Now that you’ve picked the one (or maybe two) primary desires for 2013 you need to get specific about them.

1) Break down that one goal/desire into the various components. This may take you some time because it’s not something you’re used to doing but it’s a vital part of the planning process. Let’s take weight loss just as an example.

A couple of days ago when you were writing down your desires you may have simply listed “lose weight”. Now (once you’re sure it’s your goal and not someone else’s) review the feelings and emotions that you also wrote down.

From this list of emotions you will probably see that the phrase “weight loss” is very vague. But maybe you’re afraid to put a number down because you’ve tried this before with a number and haven’t succeeded. So, here’s what you really want I’ll bet:

• To look good
• To look  and feel sexy
• To be able to walk without huffing and puffing
• To not be embarrassed at the gym or even in your neighborhood
• To have more energy and not be tired all the time
• etc…..

What’s really your goal? Not a certain number of pounds but how you want to feel and then what it takes to get there. It’s your ultimate outcome. What are you really after?

Say you put down that you want a different job. Why? What is it you really want?

• More money?
• Less travel time for commute?
• Better hours?
• More pleasant working relationships?
• Better boss?
• More excitement?
• More responsibility?
• More freedom?
• More chance to move up?
• What?

See what I mean about getting specific? Break it down. Find out what you really want.

2) Then list the components of this specific goal.  If it’s an object, it’s pretty easy – let’s take a car. Write down:

• What make?
• What color?
• What size – compact, sedan, SUV?
• What kind of audio system?
• What type of warranty?
• What gas mileage?
• How many seats?
• New/used?
• Get very specific

What about weight loss? Let’s say your ultimate goal is to be able to exercise without pain or trouble breathing. How will we get specific with this one? From your inventory you know that you can walk about a quarter of a mile now before you get out of breath. So the components of this could be listed as:

• Be able to walk 0.3 mile without getting out of breath
• Be able to walk 0.3 mile without pain.
• Be able to walk 0.5 mile without being out of breath.
• Be able to walk 0.5 mile without pain.
• To purchase a new pair of sweatpants, shorts, or top one size smaller
• and so on

See how you break this down into achievable sections. Notice that none of these say anything about a specific number of pounds lost. That’s because the number of pounds lost is NOT really the ultimate goal. To be able to exercise without pain or trouble breathing does not necessarily require a specific number of pounds lost. It requires increased cardiovascular capability and increased joint strength and stability. There are various ways to achieve these. Undoubtedly you will take off weight but that is not the primary way to achieve your goal. But let’s say you found a magic way to lose 10 pounds by the weekend. That does not necessarily mean that you will be able to walk any further than you can now without breathing problems or joint pain. See how you’re really after an ultimate result, not necessarily the removal of certain pounds.

Take the time to sort through this and then make a nice long list where you’ve broken down the goal into multiple components.

This is step 3 – have at it now!

Terrie

Hopefully you had a wonderful day yesterday and enjoyed the birth of a new you. That’s really what Christmas is about. If you believe that Christ is within, then Christmas is a time of birth within – the birth of a new you. This also fits with the other theory about the “end of the world” which was that it was just the end of an era and the beginning of a new one.

As we head toward 2013, are you planning on making the most of this time, this upcoming year of transformation? I hope so.  I’ve been encouraging you to take stock of where you were a year ago and compare that to where you are now. Even if you don’t think you’ve accomplished much or come very far, I ask you to look at it again from a different perspective. I’ll give you a couple of my examples even though this is difficult to set out on the internet but I want you to see how I’ve been looking at things. But first, how did I know where I was last year? I used a few tools (and encouraged myself to do more this coming year – and you know what? This might be your only desire or goal this coming year – to record what happens AND how you feel about those events almost each and every day in 2013 – at the very least once a week..but I digress).

• I used my calendar where I put everything down so that I remember what I have to do when.
• I also used my Gratitude Journal which has a section for my “gratitudes” as well as a comments section. Usually seeing something written down will spark my memory.
• I perused my email as well and got a few pointers from that.

So here’s a few examples.

Running:

• Last December I was able to run about 3 miles and that wasn’t very good. I had run my first race (a 5K) in November – first race in 11 years. I was very slow.  But in 2010 I was unable to run at all and couldn’t walk more than 1/10th of a mile without bad back pain.
• I gradually built my mileage so that by July I was able to run 18-20 miles every Sunday and did so up through October 2012 preparing for the New York City Marathon.
• My hopes for the 2012 NYC Marathon were dashed but my love for running was not so I continued to run although not the really long distances I had been running. I decided to move to half-marathons for a tiny bit of a challenge until I’m ready to ramp up for 2013 NYC marathon. I’m also planning on preparing for running ultramarathons again so yesterday I did one half-marathon and today I’ll do another – my first back to back events. You could look at the half-marathon as not much distance but the different aspect is the back to back and taking a different step forward. That’s forward motion and that’s really what we’re looking for with our lives.

Computer Application:

• The computer program I spent 2-3 years working on for work was being tested last December and there were still many things to get ready before it “went live” in March.
• I spent many hours working on that and several trips to Colorado to work with the programmers.
• We went live in March and despite the usual problems a new application will have, it worked very well.
• That’s a definite achievement in my book and gave me invaluable experience – both in planning and in creating new projects in the future.

Career:

• I had another one of those “magical” emails – a second one since 2006 where I opened it for no known reason and it changed my life.
• I enrolled in a coaching certification program. I’ve always coached people all throughout my Navy career but never been certified.
• This program also opened my eyes to the Abraham-Hicks material that I became engrossed in and have absorbed like a sponge
• I set my sites toward retirement from my Army job in order to work full time in my coaching practice. Most everything I’ve done since May has been directed along those lines – with that goal in mind.
• I joined another program in November – for those with Coaching businesses so I’m putting my ducks in a row there.
• These are positive steps for me again headed forward.

This is just a simple list of the primary events in my life this past year. What’s missing is the emotions  that accompanied each section and each forward (or backward) step – and all of these events had both forward AND backward steps. The emotions and feelings are vital for you to put down in order to determine where you are right now.

I’ll give you a shocking (to me) example. This was a very strange experience for me. I hadn’t been swimming in about 1 1/2 years. But I had the urge to do so the other day. So I went to the gym and got in the water and started swimming. I used to love to do laps. But I was BORED. I  still can’t believe it but it’s not something that I actually miss – I just thought I missed it. If you had asked me about my emotions surrounding swimming a week ago they would have consisted of words like “excitement”, “enthusiasm”, “happiness”, etc. Now my emotions are very blah – bored, take it or leave it, can’t see what all the hype is about, etc. To me, this is the most dramatic shift in my thoughts and feelings I’ve ever experienced. The point is, though, that you have to put feelings with this inventory you’re taking so that you’ll know what truly is something you’re excited about and want to continue to have as a part of your life.

Since we still have about a week until 2013 dawns, continue to work on your list – you will narrow it down, take inventory and then we’ll talk about making it more specific. But today, between returning presents and cleaning up, I’d like you to write down that inventory so you can see where you were, what you’ve done and how far you’ve come in the past year. Will you try that for me? I’m positive you’ll be glad you did!

Terrie

It’s getting close to the end of 2012 and the beginning of a brand new era for you. Some might argue that it began yesterday since the world didn’t end 🙂

You should have some idea of the dreams and desires you want to work on for 2013 but these don’t need to be solidified yet…in fact, there really is nothing magical about 1 January either.

What’s more important is that you take your time and get them right.  Write them down and then sit on them. Let them marinate inside of you – allow yourself to “feel” them – are they really YOUR desires and dreams or are they those of someone else? This is the most important part of the entire process. If you’re building a truck, you have to have parts that go with a truck, not a compact car. Although those parts might enable the vehicle to work (shows how much I know about cars), it won’t work like it’s supposed to. The same with goals or desires. You might stick to a resolution for awhile if it’s for someone else, but when things get a bit rough, the desires of others are most likely the first to go. Why? Because you really are not invested in them. Some might last longer than others but the sense of satisfaction of beating the tough times is not there…there may be motivation but there won’t be inspiration. What’s the difference between motivation and inspiration? Motivation comes from an external source whereas Inspiration comes from within. You want inspiration. That will win against all odds.

Here’s the process you should be using over the next several days. Do NOT try to do this in one day. You want to experience emotion while you’re narrowing down what you want to accomplish in 2013. If you’re hurried, you’ll just want to get something down on paper to get it done. This is a formula for failure. So take your time:

1. Start making a list (if you haven’t already). It can be long right now, that’s ok. This is a list of things you want to accomplish in 2013.  Write them down.Keep writing for as long as you can think of things. Use this as a brainstorming time. Now you may not need to go into great depth here if you already know the major desires you have (for example, I have 3 primary desires for 2013 but I have been nurturing these for a month or two now. Sure there are smaller goals and there are the mini-goals I talked about in the webinar a few weeks ago but the primary ones are fixed in my mind. But I still wrote them down!
2. Now go do something fun. Come back to this list later.
3. When you come back, go over your list. Next to each item write the emotion(s) you feel when you think of yourself accomplishing this. Write quickly so that you don’t censor your feelings and emotions – we’re prone to doing that.
4. Now look over your list and pick out the top 7. The way you know they are your top 7 is to find those with the most positive words next to them – words like “joy”, “excitement”, “enthusiastic”, “exhilarated”, etc. If you didn’t have many to begin with you can pick the top 5
5. Cross out the others.
6. Copy these 7 to another sheet of paper – without the emotions written next to them.
7. Go do something fun again.
8. Number these 1 through 7 with 1 being the most important desire to achieve in 2013.
9. Look at this piece of paper and take a deep breath.
10. Determine whose goal each one is. Next to each item put “mine”, “someone else” (put a name if you know who it is), “not sure” or more than one.  Examples:
• Lose weight – husband and mine
• Stop smoking – Mom and dad
• Get into college – Dad
• Visit the Grand Canyon – mine
• Have a new car – mine
11. Cross out those that do not have a “mine” next to them. This list now may include desires that are yours as well as someone else’s.
12. Go do something fun.
13. Return to your list and  renumber them with 1 being YOUR primary desire/dream for 2013.
14. Rewrite the list in the new order. The ones with “mine” next to them should be at the top of the list.
15. For the ones that have yourself and someone else next to them,
• try to determine how much of that desire is YOURS. Put a percentage next to it.
• For example, “lose weight – 90% mine”.
• It may be that your spouse’s percent is 90% too but we’re not concerned about that at this point.
• We just want to know how much this desire is YOURS. If it’s someone else’s too, that’s great because that will add to your support.
• But it HAS to be yours in order for you to persist toward that goal.
• Be VERY CAREFUL here, though. Make sure it’s not your goal BECAUSE you want to please someone else.
• If possible, leave these “multiple personality” desires OFF your list.
16. Cross out those that do not have 90% or more next to them.
17. Rewrite your list again. Preferably have only YOUR goals on this final list.

How many do you have on your list?

Go through them and determine if they are all realistic. Notice we’ve left this til the end because we didn’t want you to have any factors influencing you other than whose dreams they are.

If they are not realistic, cross them off the list.

You should be left with about 3 primary 2013 achievements. There should be no more than 5 however.

This is the list you’re going to be working with from now on so take your time with it.

Terrie