December 30, 2016

I love the start of a new year. It’s an awesome time to reflect on the past year and think about what you would like to do the same and what you hope to change. I’ve never been a big fan of making resolutions, because I tend to forget about them by January 2nd, but I do write down new goals each year.

According to a study done by Gail Matthews at Dominican University, those who write down their goals accomplish significantly more than those who do not write down their goals.

Speech-Language Pathologists are awesome at writing goals for their students but how often do you create personal goals? My challenge for each of you is to write down 2-3 goals for yourself! So where do you start:

Think Big “You may say I’m a dreamer…” What is something you really want to achieve? Think about where you want your life to be this time next year. While you do want it to be achievable, now is not the time to be conservative. Go big or go home as I always say!

Write It Down You are 41% more likely to reach your goal if you write it down! Put it somewhere where you will see it often. Do you have a vision board? We have a giant bulletin board in our office where we write down things we want to accomplish. Just seeing our hopes/dreams on a regular basis helps us to keep our eye on the prize. It’s always so fun to see what has come to fruition! Another option, is to record your goals in your planner. I like to write down my annual goals at the front of my planner and then benchmarks throughout my planner. This is a great way to check in and see how I am progressing.

Be Specific and Make It Measurable Just like with our students’ goals we want to make our personal goals specific and measurable. Rather than saying “I want to lose weight”, I want to specify exactly how much. And while creating a goal to find more balance in your life is a great idea, it’s not very measurable. How are you going to show that you have more balance? A better goal would be to write, “I will put down my phone (or not check work emails) for X minutes each day”.

Have an Accountability Buddy Lisa and I are lucky to have each other to share this start-up business journey. Whenever one of us is feeling less motivated the other person is there to help by encouraging and refocusing. By sharing your goals with another person they can help hold you accountable and keep you on track.

A year from now you will wish you had started today.

Hopefully, you already have some ideas of what you want to accomplish in 2017. Still not ready to commit to annual goals? Choose a word for the year and write that down. Even having a word to focus on can bring about positive change.

XOXO, Sarah