accomplish. Celebrating progress, not perfection.
5 – It was also easy to pair up with Emily Ley’s, Simplified Planner, which is a monthly and day-to-day planner. I do all of the heavy lifting goal planning with my Powersheets, and then I add the small steps and daily to do’s to my Simplified Planner.
I’m thankful to have tools that work well together. Most of all, I’ve said goodbye to finding a post-it note of scribbled new year resolutions that remained unresolved.
If you can’t get your hands on Powersheets, use what you have to make it work for you! I started with a notebook paper and a three-ring binder.
My encouragement is to start now.
A year from now, you will wish you had started today.
Here are the links for you:
Michael Hyatt, Season 4 Episode 8
The Compound Effect, by Darren Hardy
The Compound Effect Goal Designing Sheets
*affiliate links included to great resources!
If you found this post valuable, share it with a friend and say goodbye to post-it note New Year Resolutions together!
All the best to an amazing 2017!!
Post-It Note New Year Resolutions
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