Shaping Your Year / Goal Setting

I am a massive believer in that we can do anything that we want to do in this life, we just have to work out what it is exactly that we want to do and then plan for it. Sometimes those dreams need saving for, sometimes they need a training schedule put into place. Everything is achievable if we set that goal / intention and work towards it.

Along with most people in the World, I like to start the New Year with setting myself goals to work towards that you and I also like to look a bit at the wider picture and set myself some areas to work towards in years to come too. I am very fortunate to say that one of my 'longer term' goals that I set for myself a few years ago came true at the end of 2014 and that was to be on a creative design team. To some it may seem trivial, to me it means the everything.

We are all unique individuals and our hopes, dreams, aspirations and goals reflect that too. Never let anyone tell you that your dream is stupid or that you will never do it, you just don't need that sort of negativity and discouragement in your life! No matter what your situation or what walk of life you have come from, you can achieve what you want to do. So you've always dreamed of going to Disney Land, well let's work towards that. "I can't / will never be able to afford it" you say, well that is just a negative block that is standing in your way. Save for it! Plan to save for it! You will get there, even if you just put £1 a week in a savings jar, it will add up and you will be working towards your dream.

If we are looking at wider, longer term goals or goals that may seem to big like saving for Disney Land try to chunk them down into bitesize pieces to help you stay on track and motivated. Don't think I need to save £5K for a two week holiday for Florida, think I am going to save £20 this month. It makes it a lot easier and you start to feel great about your accomplishment which makes you work harder to complete your goal. You will probably find that you de-clutter the house looking for things to put on ebay or you stop buying that coffee on the way to work, that £1 lottery ticket that you never get a return on...money will be found from somewhere!

This time last year I talked about goal setting so you might want to go and check that post out. There are free inserts that coincide with that and I talked quite a bit about chunking your goals down into manageable pieces so you might find that just as useful or more useful than todays post. It all depends on you and how you like to work, remember everyone is different and you just have to find what works best for you. Only You!

Of course we don't just have to set goals for ourselves at New Year. We can set goals whenever we like but most people like the idea of a New Fresh Faced Year to kick them up the butt but remember every Monday marks a fresh new week. What I am trying to say is if you feel like you have fallen off the wagon just pick yourself up, dust yourself off and catch a lift on the next wagon that comes through the village on Monday! Never feel guilty as that can lead to a downward spiral. So you had that chocolate bar which took you off of your healthy eating plan, so what it is not the end of the World, don't eat another one with the mentality of "well that was the diet ruined I might as well have another". Don't do that to yourself, just mark it off as a treat and carry on. From years of experience with dieting it is always full of guilt and deprivation and it is not mentally healthy - it's all in moderation thrown in with some exercise.

So let's take a look at my approach for this year and my intentions...

I don't normally set a 'word for the year' but I have seen so many people do this and it is also a recurring theme in many online art and journal courses, I know it is in Life Book 2015 which I am taking again this year. This word setting seems to help a lot of people so I thought that I would give it a go too. The word that I have come up with for myself for 2015 is CONFIDENT. I also decided to set myself a motivational quote for the year and the quote I have chosen is: "If not now then when?"

You may be wondering why I have come up with both of those, well the word of the year I go into more depth about in my video and the quote is actually targeted at an area of my life that I am not comfortable in sharing, I still have some issues to over come in that area. I will probably share one day when I am ready as it will probably help others but for now it is just for me. I decided to create an insert for journalling about the meaning behind the word and quote so that it all ties together and has more weight and meaning. I am hoping that having the meaning to look back on will help me to remember why I set myself that in the first place and further motivate me to succeed.

So why do I set goals for myself? Well quite simply because I find that if I don't, the World could quite happily go on around me and before I know it we are counting down to midnight on the cusp of 2016. We all have lives that we are chugging away at and it is very easy to get caught up in the cycle of getting up, going to work, coming home and cooking, watching TV, bed, getting up, going to work...see what I mean? We can get stuck in that cycle. Obviously we need that to some extent to make a living but we can also break that and get out there and do things and that is what I intend to do. I want to work out what it is I want to do this year, what do I want to accomplish and give myself a pat on the back for come next New Years Eve? Where do I want to go this year? What do I want to do? I want to set these intentions and plan for them so that I actually DO THEM!

So coupled with that I have my list of what I am going to do so that I can all tie it in and work it into my life.

I hope that has helped you to see how I am doing it this year and to know what my intentions are. If you haven't watched the video please do so as it is more indepth and detailed than this post.

Download
This week's download contains the pages as show in the video. The inserts are available to download as both personal size and A5. You will need software that can 'unzip' the folder to release the files as both pdf and jpeg.  To download the files please click here. Remember to check out last year here. Please note that the inserts that I am offering as freebies are different to the ones that I sell, so if you have already purchased a set of my inserts these are in addition for you. If you haven't purchased any of my inserts and would like to or just have a nose at them you can view them in my Etsy shop here. Please note: These inserts are entirely free and a gift from me and only the inserts provided are free, I say this because I know some people might prefer one of the other designs that I offer but it is only the ones in the freebie set on offer at this time. These inserts are for your own personal use only and are not for resale as either printables or hard copy. Thank you.

Remember your planner will only work for you and help keep you organised and on track if you actually use it - review regularly!