How to Actually Achieve Your Goals in 2019

4 min readDec 9, 2018

Today was tough… I reviewed my 2018 goals… and it wasn’t pretty.

Most of my 2018 goals did not get achieved.

Being the queen of ‘Take action and get it done!’, I had a pretty harsh get-it-together-talk with myself that went something like this:

Me: “When was the last time you looked at your 2018 goals?”

Me: “Um, last January?”

Me: “So how exactly were you going to achieve all of those goals?”

Me: “Well, the goals changed as the year went by.”

Me: “Inconsistency breeds inaction.”

Me: “I know.”

Me: “How is 2019 going to be different?”

Me: “Start now.”

Me: “And?”

Me: “Stick to the plan.”

Me: “And?”

Me: “Execute like you’re running out of time and like your life depends on it.”

Me: “Okay…”

If you can’t tell, my internal dialogue does not screw around.

So here I am… planning my 2019 goals and I realize that the biggest mistake I made in 2018 was what I like to call the ‘set-it-and-forget-it’ approach to goal setting. At the beginning of 2018, I set all of these amazing goals… and then forgot to hold myself accountable for most of them.

I could give you a million excuses about why I didn’t do what I said I would do but it all boils down to one thing:

I was lazy and I was iffy… and neither of those qualities align with success.

So… In 2019, it’s time to get out of the funk that was 2018.

How do I plan to do that? How do I plan to actually achieve my goals in 2019 (which many of them are carry-over goals that I didn’t achieve in 2018)?

I’m using a 3 step approach (Notice I’m not saying a 5, 7 or 10-step plan; if I couldn’t achieve the 10+ goals I set last year, the only way to achieve all of my 2019 goals is to SIMPLIFY).

Here’s my 3 step approach:

Step #1: Create NO MORE than 4 goals for each of 4 life areas.

There are 4 life areas that I set yearly goals for: health, business, finances, and personal growth. I used to not set a limit on the maximum number of goals I could set for each area. Here’s my limit: 4 goals max per area and the more goals I have in each area, the more daily hours I’m going to spend working on those goals and not doing other things like sleep, eat, and relax. #consequences

Step #2: Display all of goals visually on ONE sheet of paper.

Years ago, I used to develop these elaborate yearly goal documents that looked more like business plans than anything else. Guess what? I set them and forget them. Even two pages is too much for me to review every single day. I put every goal on one page, attach it to my clipboard, and, that way, I have it in front of me at all times.

Step #3: Write and recite my goals every morning AND every night.

This is a new twist for me this year. My early morning hour of power typically involves meditation, visualization, yoga and writing down my goals but, as of this moment, I’ve had no consistent night time wind down routine. Starting now (i.e. I’m not waiting until 2019 to start this), I am going to require myself to write down (in my own handwriting) and recite out loud my 2019 goals in the morning AND at night.

It’s been said that what you introduce into your mind right before bed takes hold and influences how your subconscious works on getting things done. I think it was Napoleon Hill who said that. I have no idea if it actually works but I’m going to require myself to do this in the morning AND at night.

As Don Miguel Ruiz said in The Four Agreements:

Repetition makes the master.

Now, there’s a lot more that’s going to need to happen for me to achieve EVERY 2019 goal. I’m going to have to work way harder on a daily basis than I ever have. I’m going to have to stick to my schedule, especially when I’m not in the mood to do so. I’m going to have to set SUPER firm boundaries around my time and be a drill sergeant about verifying that I’m spending time on my TRUE priorities.

And here’s the thing: I wasted 2018. 2019 WILL NOT be the same so, at this point, my perspective is simple: Whatever it takes.

When you finally get sick and tired of being sick and tired, you finally get to the point where you’re willing to do whatever it required to succeed.

I am grateful for my 2018 laziness for one reason:

It inspired me to write my latest book, Own It! The Only Thing That Will Change Everything in Your Life.

I wrote the book for me… and I wrote it for you… Check it out.

Final Point: 2019 starts today. Don’t spend the rest of this month ‘planning.’ Get to work now. You don’t need to know every step. Take the first one now and you’ll figure out the rest later…

#ownit