Why Setting Goals Will Help Manifest Your Desired Outcomes In The New Year

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The new year is a time for new beginnings. It's a fresh start to do all the things we either started the previous year and didn't finish or to embark on new and exciting journeys.

If you think of life as a giant train ride, before you can buy a ticket, it is necessary to first know where you are going. If you were to just board any train, going anywhere, you would be putting your destination fate in someone else's hands. 

In life, your train ride destination is akin to your goal. Where is it that you want to go? What is the end result you are wanting to achieve? When do you want to achieve this desired outcome? If you want to transform your life into the vision you have for yourself, it is imperative to get clear about what your goal or "final destination" is so you can put the right action steps into place to "get there". A year from now, you will be amazed at how far you have "traveled"!

Here are 7 reasons why setting your goals should be priority number one this month:

1. Goals Provide Direction
The freshness of the new year brings with it, the belief that anything is possible. Almost a second chance to make up for anything not achieved in the previous year. Defining your end destination at the beginning of the year provides great direction in charting the right course for the necessary action steps for moving forward on this new year journey.   

 2. Goals Are Motivating
Coming off the downtime of the holidays, setting your goals is a great way to jump-start an energized mindset. Mapping out a blueprint for what you want to accomplish and achieve during the next year gets the creative juices flowing as you begin to visualize what you want your life (personal, professional or health-wise) to look like in the months ahead. 

3. Goals Create Focus
When your goals are well defined at the start of the year, the chances of getting sidetracked or derailed in the coming months is greatly reduced. It's like putting blinders on or looking through a telescope - you only see the end result, rather than the shiny objects along the way. In this manner, you can more easily stay on track and less likely to procrastinate or slow up. 

4. Goals are Measurable
Since we as humans think in linear terms, using January as the starting point enables a sense of measurability and progress from month to month and quarter to quarter. Looking back from a future point to the beginning of the year allows you to take inventory of the progress you've made and examine the challenges that arose to that point so you can pivot as is necessary to continue towards your end destination.   

5. Goals Sustain Momentum
Think about when you are driving on the highway with your GPS locked into your destination. Somehow, the farther you go, the greater the momentum as your final end point becomes more real. With your eye on your target or goal at the start of the new year, the easier it is to sustain your momentum.

6. Goals Enable Accountability
One of the surest ways to stay stagnant in life is to let fate control you rather than you control fate. When your goals are clear, creating action steps with deadlines is possible. Knowing what you need to do and when enables greater accountability since accomplishing these tasks is part of a well defined plan to reaching your end result. 

7. Goals Increase Confidence
With the enthusiasm that is felt at the start of a new year, there can also be a sense of regret or disappointment about that which was not accomplished with yet another year going by.  With new goals and target achievements, a renewed sense of possibility is ignited. You begin to visualize the end result more vividly with more confidence about your goals becoming a reality in your life. 

-Elisa