Setting 2020 Goals and Deciding to Make It Happen!

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I’m Susan. I help leaders and organizations increase their impact, confidence, and results through coaching and unique people strategies and programs that wow employees and boost business!

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Happy February!  Where did January go?  I don't know about you but I spent a fair amount of time in January working on setting my goals for the year.  A fruitful, but somewhat daunting exercise for me. 

I have come to realize that one of my biggest challenges as a business owner is deciding.  Deciding on a direction, deciding on what not to spend time on, and where to focus my time and energy, to name a few.  My overwhelming fear of making the wrong decision, being inefficient, or outright failure often leaves me indecisive and in paralysis.  Can anyone else relate to this?  What is one to do?

I recently listened to a podcast (The Happy Little Practice by Karin Rozell) on this very topic and was fascinated by it.  In it, she interviews her husband, Drew Rozell, about his latest book, Decide: Activate Your Inner Superpower to Make Very Cool Sh*t Happen

What a great title, huh?  You can certainly listen to the entire 30+ minute podcast or, if you're short on time, I've summarized below some of the key learnings that resonated with me and how I plan on using it to overcome my own internal resistance and decide that I will have a successful coaching business.

HAVING TROUBLE DECIDING?

We all have the power to make things happen.  This concept is based on the "Law of Attraction", which is the belief that similar energies are drawn together; positive or negative thoughts bring positive or negative experiences into a person's life.  Simply put, we have the ability to attract into our lives whatever we are focusing on.

Deciding is an essential key in determining the outcomes we create in our lives.  It's a superpower we all have, we just need to consciously apply this power to our roadblocks, whether it's creating a successful business, relationship, career or lifestyle of our dreams.

Once we go "all in" and make the decision and commit to what we're going to do versus "hoping" it goes well or "trying" to make it work, that's when the universe aligns with us to make it happen.  We show up, take it seriously, and make it a priority.  This can be exemplified by making investments in ourselves, our business, our career, etc. 

Ok, so just how do you decide?  Rozell describes 3 phases that overlap:

1.  Deciding:  Your commitment to your vision.  You choose a point of focus:  what it is you want.  

• What is it that you desire? 

• What's the feeling you're chasing? 

Often we are taught to not want or desire too much.  We are conditioned not to dream too big for fear of failure or making the wrong decision, leaving us in indecision. We experience the overwhelm of too many options, get caught up in ideas or possibilities, or what we should be doing, but never decide on a focus (e.g., a career focus, coaching niche, or a single marketing strategy).  

I can totally relate to this!  My own coach assured me that there are no wrong decisions, it's all research!  The key is to remain laser-focused on your desired outcome.  Any missteps are learning opportunities to tweak, refine; just remain focused and you'll find your way to your intended vision.  Life certainly is not linear and neither is this process (see Step 2).

2.  Aligning our thoughts and actions to be consistent with our desire. 

Our thoughts, feelings, and actions are informed by our beliefs.  If our internal dialogue is contrary to our desires, we've not truly decided.  It's important to note that this is an active process that needs to be continually repeated whenever we become scared, nervous or have doubts that creep in.  Come back and align to your vision;  don't dwell on all the reasons why you can't do something, but stay focused on your desired end result. 

This where visualization can be a very powerful tool.  We need to think, feel and act as if our goal is inevitable.  Imagine that you 100% believed it was a "done deal".  What would you think, feel, do?   You'll find that your thoughts, feelings, and actions will be very different than if you weren't assured of success.  Answering these questions with this visualization mindset will create alignment, manifesting the results you desire.  If you don't believe it, you won't see the results you want (remember the Law of Attraction?)

3.  Allowing:  Letting go of any resistance to your idea, including fear of failure, or not having enough (scarcity mentality).

This is the part that continually trips me up.  Our uneasiness doesn't match our desire for success and we often try to ignore it or busy ourselves with other things to resist such negative thinking.  It is important for us to learn from our failures and get comfortable with the discomfort.  Our commitment to our vision gets us through the trials/turns that will inevitably show up along the journey.

Likely, once we allow ourselves to think these thoughts and truly embrace them and their possibility, it's not as bad as we thought.  It sounds counterintuitive, but allowing ourselves to think the thought that we resist will release our resistance to it. 

When we are truly in the place of deciding what it is that we want and there's no resistance, only then will we achieve our vision. 

I know it's easier said than done, but by keeping these steps in the back of our minds, we can call on them when we get tripped up by our internal gremlins getting the better of us or we lose focus and sight of our desired end goal.

This year, I've immersed myself in the process and I'm leading a Mastermind group of independent consultants who all want some level of accountability and support in setting business goals and executing on them throughout the year.  I will certainly be recalling these steps for myself, my clients, and this group to help us realize our goals in 2020!

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