My Top Tips For Achieving Your Goals in 2020

By Vicki Writer – international speaker and coach in the areas of motivation and peak performance

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Stay focused on the positive – use an Achievement Journal

I have been doing some research into the emerging science of Positive Psychology and my findings have been fascinating. Let me introduce you to Barbara Frederickson – Frederickson determined that there is a positivity ratio and that ratio is 3:1. That is we need three positive emotions or feelings to every one negative.

We literally need to train our brain to look for all of the good things, the wins that have happened in our day or week and we need to write them down. We need to give ourselves every opportunity to feel good and to acknowledge our wins – no matter how big or small. If we train our brain to look for the positives, we can increase our wellbeing and set ourselves up for happiness and ultimately success.

A simple tool that I use each night before I go to sleep is what I call The Achievement Journal. I am deliberately looking for three things in my day that went well – big or small and personal or business. I am strategically and very consciously looking for any small achievement or win that builds and enhances my positivity ratio which in turn has dramatic impacts on my wellbeing and my results. Negative thoughts spike our blood pressure and positive thoughts calm it. Are you consciously aware of your thoughts and your self-dialogue and are you in control?

Surround Yourself With Positive People

Here is something else to be aware of – emotional states are highly contagious. If you surround yourself with people who are positive and who feel good about themselves, you too, will feel good about yourself. In fact, the research suggests that our odds of being happy increase by 15% if our connections (social networks) are happy. Are you spending time with people who are bright lights for your emotional wellbeing or are they bringing you down and sucking the life out of you?

If you choose to spend time with people who are negative and pessimistic, the chances of you feeling the same way are very high. Our social circle and who we choose to spend time with will have dramatic impacts on the amount of well being that we have and what we go on to achieve in our life and in business.

If we look at the work of Tom Rath and his work on the five elements of Wellbeing, having poor social networks and connections in our life can have quite catastrophic effects on our overall health and wellbeing. The science suggests that we are more than twice as likely to die from heart disease and it has been proven that it takes longer to recover from illness or injury if you have hostile relationships at home.

The better we feel about ourselves – the more profitable and prosperous our lives will be. Makes sense doesn’t it? After all, people who feel good about themselves produce good results and people who produce good results feel good about themselves. The symptoms are reciprocal.

Measure Your Progress – The Post-It Note Method

And here is something else really interesting. The connection between happiness and goal accomplishment has now been proven to be undeniable. In fact, the connection is so profound that we are encouraged to gauge how happy we are and then look for ways to improve our wellbeing.

A key success factor in achieving goals is to ensure we measure our progress backwards – when we keep track of how far we have come by simply tracking our actions, all of our progress is seen as success and we feel like we are moving forward. This is so important for maintaining confidence, self- esteem and momentum.

The research shows that as we achieve a goal in one area of our life - we achieve overall satisfaction in other areas of our life because of this concept called the ‘spill over’ effect.

One key strategy you can use to measure and track your progress is The Post it Note Method. I like to use a time frame of 8,10 or 12 weeks because they are achievable chunks of time to focus on and where you won’t be overwhelmed with what you need to do. If your goal is over a longer period, track your actions and progress in 12 week timeframe chunks.

Simply write up 12 post it notes. On each post it note write the number 12 through to the number 1. These represent your weeks. If you want to include your specific actions for each week, you can do this as well.

Place your post it notes in order starting at 12 through to 1. At the end of week 1, I want you to remove post it note number 12. At the end of week 2, remove post it note number 11. This is very important because we want to ensure we are measuring our progress backward. It is this action that will help you to build your confidence, self esteem and keep your momentum.

Start at week 12 and work back over time until you get to remove week 1. Then celebrate your achievements. Reward yourself with something nice. Decide your reward in advance and give yourself something great to look forward to at the end of 12 weeks.

Start the process again and repeat this process until your goal is achieved. If you have a 12 month goal, you will repeat this process 4 times in the year. Use this same process for all of your different goals.

Have an accountability partner

We all need a cheerleader in life. Someone we can count on to give us feedback and to help us win. Who do you trust, respect and admire that can help you achieve your goals? To be there for you on the difficult days when you don't feel like getting out of bed to go to the gym? Who is the person you respect to give you honest and transparent feedback without destroying your confidence and self esteem?

Having an accountability coach for goal achievement can be a very important decision. Choose wisely. Choose someone whose opinion you respect and who you know will help you stay on track and provide much needed external motivation for you on days where you need it. You may decide to work with a close friend or peer and decide to hold each other accountable OR you may decide to employ the services of an external coach. Whatever path you decide, find a person who shares similar values to you. Find a person who is your bright light for your emotional wellbeing and who helps to bring out the best in you.