Make Sure You Look Where You Want to Go

January 10th, 2011

Over the holidays my family and I were up skiing. My husband and I love to ski so we wanted to get our little guy who is just shy of 2 years old up on skis as soon as we could. I couldn’t believe how well he took to it. We purchased one of those harness systems so that he could ski out in front of us. He loves it, smiles the whole way down the bunny hill and seems to keep saying “go again”.

Usually I will ski in front of him with my husband holding the harness from behind him. He knows to look at Mommy and ski towards Mommy. This was working really well until the day when there was something more interesting to look at than Mommy. A group of kids were rolling down the bunny hill and Nicholas started looking at them. He lost his balance and took a little tumble. His first wipe out.

The first of many I am sure but it got me thinking about the fact that in sports such as skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking or surfing wherever you look there you will go. I think the same applies to life. Wherever you set your target you will move towards it. Therefore I think as the New Year kicks off we all should be thinking about where we are looking as well. Have we set our goals and our targets to take us where we truly would love to be?

For the last number of years I have had a routine I follow to help set my vision for the following year. I thought sharing it with you may help you to reach your potential for 2011.

1) The first step is to do a recap of 2010. I always like to list all the great things that happened to me for the year. Take time to acknowledge your accomplishments and to feel good about them. See if you can list 10 greats from 2010

2) List the 5 best lessons you learnt in both your business and personal life for 2010. Give some thought to what you were doing when things were really going well for you. Wrote those things down so you can do more of them.

3) List your top 5 values for 2010. Mine were Family (to be a great Mom, wife, daughter, friend, boss and colleague), Integrity, Compassion, Inspiring and empowering others, pursuing excellence, health and financial freedom. Note if you have more than 5 no problem just focus on the key values

4) List your top 12 goals for 2011. Make sure you write them in the positive, present tense, clearly with specifics and time frames. For example don’t write “to get in better shape” this is too vague. I wrote my fitness goal as follows “I am in the best shape of my life 130 lbs, 15% body fat, fit, toned and energetic by April 30th 2011.”

5) Take your goals and write out what you have to do to achieve them. What do you have to do day to day, week to week and month to month and then schedule it in your Outlook or daytimer.

6) Take time to focus and create success in your mind through visualization. Feel your successes even before they happen.

Try this routine to make sure you know where you want to go. Then focus on it and look towards it. On the ski hill of life hopefully all of us will be avoiding the obstacles and gliding towards success.