"the power to change is within you"

Does that scare you?  If it does, then think about why?  How are your goals going for this year?  Are you on track to complete all/some/any?  If not, why not?  How are those New Year’s resolutions going?  Fallen by the wayside?  Or just never got off the ground?  One of the first things that it is important to think about when  you are considering your goal is why do you want to achieve it?  Without this insight you may find yourself never really committing properly to achieving it which could become a very considerable barrier to actually achieving it.  The why question is extremely important.

For an example, we could think about someone who has made a goal to stop smoking.  If that is you then ask yourself why did  you make that goal?  Was it because someone else wants you to stop or is it because you think you ‘should’?  What do you mean by ‘should’? – be honest with yourself, do you really want to?  If you decide that you do really want to stop smoking then define your goal – the more defined the better.  What is your definition of stopping?  Do you want to stop completely or is the occasional social smoke okay by you?   What about timeframes?  When do you want to achieve this?  Is there any particular reason why you choose that timeframe?  You could say: “I do want to stop but I will make it next month because this month I have a few parties I want to attend and I just want to enjoy these parties without having to think about the stop smoking thing” – if you are saying that then look back at your original answers to the question as to why you want to stop smoking – have you made a definite decision yet? and if not then why not?  Perhaps you are not quite ready yet or perhaps you need to redefine your goal.