If you’ve been a follower of FabYOUlous Life for a while, you already know that I don’t believe in setting New Year’s resolutions. To me, resolutions have too many negative connotations in that you are resolving to fix something that needs fixing. Instead, I choose to set positive intentions for my year in high-priority areas of my life. Instead of resolving to cut out soda, I intend to better honor my body and to make positive choices regarding my physical health. Also, I tend to set my intentions in July as opposed to January since July is my birthday month. I do this intention setting in conjunction with my annual self-audit (read more about that process here).

Still, I can’t deny that there is something exciting and inspiring about the start of a new year. I just love taking my new, blank planner (my personal fave is the InnerGuide Goal and Success Planner) and filling it in with my goals and intentions for the coming year. I may not be big on resolutions, but I am a huge champion of goal setting and inspired action. If fact–I think that the combination of positive intentions, strategic goal setting and inspired actions can lead to a New Year’s REVOLUTION. 

“ Positive intentions + strategic goal setting + inspired actions = a New Year’s REVOLUTION —MELISSA VENABLE

Regardless of where you stand on the whole resolution debate, here are some great things to keep in mind as you set your annual goals and prepare to rock your REVOLUTION…

How to Have a New Year’s REVOLUTION

• Get Clear on What You Want in Every Important Area of Your Life. If you could wave a magic wand and create the perfect life for yourself, what would that life look like? Where would you live? What would your relationships look like? What kind of career would you have? Have fun with this and let your imagination run free. One of my favorite ways to work through this process is to create a vision board. It’s fun and it serves as a constant reminder to me of my ideal life. Here’s a shot of my vision board…Once you have your ideal life envisioned, take 30 seconds and write down your three most important goals in life right now. Write quickly without too much overthinking. Whatever you choose for these three quick goals will give you a pretty good snapshot of where you need to start with your revolution.
• Write it Down. You’ve no doubt heard this one before but that’s because IT WORKS! Writing down your goals is critical if you are serious about making them happen! Pretend that you are placing an order for your goal and that the goal factory is far away. Write your goal down with enough clarity and detail (also be sure to set a deadline!) so as to ensure that the manufacturer doesn’t send you the wrong goal. Only 3% of people get serious enough about their goals to actually put them down on paper and guess what–those 3% go on to do INCREDIBLE things in life. If you want proof, click here for a link to a an academic paper on the subject–it’s a little long and boring but it’s from Harvard so…
• Identify Potential Obstacles. The Theory of Constraints states that there is always one limiting factor that sets the speed at which you are able to achieve your goal. What is that constraint/obstacle for you? Though we certainly don’t want to become fixated on the obstacles in our way, identifying those potential setbacks can help us to better strategize ways of overcoming them. In fact, there’s good news when it comes to obstacles–a full 80% of them are things that we have control over. Maybe we need to learn a new skill or adapt new behaviors but only 20% of obstacles come from external factors outside of our control (and even those can often be mitigated by designing ways to work around them).
• Take Inspired Action. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Like it or not–self discipline will make or break your revolution. Motivation is great, but motivation wanes when things get hard, boring or scary. Self discipline trumps motivation. Every. Single. Time.

  “ Discipline trumps motivation. Every. Single. Time. —MELISSA VENABLE

  Put our DOT Strategy to work in your life and watch your revolution begin to unfold. For added motivation and accountability, download our free FabYOUtracker Goal Tracker. 
• Find Your Tribe. We all have friends that we like to hang out with but that’s not necessarily the kind of tribe that we’re talking about here. Yes, girlfriends are great–but for this purpose, GOALfriends are better. No one creates a revolution in their life without the help and support of others. In fact, the bigger your goal, the more help you’re going to need to achieve it. Even if you don’t have the same goal, having a goalfriend or accountability buddy can help to keep you on track for your revolution. Make it a point to meet weekly (or check in by phone, skype, email etc.) to encourage each other and offer support. You can also find an online tribe at Tribalry.com (where I happen to be a Tribal Council member for the Dream Big Tribe–check it out!)
• Hold Fast to Your Vision. The ability to visualize your ideal life is perhaps the most powerful tool in your revolution creating tool kit. As you visualize your desired goals, take a few minutes to create the emotions that would accompany the successful achievement of your goals. How would living in that house with that significant other while rocking that career really feel? A mental image combined with an emotional feeling has an enormous impact upon your subconscious

  “ A mental image combined with an emotional feeling has an enormous impact upon your subconscious —MELISSA VENABLE

  and superconscious mind. Use this powerful one two punch to bring your revolution into being more quickly and with less struggle. Use your vision board to help facilitate this–hang it in your office, use it as the background on your phone, upload it as your computer’s desktop image…do whatever you have to do to keep the vision and the feelings associated with your vision front and center in your life.
• Celebrate Good Times–Come On! Of course you’ll celebrate when you achieve your goal–but why wait? Every time you reach a milestone along the way to your revolution, be sure to acknowledge your accomplishment in a positive way. If you drop a dress size, reward yourself with that cute scarf that you’ve been eyeing. If you land a new client, treat yourself to dinner and drinks at your favorite swanky bistro. These smaller celebrations along the way will help to keep you inspired and will provide fuel in your tank to keep you pushing through to the next milestone.

So there you have it…the makings of a REVOLUTION! 2017 is going to be FabYOUlous! Thank you for spending time with us here in our online world and may the new year be your BEST ONE YET!!