Are you the type of person to declare New Year’s resolutions?
I am not. I don’t smoke and I’m bad with new diets. Resolutions to me seem like tired fads used by people who don’t really want to change.
Perhaps goal setting is more your thing?
Goal setting can be fun and exciting to imagine all that you can accomplish throughout the year. I used to set a myriad of goals for myself, but I would never hit every single goal. Luckily, I would hit the most important goals.
The problem with goals, especially personal goals, is that once I hit my goal, I would sometimes get lost until I latched onto a new goal.
Sometimes it would take me a couple of weeks to reset my goals, but more often it would take me a few months, and once it actually took me a few years to establish new goals.
As I think back over the past couple decades of my life, I realize that my biggest accomplishments have come from neither resolutions nor goals.
Rather, my true success has come from setting intentional “self-images” on who I want to become.
Who are you now, and who are you becoming?
When you create a positive “self-image” you give yourself an aspirational identity that you work towards becoming.
Over time, you will develop different tactics towards achieving that image. And you will likely set some larger goals you want to achieve in fulfilling that self-image.
But you won’t lose your way once you achieve your milestones, because your self-image will remain like a North Star guiding you forward.
What north star aspiration are you setting for yourself in 2020?
Your challenge: Answer the following questions, and keep the resulting self images forefront as you lay out the rest of your plans and activities for 2020.
In your work: What type of leader, expert, or entrepreneur do you want to become?
In your home life: Who do you see yourself becoming as a partner, parent, son, or daughter…?
In your personal life: Do you have a vision for what you will be known for by the end of 2020 or for what personal habits you will excel at each and every day?
Instead of setting a laundry list of goals for 2020, set yourself the intention of becoming someone special this year in all parts of your life that are important to you!
