I love the week between Christmas and New Year’s.  Everyone is still in a festive mood and the stress of the holiday season is winding down.  I enjoy the after-Christmas sales and I usually take the week off between the holidays.

My number one favorite activity this last week of the year is reviewing the goals I set for myself last year and seeing how much I have accomplished over the past year.  Every year I am amazed at how much I can accomplish if I do one simple thing.  That one thing is writing down my goals!

Along with reviewing my progress in achieving my goals, I will create goals for myself going into next year.  The top reason why I set goals is to steer my life in a particular direction.  For me goal setting is no different than taking a road trip in my car.

I don’t just hop in my car and start driving; I have a destination in mind.  If my road trip is across the country, I will map out how many days it will take to get there if I elect to drive between 500-600 miles a day.

Goal setting is no different.  I want my life to head in a particular direction.  For example, if I have a goal of retiring by the time I’m 65, I need to know how much I need to save each year in order to hit my financial goal and retire.

For years, I just went along with life like a fishing bobber floating on the surface of the water.  The winds and currents took me where they may; I had no particular direction in mind.  Once I decided to write down my goals and take action on achieving them throughout the year, my life changed.

The best way I can describe it is that it expanded.  I found that with intention, focus and action I continuously exceeded my goals.  Hitting my goals has given me the confidence to expand my life into areas I never dreamed of.  Blogging three times a week was nothing that was on my radar scope over a year ago.  Let alone blogging on Huffington Post and Aspire magazine to name just a few of the publications I’ve been featured in.

The number one reason I love goal setting is that it has given me the freedom to dream and dream BIG about how I want my life to look.  Evidence on continuously achieving my goals over the past years is proof enough that when I set my goals high I will hit them.

I would encourage you to look to set goals for yourself this coming year.  If you’re struggling with getting started, send me an e-mail and we can discuss.