Five Simple Tips to Help You Reach Your Goals This Year

I hope everyone had an AMAZING time ringing in the 2016! WE sure did! Yummy food, Loving friends and family, and fun fireworks!!! Now that the New year is here what are you going to do? Is there anything that you've been wanting to try? Cooking? Skydiving? Going back to school? Finding a new job? Losing weight? We want to hear YOUR goals for 2016! We've been working on our DREAM BOARD and setting goals for our family this year.

I've been thinking about what makes this year different from past years, and the answer was simple I am more determined. In the past I always made an excuse, now I am stronger and more determined to reach my goals! So I've put together a few tips that'll help us ALL stay on track and reach our goals this year!

1. START SIMPLE, BE REASONABLE:

This one is a little tricky because I always want to say GO BIG OR GO HOME, and it is always great to set BIG GOALS, but when you're just starting out and you're like me and usually give up, it's good to start with small goals. Small goals that will ultimately get you to your BIG GOAL. I found that I gave up easily because I planned too big and did not plan for the little steps I needed for that big goal, which ultimately led to me being overwhelmed and giving up. So when you're just starting out, do just that START OUT small. I guess simply put, BE REASONABLE

2. START NOW! NO EXCUSES!

Don't keep procrastinating and making excuses as to why you can't take one small step towards reaching that goal. I always made an excuse as to why I could start my goals immediately. Always said I'll start tomorrow.... or Sunday.... Or on the 1st.... Oh what the heck, I'll just start next year.... NO! No more of that! If your excuse if you don't have the money to start right now, then start by looking for another job, start by PLANNING a savings plan. That's a small step but it's still a step FORWARD! If your excuse is you that you want to wait for a new week, then I say WHY? What makes that new week that Sunday, any more special and promising than RIGHT NOW?! START NOW!

3. MAKE A PLAN!

Write down your goals and the steps you need to reach that goal, and the steps you need to take to reach those steps! Write it all down and have it somewhere you look every day. Every day when you look at that you'll see what you need to do and how close you are to your goal, that'll motivate you even more! Physically writing it down and thinking about it and planning it out will help you to retain the information and keep you on track. So MAKE A PLAN NOW!

4. DO AT LEAST FIVE THINGS EVERYDAY TO REACH YOUR GOAL!

Everyday write down five things that you can do TODAY to help you get to your goals. It could be 5 different things for 5 different goals. It could be 5 things for ONE goal. It doesn't matter. As long as you're making an effort every single day to get to where you want to be! In no time you'll realize that one step towards your BIG goal has already been accomplished just because of 5 small things you decided to do that week.

5. DON'T OVERWHELM YOURSELF!

This is the absolute most important one, this ties in with tip number 1 a little bit. So think about it, say your goal is to lose 25 lbs in one year. For most people that's achievable but for some people that's very hard, if it's coming up to the end of the year and you've only lost 15 lbs don't kill yourself trying to lose that last 10lbs. Don't stress yourself out or put yourself down because you didn't reach your goal. Simply praise yourself for the work you did do, recognize what you could have done differently, and begin again! Double your goal and extend your timeframe!

I've included a tool I use daily... It's helped me to manage my time and keep track of my day.

You can download it HERE

It includes a space for:

- Your FIVE things to reach your goals

- TWO things for yourself: I normally do some gardening and yoga

- Tracking of your water intake, that's HUGE for me. I could never remember to drink water throughout the day.

- Some fitness tracking: I normally do light activity like yoga and stretch band exercises.

- Your appointments

- Your extra to do things (like laundry. lol)

I hope you can all make use of this and please let me know if these simple tips help you throughout your days. I'm thinking of doing a weekly check in to motivate and hopefully we can all help each other reach our goals!

GO SMASH THOSE GOALS! WE BELIEVE IN YOU!!!

Much Love,

-The Clean Mess <3