Create your goals—your choices—for the new year

We see it every day here at Learning Strategies when clients call in for free coaching. Those who set goals achieve more and have happier lives. So, today you are in luck! It's the beginning of a new year. Take time this weekend to set your goals and choose what you want in your life. Here's a process you can use right now from our Abundance for Life course. Grab a stack of paper or open a Word document and let's go. Begin by making a list of seven things you would like to achieve by the end of the new year. You might start with changing what you do not like about your life, but you can choose to create anything, concrete or abstract. Consider possessions such as a car, boat, or house, or behaviors, personal habits, and goals such as a fulfilling career, a loving relationship, time with loved ones. Or consider intangibles such as inner peace and joy. Here are specific guidelines to follow in writing out the goals you wish to achieve this coming year. How accurately you state them will affect how clearly they manifest. Examine and modify how you state each item on your list, each choice, to ensure it conforms to the conditions for a well-formed goal. Complying with the conditions gives your mind a huge advantage in manifesting your choices. Condition 1: In positive terms write the result you choose to create. Then specify the benefits you enjoy. Benefits thinking focuses your attention on what you want, not on how you think you are going to attain them. Write your choices in the present tense, as if they already exist. Condition 2: Write goals about things you can control. Because we can only make choices for ourselves, not others, your goals must be things you yourself can initiate and maintain. Condition 3: Know what has changed when you manifested your new choices. Consider the value of preserving the past good at the same time that you open yourself to greater possibilities. Condition 4: Know the hallmarks of your success. Determine clear evidence to test and measure your achievements. Make sure you write your choices in a sensory-specific way, identifying what they look like, sound like, and feel like now that you have achieved them. Condition 5: Create choices that you deem worthwhile and valuable. How do you feel when you read the statement of your choices? As you write your choice, note what the words worthwhile and valuable mean to you. As the creator of how you live your life, you can choose to attain what you most esteem. You can choose to live fully in the abundance and power that you are. Look over your choices with the conditions of well-formed goals in mind. Rewrite your statements until they clearly meet all the well-formed conditions. When you think you have clearly stated each goal, read each one and ask, "If I had this specifically today, would I accept it?" When the answer is "No," adjust your choice until it is something you want now. When the answer is "Yes," then rewrite each choice so that it begins with the words, "I choose…" For example: "I choose to enjoy owning a beautiful sports car." "I choose my professional status as a highly paid certified public accountant." "I choose my financial independence and debt-free lifestyle." In addition to those choices, we recommend you commit to the following five basic choices. Take time to get clear on what each choice means to you. because these choices represent the foundation that the rest of your choices depend on. Self-love:"I choose to love myself." Think about what self-love means to you. Who you are is love, and expressing that love is your natural state. So choosing to love yourself may be getting to know who you are. Contemplate the choice of self-love. Self-choice:"I choose to take charge of my life and create it the way I choose." This means choosing to choose, recognizing that you are not a victim of the world you see. You are in the position to cause your life to unfold in any direction. Consider what choosing self-choice means to you. Health: "I choose my physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health." What would it mean if you were healthy in all areas of your life? What would that degree of health feel like? You will need to recognize when you have created it, so think about what it sounds like and looks like to experience health in all areas of your existence. It may seem strange to consider a physical condition as part of perfect health. Yet people can enjoy perfect health whether or not they have any physical or emotional condition. The important thing is to consider what choosing health means to you and then make that choice. Freedom: "I choose freedom." In truth, you are free. There is no one other than you yourself who keeps you from being free. If you do not feel that you are, imagine setting yourself free. If you were to recognize that you were free, what would you feel like? This Seven-Step Process is about taking charge of your life and creating it the way you choose it to be. Before freeing yourself, think about what "the freedom to choose the life you live" means to you. Truth: "I choose to be true to myself." What does being true to yourself mean to you? Living honestly? Living congruently? Living passionately? Before writing your choices, consider what being true to yourself means to you. Invest a few moments each and every day reflecting on your choices. Consider reading them first thing when you wake each morning, or when you brush your teeth, or when you begin your work day. Find the way that works best for you. Keeping them in front of you helps the choices come into reality. -Paul (Posted on December 31, 2010)