IT WORKED SO WELL I’M DOING IT AGAIN!

January 02, 2020

2020 is going to be a good year! Of course, I don’t really know that; it’s just a feeling. But I have a choice: I can be optimistic or pessimistic and I don’t see any reason to start off with negative thoughts.

                                                                             Dalai Lama

For years I’ve started the New Year by setting goals, defining what I want to accomplish during the next three hundred sixty-five days, and setting milestones to let me know how I’m doing along the way. The beginning is always an exciting time that energizes me, but as my ideal life and reality start to collide, I find my list of accomplished tasks getting smaller and those milestones begin to go by unaccomplished. My negativity sets in and a sense of failure, dominating my mood, and before I realize what’s happened, my perspective has changed and I’m moving forward with the expectation that I will fail.

Every New Year is an opportunity to change so, in the past, with great optimism I've done it all over again, promising myself that this year will be different, I’ll be different—and the cycle continued.

But last year was different!

I set only one goal, not just any goal, an outrageous goal that was so extreme I was almost embarrassed to claim it, but it felt right so I did.

I didn’t come up with this plan on my own. I took a workshop with Jane Hamill*. She was the one who said to pick only one goal and make it so big that you’ll feel “I’ll never accomplish it so I don’t have to worry about failing.” Now that is brilliant! Anything you do is a victory and that can only make you feel good. Instead of setting yourself up to fail, you’re creating a situation where you can’t fail. That makes so much more sense.

My crazy goal was to write a book, and not just a book but a bestseller. Why not?

My vision was that I’d write a book of stories similar to the blog posts I was writing every week. In June, six months into the year, I decided to write a cookbook instead. It isn’t the vision I started with but it was the perfect book to write. The minute I started, I realized it wasn’t one book; it was three: a series comprising a cookbook, a party book, and a book of tips and tricks.

As I celebrate the beginning of a new year, my book is being edited. It’s not finished but it will be. It’s not a bestseller yet, but it is possible—why not me?

At the end of 2019 I can honestly say I had a great year, and best of all, I love what I am doing. I haven’t been able to say that in a long time and it feels great!

Why not you? Are you willing to go for your dreams—those really big ones that seem so ridiculous it’s uncomfortable to even think about much less tell the world?

The truth is we have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

  

*Jane Hamill’s class is available. It isn’t about setting goals for the New Year it is about setting a goal for the next twelve months. Why wait any day is a great day to start. CLICK HERE to find out more. I highly recommend it! 

 

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