{"id":1767,"date":"2011-12-29T13:02:02","date_gmt":"2011-12-29T20:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colourfulpalate.com\/?p=1767"},"modified":"2012-08-20T17:13:05","modified_gmt":"2012-08-20T23:13:05","slug":"setting-new-years-goals-and-keeping-yourself-motivated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colourfulpalate.com\/?p=1767","title":{"rendered":"Setting New Year’s Goals and Keeping Yourself Motivated"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"I<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t believe it\u2019s nearly 2012! So ridiculously crazy! However, I\u2019m soooo excited about what the New Year is bringing!<\/p>\n

As the old year comes to a close, I start gearing up for the coming year\u2026thinking about goals, things I want to accomplish, or how I\u2019ll make a difference.<\/p>\n

In some ways I\u2019m not \u201cfor\u201d making New Year\u2019s resolutions\u2026to me, resolutions are weak\u2026maybe it\u2019s just a word, but I prefer to set real, tangible goals. When I hear the word \u201cresolution\u201d it makes me think \u201cI\u2019ll try to (blank) this year.\u201d I hate trying. You either do it or you don\u2019t. So anyway, word associations\u2019 aside, I love setting goals for the New Year! I love the feeling of a clean slate\u2026of possibilities\u2026and accomplishing projects.<\/p>\n

But I don\u2019t just set goals at the start of a new year. If there is something I want to change in my life\u2026it\u2019s important to me to start as soon as possible. I\u2019m constantly setting new goals.<\/p>\n

\"Motivation<\/p>\n

(Write out your favourite quote\/saying and stick it somewhere you can see it!)<\/p>\n

Time Organizing Tips to Make Your Goals a Reality!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m a goal setting, list making type of gal\u2026all year long\u2026and this is what I typically do to keep my goals in sight and achievable:<\/p>\n

In December<\/strong> I start to write a long list of things I want to accomplish or change in the next year. I then stick it by my closet door.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of each month<\/strong>, I pick a few of the \u201cbig projects\u201d from my main list (for the year) and write them out on my chalkboard (under a heading of the month). I will add a bunch of smaller projects to that as they come up. That\u2019s my monthly list.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t stop there<\/strong>\u2026sometimes I break that monthly list down into a weekly list. From that weekly list, I break it down into a daily list, which I ALWAYS write the night before.<\/p>\n

If projects don\u2019t get done on my daily list, they just get put on the next day\u2019s list until they are done.<\/p>\n

These lists are my life savers! They really do make my goals a reality! But you have to break things down! To leave everything on my yearly list is daunting\u2026overwhelming\u2026too much. So when you break a great big goal like running a marathon<\/a> into monthly, weekly, daily goals\u2026it is SO achievable. Make your lists detailed.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t just say<\/strong> \u201cI want to be more fit\u201d in your New Year\u2019s Goals. That\u2019s lame. Like I said before, break it down! Say \u201cI\u2019m going train myself to run a 5k by March\u201d instead\u2026or \u201cI\u2019m going to set aside 30 minutes of my free time, 5 days a week, to run.\u201d Be creative. Then check that goal off your list once you\u2019ve completed it!<\/p>\n

I always cross things off my list with a highlighter\u2026I can still see what goal I\u2019ve accomplished and yet know that it\u2019s done!<\/p>\n

You can also make vision boards\u2026I LOVE doing this.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s my vision board from last year\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Vision<\/p>\n

\"Vision<\/p>\n

This is the vision board I made for this year\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Vision<\/p>\n

\"Vision<\/p>\n

I put mine up on the back of my door, near my marathon race photo and my medals. (Yes, I\u2019m a nerd!)<\/p>\n

\"Vison<\/p>\n

Just grab some glue, scissors, old magazines, and start cutting and pasting away! Maybe you don\u2019t want to have your vision board visible for all to see\u2026so do it in your journal. I do this a lot too (one of my favourite nighttime rituals is to do a little journaling). I even left some room for any pictures or quotes I might want to add later.<\/p>\n

\"Motivation<\/p>\n

Maybe you want to get uber creative and draw a picture to visualize one of your dreams. I did this a couple months ago and painted this:<\/p>\n

\"Singing<\/p>\n

For you who were following my Art Challenge<\/a>, I\u2019m still doing it\u2026but I\u2019m doing the artwork somewhat out of order. (In the new year, I\u2019ll share more of that) I did this picture as part of my Art Challenge<\/a> I started earlier this year. So this is Day 21\u2019s project, \u201cSomething I Want\u201d. So \u201csomething I want\u201d is to get better at is my music, singing, and song writing\u2026so it\u2019s fun to see this painting every day. Just another fun way to be inspired.<\/p>\n

\"I<\/p>\n

Another idea is to keep your life purpose statement somewhere you can see it. Ever since I was a teenager my life verse, from the Bible, has been Philippians 4:13.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The message I see all the time is \u201cto be strong\u201d\u2026but I can\u2019t be strong on my own all the time<\/em>. It\u2019s too much. I\u2019m only human. But when I ask for Jesus Christ\u2019s strength, I can do hard things! Any hard thing! That strength is mine for the taking\u2026<\/p>\n

So I put my life verse reference (4:13) and the verse all summed up on a special custom necklace. I won a gift certificate for Joss & Main<\/a> a few months ago\u2026so I got them to engrave it (amazing company, check it out!<\/a>). It might sound silly, but looking at my necklace when I\u2019m going through something tough, has really been a great reminder to me of where I need to get my strength\u2026and that I can get through hard things.<\/p>\n

Whew\u2026that was a long post! But I hope that maybe one of these motivation and goal organization tips has inspired you!<\/p>\n

Another fun site to check out is Making Things Happen<\/a>, a motivational blog site to inspire you to make your dreams a reality!<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t be posting for the next week or so\u2026.we have a lot of special family time coming up, I have a huge project I need to make time for, and we\u2019re also doing a home reno project before the New Year comes!<\/p>\n

\"Guess<\/p>\n

Can you guess what it is?! I\u2019m SO excited about this new room!<\/p>\n

So I\u2019ll see you in the 2012! I have some fun stuff coming up\u2026some more great organizational tips, recipes, and ideas for this special new year God has given us!<\/p>\n

Happy New Years!<\/p>\n

What are some of your goals for the New Year? Do you have any tips for keeping motivated?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I can\u2019t believe it\u2019s nearly 2012! So ridiculously crazy! However, I\u2019m soooo excited about what the New Year is bringing! As the old year comes to a close, I start gearing up for the coming year\u2026thinking about goals, things I want to accomplish, or how<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,32],"tags":[493,202,497,490,494,496,492,489,491,495],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colourfulpalate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colourfulpalate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colourfulpalate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colourfulpalate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colourfulpalate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1767"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.colourfulpalate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1783,"href":"https:\/\/www.colourfulpalate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767\/revisions\/1783"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colourfulpalate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colourfulpalate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colourfulpalate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colourfulpalate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}