Are You Ready for 2019: 5 Goals You Forgot in 2018 You Should Set Now! Bonus: Free Goal Setting Worskheet

By Ene Elizabeth Adeka

Did you know? As much as 90% of your goals for 2019 won’t make it past the first three weeks because they were not written down in a clear, executable and measurable manner?

As we wrap up 2018, I sincerely hope your life got better this year and you were able to achieve something meaningful. If no, don’t throw in the towel just yet. It is important to prepare for the coming year before it arrives and this may sound like a cliché but trust me, you would be better off in 2019 with your goals written down than some resolutions you recite and forget as soon as the cares of life hit you.

Do I need to sound the alarm before you believe that a goal written down is a problem half-solved? Brian Tracy said, “Success equals goals, all else is commentary.” To help you prepare for the coming year, here is a guide to the things that will matter most at the end of 2019. Set your goals around them.

1. Your finances

Money is important! The chances that you feel miserable because you have little or no money in your bank account as you read this are very high. Have you sat to ask yourself why you didn’t make all the money you promised yourself you would make this year? Let me help you with some possible reasons:

• You had no clearly defined financial plan to make it happen
• You had little or no value to offer. If you are a regular visitor here, you should know by now that the money in your wallet is directly proportional to how valuable you are perceived to be.
• You had no financial goals/target
• You had no financial mentors
• You were lazy!

Things won’t change in 2019 unless you change your method of approach. Get a book, call it “My Money Book” and get to work. Click here to learn our smart money tips.

2. Your Mind

Mental transformation is underrated! Whatever your mind cannot conceive, your hands cannot birth. Everything starts, grows and is sustained by the mind. Your hands are simply puppets where your mind is concerned. Your hands are slaves of the mind. Whatever your mind instructs your hands to do, they obey. So if your hands are not busy, blame the laziness that has latched on to your mind.

This year, I made a promise to myself to buy one book a month after I read last year that Bill Gates reads over 50 books each year. Dudess! Financial freedom is still on your to-do list and you are reading one sentence a year

Please start reading and start now. You may never get to eat lunch with Bill Gates, but you can read the books he reads and follow the people he recommends. What do you have to lose? Nothing, to begin with.

Here are some of my best reads of 2018

• Tipping point by Malcolm Gladwell (mental transformation)
• The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter by Dr. Meg Jay (life, career, purpose, marriage, everything)
• Imitation is limitation by John Mason (mental and personal transformation)
• What makes a man feel loved by Bob Barnes (relationships/love life)
• How to be a lady (this one is on etiquette)
• The Book of Proverbs in the Bible (spirituality)
• The three most important things in your life by Mike Murdock (which I just bought) (career/purpose)
• Like a Virgin by Richard Branson (business and entrepreneurship)
• And of course, the Oxford Guide to Creative Writing (Career)

I will make a list of blogs I follow some other time but if you want an exclusive peek into some, you can send an email here and I’ll simply send you my special list. Read on why you should develop a good reading habit here.

3. Your Circle of Influence

This includes your mentors, mentees and followers. There must be some persons in your life you look up to, admire and desperately hope to be like. For every aspect of your life you need to see a dire change, there is currently a living representation of that dream and allow me humour you, they are not as far away from you as you think.

Your problem is you see those you should learn from as colleagues and those you should teach as competitors.  You must receive to give back; this personal growth affair is like a pyramid and at every point in life, you must remember that you are in the middle.

Let me ask you a question: What did you do with your social media platforms this year and how has it helped your influence and bank account? Set a goal to be relevant next year, nobody pays you to be a nuisance. Click the image below to learn how to create better social media content.

4. Your Time

While I was at my country’s mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Orientation camp last month, Motivational Speaker and Success Coach, Elisha Mamman of Elisha Mamman International (EMI) was an invited guest and of all the things he said, two things struck a chord in my heart;

Your life is your business

Every man has time capital (you don’t need money to start with, you have time. Time to learn a skill, time develop, master and deploy that skill, time to unlearn, re-learn and learn.)

What did you spend your time on this year? Gossip, laziness, procrastination? Time management is something you must master in 2019. I always say this, “You are not spending time on irrelevant things, you are giving away irrecoverable minutes of your life.”

5. Your Career/Purpose in life

If you end this year confused as to what your path is in life, you deserve to start 2019 with some questions in your heart. Questions like,

Who am I?

What and who do I believe?

Where am I going?

What is my ultimate purpose in life?

What am I passionate about?

Is this how I will just die and be forgotten?

Closely related to this is who you should plan to spend the rest of your life with. Until you know the stuff you are made of, you can never know who is right for you. Adam knew he was flesh and had bones, so it was easy for him to look at Eve and say “Girl, you are the bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.” Do you know you?

It is easy to wish you a “merry Christmas” but what’s merry about a year you did yourself a whole lot of disservice? I hope to get your emails on what you want to achieve in 2019 so we can keep ourselves accountable…if you are interested, say something in the comment box. Read 30 things you should do before you turn 30!

Remember, smart women don’t compete, they collaborate. Sharing is caring…know someone who might need this? Spread the word and faya on!

P.S: I LOVE YOU! Download this free goal setting worksheet