Well another year has passed and as my grandfather always used to say, “Each week I seem to be putting the bins out more often”.
The years slip by…and we still have things we want to achieve, but haven’t quite got around to ticking them off the list. So here are my top 10 tips to keeping things simple yet positive in order to achieve your New Year’s resolutions.
- Start with the end in mind. – if you have a clear picture of what you want to achieve it gives you better direction for your day to day activities.
- Plan your week ahead – block out times for those activities you want to achieve within each week and on Sunday night do a little check to ensure you are on track for your week ahead.
- Be organised – my mum always says that if you have a tidy house, office and car you will feel more organised in each day yourself. To me this represents a metaphor for an uncluttered mind which assists you to achieve more.
- Be accountable to someone – I like to check in with someone to ensure I am on target with my goals on a regular basis. It may be someone close to you, a mentor or business coach. It needs to be someone who can offer objective advice and who is already good at what you want to achieve.
- Reward yourself – when you achieve your goals it is great to be able to do something that makes you feel good. Remember all your hard work needs to be rewarded when you have completed a task and not before. I suggest a great little video on “Don’t eat the marshmallow yet”…check it out on my website.
- Learn to say no – at some time in our life we all bite more than we can chew. As much as we need to wear many caps in our busy lives, sometimes you just have to remember that little word “no”. Sometimes we end up doing things for everyone else but miss out ourselves. Perhaps saying no every now and then will give yourself that extra time to do something special for yourself.
- Delegate – let’s face it, we can’t be good at everything and when we delegate jobs to those around us, we can achieve more.
- Surround yourself – with happy, knowledgeable, fun people, the type you would like to be. You will be amazed at what rubs off.
- Be realistic – if the goals you’ve set are just not possible, you are only setting yourself up for failure.
- Never let perfect get in the way of better – we all try to be perfect at everything we do. My parents always used to say to me when I was a kid, do the best you can do, that’s all anyone can ask of you. Their opinion is no different today. I have adjusted the saying a little; “never let perfect get in the way of better. Always do the best you can ever do and that is all anyone can ever ask.”
Be kind to yourself, book that holiday, catch up with your family and friends, do what you want to do, because this life of ours is no dress rehearsal. You are not going to think at the end of your life…gee, I wish I had spent more hours in the office.
