Are your New Year's resolutions already history?
Thursday, 08 March 2007
Of course, if you want to make some changes in your life, you don't need to wait until New Year to begin, because any time of the year is a good time for a fresh start - a birthday, the start of Spring, the new academic year, tomorrow.
Are you willing to try something different this year? Can you spare an hour or so to sit down with a pen and pad? It's quite simple, really. All I want you to do is imagine that it's 31 December 2008 and you are looking back over the year and everything that you have achieved during 2008. Then I want you to make a list of all your achievements during the course of the year.
What would you like to be writing on your pad? How would you like to have spent your year? What would you like to have learned? How fit would you like to be? Where would you like to have been? How successful would you like your new retirement business to have been?
Use the following categories to help you:
- Health
- Money/finance
- Retirement career/work
- Relationships/family/friends
- Personal Development
- Fun/recreation/spare time/hobbies
- Environment (home/garden/car/office)
- Spirituality
Decide what you want to achieve this year in each category and then write it as if you have already achieved it. For example:
I had a brilliant time in Florida in March, and learning to ski in Les-Deux-Alpes last week. I continue to exercise for an hour, 4 times a week and I have achieved my ideal weight of (you insert the figures) through a combination of exercising, healthy eating and portion control. My social life goes from strength to strength - I enjoy the cinema, theatre or meals out with friends at least twice a week and I am never short of invitations. My belly-dancing course has done wonders for my flexibility and my new internet-based business is starting to show a profit of (you insert the amount) each month.
Have fun with your list. What do you really, really want to be, do and have this year? Be as specific as you can.
Setting goals in this enables you to:
1. Gain clarity about what it is that you want
2. Begin to focus your attention and energy in that direction
3. Set yourself a big vision for the coming year (whenever you decide that year will begin) - one that will pull you forward and motivate you
During the act of writing down your goals, a part of your brain called the Reticular Activating System (RAS) is triggered which determines what you will notice and what you will pay attention to.
Think for a minute about all the stimuli that are constantly bombarding your brain via your senses. How does your brain know what it needs to pay attention to and what it can ignore? This is where the RAS comes into play - it gives you a 'heads-up' and tells you to pay attention to something that could be important for you. You know how, when you make a decision to buy a specific make and model of car, all of a sudden, the roads seem full of that particular make and model? They are everywhere you look? Of course, these cars haven't just appeared on the road - they were always there, but because, previously, they held no particular interest for you, your brain just screened them out. Now that you have a particular interest in this type of vehicle, your RAS has been activated and your awareness of them is heightened.
Another example of the RAS in action is when you are at a noisy, busy party with lots of people chattering all around you and music playing on the stereo, and then someone, across the other side of the room says your name and you hear them, despite and through all the other background noise that is going on.
The RAS works as a filter for your conscious and unconscious mind, sorting and evaluating incoming data and filtering out the urgent and important stuff from that which is unimportant.
By writing down your goals, the RAS is triggered - it receives the message: 'Wake up. This is important stuff. Pay attention and don't miss it'. Your brain can then go to work on your goal, alerting you to the appropriate signs, signals and opportunities and helping you get what you want. As Henriette Anne Klauser, author of 'Write it down, Make it happen' says: 'Writing down your dreams and aspirations is like hanging up a sign that says 'Open for Business'.
When you have your written-down goals for the year, you need to chunk them down into monthly targets. For example, if you have written down that you (intend to) weigh 140 lbs on 31.12.08 and you currently weigh 164 lbs, then, if you divide the weight you need to lose (24 lbs) by 12 months, you can see that you need to lose 2lbs per month in order to make that desire a reality. That's not so difficult is it?
Saving money is a great example to use as an illustration of this 'chunking-down' concept. If you are starting with no savings and you want to have £2,000 in your bank account in a year's time, then you need to save £166.66 per month in order to make your goal a reality.
You can then go on to chunk this down even further into weekly and even daily targets - this makes your £2000 savings goal just £41.66 per week or £5.95 per day! What could you do to save or earn an extra £5.95 per day? And doesn't that sound much more manageable than £166.66 per month?
Put your daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals or targets somewhere you can see them regularly - how about the wall above your desk or your kitchen noticeboard? If you want your goals to remain private, get some postcard-sized cards, write your targets on them and carry them around with you. Read them often. Write about them in a daily journal. Make up a treasure map - get yourself a pile of magazines, find pictures, headlines and other illustrations that relate to the things you want and stick them to a large sheet of paper or card. They could be pictures of places you want to visit or that car you want to own. You could have a picture of your dream retirement location up there. Group them in a way that's meaningful to you. Then, put the treasure map where you will see it often - it helps imprint your goals into your subconscious.
Finally, think of all the reasons why you should achieve this particular goal. Think how you will feel when you have achieved it. Think what a difference it will make to your life. Keep your focus and attention on what you want - not what you don't want. Be aware of The Law of Attraction - it's at work whether you are aware of it or not. It says that you will attract more of whatever you give your attention, energy and focus to. Better to be aware and using The Law of Attraction to your advantage by giving your attention, energy and focus to the stuff you want to happen, rather than the stuff you don't want to happen!
Ann Harrison is a certified retirement coach, pre-retirement trainer and author of 'The Retirement Detox Programme: 40 Days to Get Your Retirement Back on Track'. For regular retirement-related news updates, visit her blog at Contemporary Retirement or catch up with her via her website Contemporary Retirement Coaching.
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