Some people make reaching goals and being successful look easy. Sometimes, we want to hate on those people. As it turns out, they really just have a solid strategy for doing what they make look so easy, for reaching goals effortlessly. And I’m going to spill the beans in this article for you.

When we’re looking at how to break the annual planning process down, it’s actually three major sections. Values, Vision, and Execution. That’s what we’re discussing here. It’s really more simple than it sounds, and here’s a roadmap of exactly how to create your goals so you can achieve them every time.

Values

The first piece of the trifecta of success is digging deep into yourself. You’ll have to realize what’s important to you. Survey what your values really are. Brainstorms and mind maps or even good old word associations are great tools for you to use.

Who are you? This is a great question to ask yourself to begin. What characteristics do you have that make you, YOU? What characteristics are you working to improve? What character traits are your strengths, and which ones do you want?

Next, take a look at what things are important to you. People and relationships, material objects, money? Maybe it’s your career, or your volunteer work? If you’re not sure where to begin with this piece, this free Wheel of Life Download will help you sort it out.

Finally, you’ll want to explore your life purpose. Do you know what your soul’s mission is here on Earth? If you’re not sure, there are a lot of activities you can do to discover it, but likely you’re already on the right path. What activities do you enjoy? Who do you like to help? How do you express your thoughts, feelings, and ideas? What do you do creatively? These all provide clues and insight into your life purpose, and you’ll want to take some time to evaluate the things, people, and activities you gravitate to.

Once you have an idea of what’s important to you, move on to the next section - Vision.

Vision

Whew. You made it through the first section. How’d you fare? You can take a break if you need to. I understand.

Now, go back to the wheel of life or brainstorming that you finished in the first stage. Looking at what is important to you, where do you want to make the next change? What is ranking highest on your self-improvement list? This is the key to discovering what’s possible for you this year.

Take your top important ideas, and sit with them for a few minutes. How does it feel to have that success? How does it look? What does it smell like? Dream here - as big as you can - what is the BEST possible outcome for where you want to be? Write out all of the experiences you’ll have and how you’ll respond with each of your senses.

Take one of those successes and decide that it’s the one you’re most focused on (first) for the year. If you’re having trouble with the dreaming and the decision, you can go check out my article on How to Get What You Want. The key here is to work on one thing at a time. Let’s not bit off more than you can chew.

OK, you know what’s important to you, and you have dreamt bigger than you ever thought possible, up next - Execution!

Execution

Yes! You’ve already made it two-thirds of the way through the success trifecta!

After you’ve decided what you are working on, you’ll have to take some action toward the outcome you want. Goals don’t reach themselves! (Though that WOULD be pretty amazing!)

Now, to clear a fallacy that’s been in use for so long, I can’t even remember before I knew about it - the SMART goal. They’re not smart, these goals are missing a key ingredient. If you want to beat your competition, you’ll want to use the DIAMOND Goals Formula to beat your competition.

The next thing you’ll do once you define your goal in the DIAMOND Method, is to break it into small pieces that you can steadily work though to achieve the desired results. If you’re very stuck on this piece, there is a CLEAR Strategy included in the DIAMOND Goals Formula download. One mistake people make is posting their big hairy goal (BHAG anyone?) on the wall, and it feels so overwhelming they never start on it. You don’t have to make this mistake.

After you’ve defined the actions you are going to take, schedule them. Give yourself some accountability, and DO THE WORK. It’s that simple. If you schedule them, and hold yourself to the schedule you created for yourself, you’ll accomplish anything you want in life. If you’re stuck on time management, you may find this blog post helpful: 5 Keys to Time Management.

If it’s this easy to achieve any goal you want, why do most people fail? Simple. They don’t take the time to actually do all three steps. Usually they do one or two of them, or they sort of do the three, but not deep enough to make an impact. Want to make sure you get them all done? Remember in step three, we scheduled actions into our calendars. This is the key!

But sometimes, setting time aside for this is difficult. There are a lot of distractions in day-to-day life.That’s where this amazing workshop comes in. Coming up in the next few weeks, is an in-person 3-Part Workshop Series. You’ll be surrounded in a supportive environment, with like-minded women who are all working toward setting impactful intentions for the next year. We’re planning this in the Portland, OR area, but there is an online version coming soon!

Make the commitment to yourself, invest the time you need to do this the right way, and see your dreams come to life!

Show up to this workshop. Make 2019 YOUR year.