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This is not just the end of 2019, it’s the Last Month of the Decade. 2020 is right around the corner and everyone is gearing up to make changes in their lives. But are you ready?
Do you have your checklist ready to help launch you into this new decade? What are your Intentions for 2020? Standing fully in your power, are you prepared to make every goal statement on your list a reality?
When it comes to bringing in the new year, it’s easy to get excited and even motivated about broadcasting your resolutions and aspirations, but January 1st is not the time to start planning.
Making A List
Q4 (the 4th quarter of the year) is normally spent creating lists of gifts to purchase for Christmas for other people, or creating a list of people to include or exclude from the gift-giving. But in that mentality, you are forgetting the most important person—You! What do you want?
Now is the time to start getting the details of your goals in order. You have a week and a half to map out a plan for your future. It takes time to organize your thoughts about what you can realistically achieve in a year.
The reason so many people fail within the first few months, sometimes even weeks, of working on their New Year’s resolutions, is that they didn’t plan them out before starting.
A good way to start off on the right track is to have one list of things you want to accomplish in life and a separate and revolving list that incorporates the things you can realistically accomplish in a year. Things that will drive you toward those life goals.
Life Goals
I had life goals when I was in high school. I wanted to study photojournalism in Japan. Unfortunately, my mom died suddenly and I lost all sight of the possibility of life goals. I also stopped thinking about my goals or needs for the future when I had my daughter. The unfortunate thing about being a mother is that you sometimes forget that you are also a person with needs.
It wasn’t until recently that I realized there was a point in planning for my future. There were still things I wanted that went ignored.
This is something you can never accept. There is always time for your needs. There is always the importance of you.
To begin this journey to the other side of your life—the side that dreams of freedom from the mundane sameness of the 9 to 5 where you’re not in control of your daily activities, you must first think about what you see when you imagine yourself in your ideal world.
Don’t let January 2020 start creating experiences for you that you don’t want. Look back at 2019 and reflect on all of your good accomplishments. Please do not focus on what you did not accomplish. A negative mindset creates negative results. Energy is tangible in what it brings to you. Positive energy brings positive things to your life.
So, instead of thinking of the things you missed out on or the things you don’t have, think about where you were winning. Think about the things you made happen that created abundance in your life. What did you do to make them happen?
2020 will be the year you have prepared for. Plan out the experiences you want to have in the coming decade. Research and collect information that will guide you toward making those experiences your reality.
Setting Goal Intentions
What you set out to do and what you actually do all depend on the strength of the intentions you set, and how intentional and powerful the actions are that you put behind them.
Be specific with what you want. If you say, I want more money. Don’t get pissed off if you find a quarter in the dryer and that’s pretty much all the extra money you get. That’s what you asked for. More money. You didn’t say how much or by when. You also didn’t devise a plan of how you were going to get it.
Be specific. Be intentional. Take action.
Things will come up that may throw you off your game a bit, but know that you can get past them because you know what you want to accomplish. Just keep moving in that direction.
I got the Manifestation Code System audio tracks to help keep me grounded in my daily goals ritual. It’s pretty good so far because I can easily add the 10-minute audio routine to the end of my day. I listen to a track every night at 11:30 pm. It relaxes any stress I’ve experienced during the day and encourages me to set routines and stay focused on the things I want.
Staying focused and taking action are important for success. If there are things that you can square away before the new year starts, get those things done first, but keep your list close so that you can reference it at any given moment. Especially when you feel a challenge coming on. Use it as inspiration to keep going.
Don’t make vague goals. Vague goals produce vague results.
If your goal is to start a singing career. Don’t just sing in the shower thinking you’re practicing and getting ready for a successful career. What if someone asks you to sing on their record or in their musical? That incident could be the gateway to a professional singing career.
If you want to be a real estate broker, don’t just search for properties that are for sale and watch a bunch of YouTube videos about selling real estate; taking boat-loads of notes, but no action. What if you find out someone is selling a property for dirt cheap and you were the first person they thought of? Are you qualified to buy it? Are there any legal steps you have to take before even making an offer? You could lose this opportunity by not being prepared.
For both of these scenarios, not knowing what it means to be totally immersed in that profession could mean the loss of a major opportunity.
What would it take for you to be physically, psychologically, and professionally ready for these opportunities?
Being intentional is what will make the road to success easier to navigate.
Know what you need to do and then do it. Ask yourself, “What can I do to be ready?”
If you want to be a singer, take singing lessons. You don’t already know everything or you would already be doing it. Start frequenting open mic night at a local venue to get comfortable with what it’s like to do this for a living.
If you want to be a real estate broker, look into the cost of getting licensed, where to take the test and what test preparation is available. Are there any groups you can join to learn more?
Find out anything and everything you can about every aspect of being exactly where you intend to be—no matter what goal you choose for your ideal life.
Asking the Right Questions
If you don’t know the questions, it’s going to be a lot harder to get the answers. In the previous career examples, it shows just a fraction of how deep to go when researching and considering the needs of your goal choices.
My goal is to buy a condo. My first question to myself was, where will this condo be? Then, what city. What state? Urban or rural? The next was, how much will it cost and by when do I want to achieve this goal? How much will I need to save every month and where can I put my savings until I need it.
If you don’t ask yourself those types of questions and chase those answers until there are no more questions, then you are either never going to achieve your goals, or it’s going to take much longer to get there than you would like.
This is one of those instances where “Go hard or go home!” could mean the difference between being a shower singer and being a pop star or the difference between me continuing to live in a bad neighborhood with pictures of my dream condo on the wall and me buying my dream condo and living in complete bliss.
I know the condo I want is not going to be free, so I started looking online for homes I would be interested in and checking the Realtor.com affordability calculator so I would know exactly how much I needed to save.
I’ve already started putting my savings into a Capital One 360 Performance Savings™ account. They currently have a $25.00 sign up bonus and one of the best savings account interest rates around at 1.70% APY as of December 2019.
Having my savings in a high yield interest rate account is more beneficial than having the money just sitting there in a .001% interest account doing nothing until I need it. When your money is earning money for you, without you having to lift a finger, that’s when you know you’re in the game to win.
No matter what you decide to focus on, make a list of the goals you want to achieve and post that list in a place where you can see it daily. You can use a 2020 Planner or Notebook to map out the details, create a schedule around your goals, and keep track of your to-do list and progress.
Create a goal board that highlights your dreams and aspirations. Also, place the board in a location where you can look at it every day, as a reminder of your future destination.
Whatever your goals for this new decade, put the groundwork for those plans in place now so that you’re working towards something tangible.
Do Don’t wait until the ball drops, because the only time dropping the ball is a good thing, is when you’re in Times Square.
2020 is your year. What’s on your list?
Share in the comments below.
