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Remember your New Year resolutions? 5 tips to focus your goals

Earlier in the year, I wrote a blog about how to set goals for 2013. If your life is anything like mine, some of my goals have changed significantly just in the last 9 months.

To keep me focused on achieving my dreams, I just keep going and adapt accordingly. But I found some tips that work for me, in keeping focus, which is where most people let themselves down in leading a fulfilling life.

Here are my top 5 tips for staying focussed your goals.

1. Check your goals are SMART.

In my 5 year stint in the corporate world, we were told that our goals had to be SMART. That is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Bound. These goal setting rules are highly valid and you are much more likely to stick with them for the year.

For example, I have a goal for Energesse to help 1 million lives by 2022. Whilst it is a huge goal, it is specific to our service of helping people. It is also very much achievable, has a realistic time frame and can be easily measured. Ensure your goal meets the SMART criteria, and is still inspiring to you.

In terms of timeframes, there are a couple of schools of thought. A goal like “I want to be rich in 6 months” may be an inspiring challenge, however may be less realistic if you’re starting from scratch and not very specific of what ‘rich’ means to you. The clearer you are about your goals, the more your thought energies are focussed and the more likely the universe will help you materialise them in 2013.

2. Balance all 7 areas of your life

At Energesse, we have the Energy Wellness Wheel has divided life into 7 key areas – Spiritual, Mental (mind), Physical (body), Social & Relationships, Financial, Career and Environment. I have set my goals in these seven areas to have a clear vision of how I want my life to be. Since using that framework, I’ve had more complete alignment with my life dreams.

Any area of your life in which you do not set a goal or empower, you will allow other people to empower and have control of over you.

If that’s OK with you, no problem, but if you wish to have full control of your life, then setting a goal in that aspect is the first step to your empowerment and designing the life that you want.

3. Focus short term, adapt long term

I first started with 10 year goals and then broke them down into goals for the next 1 year and then 5 years. Breaking them down like this gives me more focus on a timeframe and set of activities that I wish to be accomplish in 2013.

I then break this down into what I need to achieve in the next 90 days (3 months), which I call a 90 Day Plan. This gives me IMMEDIATE focus and ensures I have ‘baby steps’ that I have to do NOW, to get to that 5 year plan. Remember the Chinese saying “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”.

90 day plans might seem a little anal and restrictive, but I can tell you from experience that once you set clear defined tasks aligned to your big goals, you are not distracted by unneccessary work and you have more flexibility and FREE TIME to enjoy the other areas of your life.

By doing 90 day plans, I have plenty to energy for the ‘Social and Relationships’ area of my life. I can have fun and connect with my family while still working on my career ambitions.

4. Keep up Repetition and Visualisation

Visualisation and Repetition are INCREDIBLY POWERFUL techniques for achieving your goals. I have visual images aligned to my goals on a powerpoint slide deck, which I try to look at as often as possible, at least once a day.

Others have a ‘Vision Board’ in the bedroom, or create a list of positive, goal related affirmations that stick on the bathroom toilet or office wall.

What you visualise will materialise, as our thought energies attract what we want from the universe. I have plenty of experience of this coming true and there is a lot of anecdotal proof about this.

The images should be inspiring and make you “feel” like you already have what you want when you look at them. I have compiled pictures of the places I want to travel to, the people I want to connect with, activities I want to try and even a bank statement with the bank balance I want to have!

If you are a more auditory person rather than visual, then saying out your goals & affirmations daily can be very effective. I have recorded myself verbalising my goals on the iPhone voice recorder and listen to them on the way to meetings!

5. Be Grateful for what you’ve already achieved

Whilst it is really fulfilling to set inspiring goals and strive toward achieving them, we WILL face enormous challenges and setbacks along the way. This is GUARANTEED! So always be grateful for what you already have.

Challenges are a natural part of living and a test to see how you handle such situations. During these difficult times, it is so important not to focus on the negative, act as a victim or blame others for your bad luck. Sadly, most people are focussed on negativity, we have 60,000 – 70,000 thoughts per day and most are negative!

Though it may be difficult to comprehend the reason for averse situations, difficult personalities or unforseen tragedies, I strongly advise you to find things that you can be grateful for and apply focus to think that.

It will change your perspective and reposition your energetic field quicker to ‘bounce back’ in pursuit of your goals. One technique I adopted include adding to my ‘Gratitude List’ – 10 things I am grateful for every morning (they can be a small as a smile from a colleague). Again, this is on my iPhone to look at when I’m feeling the blues.

Another is holding a ‘Gratitude Rock’ before I go to bed at night and recount the one thing/experience I am most grateful for from that day. Rhonda Byrne’s book – The Magic – is particularly good for Gratitude techniques as well as any Dr John Demartini’s books.

I hope all this information helps you with your continuing journey to your dream life in 2013 and energises your mind, body and spirit toward your true greatness!

Out of curiousity, which goal have you already achieved this year?

About the Author: Dr Avnesh Ratnanesan

Dr Avi is a medical doctor with broad healthcare sector experience including hospitals, biotech, pharmaceuticals and the wellness industry. He is a leading expert who coaches and consults to senior executives, entrepreneurs, practitioners, organisations and governments.