20/20 Clarity For 2020

We have embarked on a new decade. We want to welcome the new decade with clarity and a way to reach amazing success. When many people start a new year, they set resolutions. These resolutions are a wish list of goals that they would like to have materialize. Without consistent actions, you will have a challenging time achieving what you want in life. One of the keys of mindset is getting clarity on what you want to do, why you want to do it, the challenges involved, the people you need to help you, the habits needed, and the next steps. No matter how big or how pedestrian your goals or dreams are, the clearer you are, and the better mindset you have, the more likely you are to achieve your goals.

What do you want to do?

The question of what do you want to do is simple, yet, complex. We all have desires and wishes, but it takes clarity to turn the wishes into concrete goals. If you ask most people what they want out of life, you will hear answers such as becoming rich, solving world hunger, or they want their kids to be happy.  Many people want to lose a few pounds, learn a new language, and possibly travel. These are all great desires. However, they lack specificity or clarity. The more you can clarify your goals, the easier it is to clarify the other elements for your goals. Imagine calling up a travel agent and saying, “I want to go somewhere cool.”  Without any other information, the travel agent does not know how to help you. You can’t go up to a psychologist and say, “make me happy.”  You cannot go up to a business consultant and say, “make me rich.”  Before you do anything, there needs to be crystal clear goals.

Why?

The reason behind your goals is important. Without the proper motivation and vision, there is no strong inspiration. When you are working on your goals the results may not come as quickly as you like. In fact, in the beginning, many goals have negative effects. You are going to be sore after the first intense workout. You are going to spend more on healthy food. A business may take years to get off the ground. Achieving your goals involves sacrifice. A payment for a dream is sacrifice. Having a clear idea why provides more motivation when the results are in the background. In addition to your personal why, be clear on what achieving goals means to the people you love the most. Oftentimes, we do more for the people we love than ourselves.

The challenges

You need to be clear on your challenges and how they affect your goals.  A parent may have more obligations than a single person.  If you suffer from anxiety, then you may have to take more self-care measures.  If you have diabetes, you may have to take time out of your day to regulate your blood sugar.  If you have a knowledge gap, your learning curve may be higher and your processes will involve learning what it takes to achieve your goals. Challenges need not be ignored, but rather engaged with in a proper way.  Note – The proper way may not be throwing up your hands and saying I can’t do it because I have challenges.  Rather, it’s about understanding your challenges, understanding how they may get in the way, and understanding how to deal with them.

Habits

Many goals involve consistent and repetitive actions. It’s also about the right actions that move you forward to your goals. Without good habits, a goal will fall short. Nothing will happen in your life unless your habits and routines change. Being healthy involves consistently working out and consistently eating healthy. Writing a book involves consistently cranking out pages, saving money takes consistently putting money in an account that you don’t touch unless it’s an emergency.  Note- A sale is not an emergency. In addition to adopting positive habits, you need to lessen negative habits.  Examples of negative habits are neglecting yourself, thinking negative thoughts, eating junk food, any habits that will stunt your spiritual, physical, or emotional growth.

Who can help?

Achieving goals takes the engagement of others. There are several ways that others can help you achieve your goals. It can be as simple as a spouse allowing you to work on a new idea and making sure the kids don’t interrupt you.  It can be hiring a consultant to clarify what you need to do. It can be assistance that can help you with part of your goals. It can be a mentor or a coach who can clarify all aspects of your plan. It can be a babysitter that allows you and your spouse to go out once a week. It can be changing the dynamic with the people who you work with. For example, asking your boss to put you on a different project or joining a mastermind are all examples of ways that you can engage people.

There are so many ways where you can engage people to create win-win situations.

Next steps

Clarifying the next steps of a goal is hugely important. There needs to be clarity around logistics of a goal. Some people fall short because they don’t plan out the next steps. What are the key activities that need to be performed over and over again? What knowledge base do you need to develop in order to achieve your goals? One issue is that people don’t take time to properly plan the steps. Results may come slow and gratification may come even slower. The process should not be dictated by your emotions or how you feel that day. Your actions and your habits should be planned out those need to be what fuels the process. If you don’t plan out the steps, life will get in the way.

 In order to make your life amazing, you need to make your goals a priority.  Before you jump into the new year and a new decade, be clear about what your goals are, why they are important to you and the people you love, the habits that you need to improve, other people that you need to involve, and next steps.  The more you clarify these areas, the better chance you will have of achieving your goals.

 Summary:

As you enter the new decade, it is important to get clear on the goals you are bringing with you. There are several ways to view your goals and how to achieve them. Taking these methods into consideration is the best way to get the success you are looking for on the road to amazing.