How to Reach your Goals in 2017

January is probably my favorite month for a few great reasons . . . I love a good "fresh start".  January in Vegas is gorgeous (well, as gorgeous as anything not wearing a feather encrusted bikini can be here).  And, it's my birthday month.  All great things!  

This is the first year that I have accomplished the goals I set out to accomplish.  In the past, when I'd set goals, I would write down 10 things I wanted to do, feel super good about myself for being so ambitious, and then completely forget about all of them until New Year's rolled around again.  Things changed this year when I learned what a valuable tool goal setting can be.  

At the start of 2016, I was feeling pretty crappy about myself.  On a scale of 1-10, my confidence level was probably at about a 2 or 3.  I had been through some hard times the year before, and was presented with a way to rebuild myself:  goal mapping.  

Remember in high school when your English teacher would have you brainstorm before writing a paper?  You'd write the topic of your paper in the middle, and then you'd brainstorm different sub topics around it?  Mine always looked something like this:

Anyway, this is kind of similar to the idea of goal mapping.  When you map out a goal, you have a main goal with different objectives that will help you reach your primary goal.  It's a very visual process, so I'll just show you what I did last year.  Here is what my goal map from 2016 looked like:

As you can see, I have one main goal, and 3 objectives that are different components of my goal.  Each objective has 3 separate goals to help me reach my primary goal. (How many times can I say "goal"?) This process helped me a ton and I am confident that it can be beneficial for any type of goal you want to set.  A few things to remember when you are setting your goals are:

1.  Make your goal measurable. Going back to my example above, I couldn't simply say "I want to feel better about myself", because that isn't really measurable.  By using a 1-10 scale, I was able to identify where I was and where I wanted to be.  This helped me throughout the year to gauge where I was and modify my objectives and sub-objectives to better suit my needs.  

2.  Make your goal attainable.  Don't set a goal of "Work out everyday" if you are used to not working out at all.  Set a goal you know you can achieve--like "Work out 3 x's a week", and then raise it from there.  I read a book in college called "The Secret".  The point of the book is basically that you manifest your own destiny.  If you believe you can do something, you can.  Set your goal to be something you truly believe you can achieve--and you'll get there.  

3.  Make your goal specific.  Don't be vague in any way.  Give yourself set of instructions so that you really can succeed.  

I have a few things I want to accomplish in 2017, and I am excited to get working on them!  What do you find helpful when setting a goal?  Have you ever tried goal mapping?