New Year’s often helps us clarify our life visions. We’re naturally energized to clean our closets, declutter our kitchens, and create routines that serve us.
We may use this energy to put a word or phrase of self-support on a sticky note posted on our mirrors. We may finally feel ready to commit to getting up 15 minutes earlier and journaling or having a coffee with our spouses before the kids get up.
We may finally be able to pat ourselves on the back and appreciate all we do as military spouses—possibly the hardest task for many of us!
As you embark on creating new seasonal goals, setting intentions for the months to come, and planning for a fabulous new year, remember to offer yourself some TLC. Just as important as it is to find out what drives you, it’s important to determine your why.
Follow Your Why
Rather than writing down what you want to do—lose weight, spend less money, listen to more podcasts—it can be more positive, helpful, and motivating to come up with why you want to do these things.
For example, when I try to lose weight, I’ll write a sticky note that says “to be strong for my kids.” When I think of a why for my business, I may include my passion for empowering other military spouses or knowing that working for myself lets me spend more time with my kids.
Oftentimes, my why is a work in progress but I find that coming up with little reasons for my goals helps me get into action. If I’m procrastinating, I try to let go of the to do list and work on journaling about the why until I feel motivated or come up with a different goal that better meets my needs.
For example, I like podcasting but still haven’t quite gotten around to setting up a spot in my house to podcast from. It was on my 2017 goal list but simply collected dust all year long. I wanted to produce more shows, but I let work and kids take priority.
Be Patient With Yourself
If I was coaching myself as a client, I would ask powerful questions, tell myself to draw my ideal sacred space, or have myself imagine reading a positive review in my home podcast studio.
It’s so much easier to coach others than to coach ourselves, but I want to let you know that sometimes goals need a little tender loving care—if we haven’t accomplished something, remember that we all move at our own paces and simply aren’t there yet.
So, I can’t say that I have created this home office/podcast studio yet, but I will say that I’m committed to journaling about how creating this space will serve me (and hopefully you) in 2018. And that’s an important first success.
Our Goalsetting Practice
I wanted to remind you that I’m on this goal-setting journey as a participant, not an expert, and I’m as motivated by my military spouse clients as I hope you are by me.
Please share a goal that you’re struggling with and some ideas you have on how to fall back in love with your commitment in the comments below. I love hearing where we all get stuck and learning more ways to tweak our processes to be more successful in 2018.