Your New Year Starts With Celebrating Last Year's Wins

Get your mindset right when you set goals for the new year.

Happy New Year! Many of you are thinking about setting goals for the coming year. It's so easy to think about goals for the new year without first giving yourself credit for your achievements from the previous year.

Try this powerful exercise: write down every positive thing, every personal victory from the past year, no matter how small. Did you show up for work and earn money? As basic as that may sound, write it down. Did you help a friend when they needed you? Write it down.

As you begin to write your list, an interesting thing happens. You begin to notice that some of the normal, expected things you do are in fact impressive accomplishments.

To have a job, to help out your fellow human, to be a kind person... these may seem basic, but give yourself credit! It's easy to be self-critical and say, "next year I'm REALLY going to achieve something significant." You can fall into the trap of discounting all your accomplishments of the last year, and thus put undue pressure on yourself for the new year.

I'm not saying don't aspire to great things in the new year. I'm saying start from a place of gratitude when you set goals for the next year. Starting from a place of fear, regret, and criticism sends a subtle message to your subconscious mind that you are not good enough.

You ARE good enough. In fact, you're great. Acknowledge your victories, and psychologically you'll start the year with a feeling of inspiration.

Goal setting with a gratitude mindset inspires different goals. Saying "I'm great, and I want to be even greater!" is much more powerful than "I'm not good enough, and I should be better." The latter attitude makes your goals a job, a "should." How inspiring is that? Not very.

Shift your mindset by writing down as many accomplishments as you can think of from the previous year. Then write down a preliminary list of goals for the new year. Star the ones that inspire you, that make you feel good. Think of these as adding on to an already awesome you.

Picture yourself with these new goals already accomplished. Do they still feel good? If not, maybe they're not the goals you need. Find the goals that truly inspire you, and working toward them will feel less like work and more like adding to your awesomeness. Here's to an inspiring new year!