It’s the time of year when those New Year’s Resolutions start to wear off. You’ve tried and tried to get to the gym, you’ve tried to cut out sweets but then the Super Bowl happened, you’ve tried to launch your home-based business, insert fill-in-the-blank applicable situation for you.

I’m a big believer in goals for the year, but as such, I’ve also come face-to-face with reality smacking those goals over and life challenging me to give up on those goals I set out to conquer in the new year. 

This year, I have a few simple goals. I’ll share a few of them:

1) Get up at six o’clock every weekday morning and have a 30 minute devotional time. 

2) Listen to audiobooks at the gym and redeem that time (& make it more enjoyable).

3) Never miss a Monday at the gym to set myself up to be physically active that week.

4) Set aside work hours for my business, which I work from home, each and every day.

5) Limit foods outside of my food plan to once a week at the most.

January wasn’t the month I hoped it would be. I had a hard time being consistent with the things I set out to do – and while there are always plenty of excuses to go around, as Brian Tracy says in No Excuses, stop complaining or making excuses and take responsibility if you want to make a change. I could have lived out January better to be further ahead than I am now.

That being said, I am happy to report that I did make progress on each of these goals last month! Audible has been Godsend in helping me take in good input, like Brian Tracy‘s book, helping me get more fuel and to stop making excuses. 

Here are five wins from January, one for each goal:

1) I got up at six a.m. some, and continue to pursue making this an every day habit.

2) I’ve gotten a lot out of starting to listen to audiobooks and have even started doing this some in the car!

3) I’ve missed just one Monday since getting back to the gym after the Christmas break!

4) I’ve put more time into my business and have had extra growth because of the extra intention I’ve put in! 

5) I’ve said no to a lot of foods that I otherwise wouldn’t have because of my desire to limit the intake of foods I want to avoid, and I’ve stuck to 1/week all weeks but one.

In light of my goals and progress, I want to share with you some strategies I’ve embraced over the past few years to help prevent life from happening to the good intentions of New Year’s Resolution making.

• Revisit your goals each and every month. Write them down (research says that you are over 1000 times more likely to achieve a goal when it is written down) and share it with someone (your chances are even higher fro success when the goal is shared).
• Each month, write down where you made progress on each and every one of your goals. My phrase for this year is “Intentional Progress”. I might not win at all of my goals right out of the gate, but I’m going to make progress intentionally each and every month! By counting our monthly progress “wins”, this gives us inspiration to keep on going.
• Ask yourself “why didn’t I meet my goal?”. Look at your answers & readjust!
• Commit to make this month better than the last. Winning at goal setting is all about progress! Make progress over last month and you’re on your way to getting better, and better, and better, and better!

It really is as simple as that. Culture tells us that people who have goals will fail, but statistics tell us otherwise! Keep working on those goals and just see all the good, all the progress, that comes from that intentionality!

What is one of your goals for this year? What’s been a progress win so far?

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