Summary: If you’re like most people you probably have intentions to make some serious changes and make this your best year ever, right? Well, we want to help make 2014 YOUR year to simplify! And even if you’re not listening to this at the beginning of the year, or heck, it might not even be 2014 anymore when some of you listen to this, the fundamentals are timeless and perpetual.<br> <br> <br> <br> So, if you’ve fallen short of your goals in the past, like probably all of us have at some point, we have 5 steps to help you build a more solid plan, and hopefully set you on the road to success.<br> <br> So let’s get started! Read more...<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> 5 Simple Steps to Make It Your Best Year Ever<br> Step 1: Take some time to do a review of the past year.<br> <br> <br> Figure out what’s working for you and what’s not.<br> As you list out what's not working, are there any “repeat offenders”? You know, things you swore you'd stop doing but somehow find yourself still doing them? Yeah? Us too! <br> Keep track of these bad habits that keep working their way back in. You can find more about this in Episode 37.<br> <br> Step 2: Make a conscious effort to prioritize, then change or eliminate THINGS that clutter your life...and establish new goals.<br> <br> <br> Get help if you need it! Maybe it takes an outside set of eyes or ears to help you see things better.<br> <br> Maybe some coaching or mentoring could get you on path quicker than just doing things yourself.<br> <br> <br> Use S-M-A-R-T goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results-focused, Time-bound). Instead of saying "This is going to be my best year ever! I'm going to be healthier this year!", make sure you incorporate SMART goals. Here's an examples for each part of a SMART goal: <br> <br> Specific =Juice daily, eat more raw foods (½ small meals are raw fruits, veggies and nuts), cut down on sugar and processed foods (keep count of number of grams/day), cut down on alcohol (only 1 glass of wine per day)<br> Measurable = If losing weight maybe a goal of losing 2 lbs/month; or for your health, maybe measure your blood levels for cholesterol, blood pressure, etc.; body fat percentage vs. weight, etc.<br> Attainable = Can you actually do this? Audacious goals are great...but they have to be realistic for you.<br> Results-focused = Lose X amount of weight, make X amount more money, save X amount of money, give away X number of items...etc. <br> Time-bound = Daily, weekly, monthly or annual goal<br> <br> <br> Some positive reinforcement sure helps! Partner up with someone or make your intentions public. Sometimes an accountability buddy or expectations from someone else is just what we need to give us that added positive peer pressure to stay on target.<br> Track your progress...it really helps! For us, the Edit & Forget It Challenge is a great example. It really felt pretty amazing to see the numbers add up and watch our numbers goal get closer and closer. Even though it wasn’t truly about the numbers for us, tracking our progress gave us a quantitative gauge that we were on the right track. Plus, it was a SMART goal; it was a specific goal of editing 2013 items, it was measurable since it was a quantitative amount, attainable in that it wasn’t an unreasonable goal, results oriented in that we not only could see the results in terms of space we cleared up, but mentally we felt a weight lifted; and time-bound in that we had weekly, monthly and an overall annual goal.<br> <br> Step 3: Take control of your time. <br> <br> <br> If you really want to make this your best year ever, you need to: Define your responsibilities, joys and dreams.<br> Align your commitments with your responsibilities, joys and dreams! <br> <br> To the extent possible, change or eliminate commitments that don’t align with your responsibilities,
