Take the Stress out of Resolution Setting This Year

Are you someone who sets a New Year’s Resolution every December with the best intentions but by mid-January, you’ve already given up? I have to admit there have been times in my life when this has been the case. The stress of setting and achieving goals can sometimes derail even the simplest of resolutions. Goal setting does not have to be a stressful event. It’s an important life skill that can help you get where you want to go and, when done with intention, can be the vehicle that propels you to the top of your game.

Goal setting is important in any facet of your life. Whether you have professional or personal goals, achieving something gives us all a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. Working on goals can help you learn focus, creativity, and successful strategies. It can also help you understand what things to avoid. But for many of us, goal setting can be stressful, filled with anxiety and doubt about the outcomes.

How to Set Effective Goals

To learn to set effective goals, check out the following tips:

• Identify. First, you need to understand what type of goal you’re working toward. Is it a goal of something you want to do or something you want to be? If your goal is to be healthier, you need to understand what has to occur to obtain that goal. Suppose you’re going to climb a mountain. In that case, you’d break that into smaller manageable steps such as conditioning for a mile first, then two, adding incline, and et cetera, until you’ve reached the summit.
• Clarify. Goals should also be specific. If you know exactly where you’re going and how you’ll get there, there is no uncertainty and doubt about your goal. Once you’ve identified the goal, how you plan to achieve it, and what skillsets you’ll need to get there, you can determine if the goal is achievable and set realistic expectations for yourself.
• Time. Goals should have a time frame. Open-ended goals slow us down or, even worse, can be easily forgotten. By setting a time frame for completing your resolution, you take indecision out of the equation. Be realistic but be accountable.
• Detour. Goals should have a detour plan in place. Sometimes even with the best of intentions, our plans go awry. What happens, then? Do you forget about your goals, or do you work with the changes to continue to achieve them? Having a plan before you begin for what happens when things go wrong can help alleviate the stress of being thrown off track.
• Visualize Success. If you can’t see yourself in your mind’s eye achieving the goal you’ve set for yourself, you will have difficulty getting there in real life. Spend time each day visualizing what it will look, sound, and feel like to reach your goals. Your brain is a goal-seeking organism. Any problem you present to it, it will seek to solve. Creating time every day to see yourself succeeding will help your brain find ways to make it so. A great way to make this step as easy as possible is to utilize the tools we’ve developed at BrainTap. Our BrainTap app has over 2000 audio sessions designed to induce relaxation and help you reach peak performance regardless of your goals.  Adding the benefits of light therapy via our BrainTap headset will amp up your experience—think IMAX versus a regular movie. Any goal you’ve set for yourself, BrainTap can help you achieve.

Don’t Let Stress Win

Stress, even positive stress, can affect our brains and how we think and perceive the world around us. It causes anxiety and hampers our ability to get things done. Taking the steps above, let’s walk through how they can help you reach your 2023 goals.

Specific goals eliminate any questions about what actions you need to take to complete your set goal. There is no anxiety about what’s next because you’ve already outlined that in your plans. Tracking progress and staying on top of specific steps will help you continue to move forward, even if you’re moving in baby steps.

Knowing how to accomplish a goal takes the guesswork out of the situation. Setting a time frame for complete goal accomplishment and each step involved, keeps you on track and removes stress about how long it will take you to reach your goal. Time frames can keep you motivated and on task.

Having a contingency plan in place will help you avoid the stress that getting derailed for a day or two can cause, allowing you to focus on your overall vision—not on the event that caused you to go off track. Moving on and moving forward are vital ways to avoid stress when things don’t go as planned. Having a plan in place for getting back on track keeps delays from being too lengthy.

Seeing yourself as a success goes a long way toward making your goals a reality. BrainTap is here to help you along the way, so be sure to check out one of our 2000+ audio sessions today. If you haven’t already got a BrainTap account, visit www.braintap.info to try us free for 15 days!