06 Jan Seven Tips for Success in 2017
“Have you made any New Year’s Resolutions?” is the question everyone has been asking this week. People also are quick to say they’ve broken their resolutions before the year has even fully begun. Here are some great tips to help you to achieve your goals for 2017.
Review your Life List and praise yourself for your achievements in 2016. Look through the goals you set yourself on your Life List. Write down your personal achievements from 2016. Under each heading, add the strengths you have developed and the positive experience you gained from your achievement. Remember to include steps achieved along the way – so if you completed a 5km run and then a 10km run, do include the first one which enabled you to achieve the more difficult goal. Now note down Random Acts of Kindness you’ve done for other people and smaller achievements such as books read, or theatre productions or concerts seen for the first time.
Now give yourself a pat on the back – celebrating success is important!
Write down your SMART long and short term goals for 2017 including your affirmations on cards or in your diary or on your phone so that you can read them to boost yourself when you need to motivate yourself. Have a look back at the affirmations you wrote when you were on your Advance course so that you can see the phrases which helped you to visualise you achieving your goals. Be passionate, be positive, be powerful in your affirmations!
Challenge yourself to achieve a goal out of your comfort zone this year! You never know you can achieve something unless you have a go. If you have thought of doing a sky dive or running a marathon but have fears, think of the reasons why you want to overcome that fear and achieve the goal. Consider achieving the goal to raise money for a charity you support or in honour of someone you admire.
Set goals together with your family, friends and work colleagues. It is easier to work towards a difficult goal (particularly when you give up something such as smoking or alcohol) when you are supported by a group of like-minded people. Whatever your goal, you could create a group to meet up to celebrate your steps along the way, and have a Facebook group to share tips and motivate each other. Having others to support you when you are struggling on a down day means you are far more likely to succeed, and you will feel positive by helping others to achieve as well.
Start a new calendar and diary for 2017. Get rid of that 2016 calendar and diary! Take the words from Elsa in Frozen and remember “The past is in the past, Let it go! Let it go!” If you talk to different people, 2016 seemed to be a difficult year partly because of the influence of the media. We lost many cultural icons in 2016; it seemed that everyone lost an icon who influenced them, and as the year went on, the list built up. We do not forget those people we have lost, but it is vital that we move forward to celebrate our own lives and reach our own potential.
Sign up to a ticket or events website so that you have the best opportunity to book seats at a sports event, concert, festival or theatre production. We know from the Advance courses that visualising yourself in the moment strengthens your dendrites just the same as when you are physically experiencing that event. So, book yourself events to look forward to and visualise how much you will enjoy the experience. Anticipating a positive experience will help you through a challenging day.
Start a Success and Gratitude Journal. You don’t need to start a journal on January 1st. You can start a journal on any day of the year, and after settling back into your post-holiday routine, this is an excellent time to build a new daily habit. Start a journal to note your daily successes and three things you are grateful for so that you can end the day feeling positive about yourself and your smaller daily achievements.
The New Year is a great time to look at the big picture and decide how you want to live your life. Take the opportunity to renew your priorities, and renew your attitude and behaviour so that you can lead a happier, healthier and more successful life in 2017.