onLIFESTYLEwithkim

Happy New Year!

Make 2016 Your Best Year Yet by Implementing these 14 Success Principles Below

1. Set Goals - Take a good look at what you want in life. Have you committed to these goals by purposefully taking steps towards them? Start now by setting some goals that will move you into the direction of where you would like to go in life and what you would like to accomplish. These should include goals that impact your entire well-being - spiritual and emotional goals, financial goals, physical goals, relationship goals, health and wellness goals and career goals. Once you have established these goals, write them down and reflect on them daily. I start with 10, then break them down to fit into my BIG 3, then I do a 24 hour shut-in where I pray and seek God for wisdom, knowledge and direction for the year. I ask God to deposit ONE WORD that will establish the vision and theme for my year. Last year God gave me the word ELEVATE. All my goals were then aligned with that theme.

2. Create a Vision Board - It's important to be able to visualize your goals and dreams. Vision is the ability to see further than your eyes can look. Thus the reason why people who are born blind can still have perfect vision - like Stevie Wonder, Hellen Keller, Ray Charles, Andrea Bocelli and many others who are still able to have vision for their lives despite being blind. What excuse do we have for not having a vision? When coaching my students I have them create a 5, 10 and 15 year vision board for their lives - nothing complicated, but simply using words and images to capture their vision and goals. The concept is nothing new and in fact is biblically based. In Habakkuk 2:2 "The Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it."

3. Get a mentor - Seek out someone with the knowledge you desire; someone who can guide, direct, inspire and pour into your life. If you are embarking a major life project this year (i.e. opening a business, a non-profit organization, a charity or foundation etc), I would also suggest that you choose some people in your circle that are successful, influential and motivating and assemble a Board of Advisors. Even if you start with 2 or 3 people - having an advisory board is quintessential.

4. Read more - Create a personal reading program. What you deposit in your mind, will help fuel your actions for 2016 and for the rest of your life!! Take action! Take idle thoughts into captivity and allow your mind to be more productive. Determine how many books of different genres you'll read this year (personal, development, spiritual, health and wellness, business, nonfiction etc). Knowledge is power. If you do not plan this out as one of your goals, you'll still be trying to read the same book from 2015! Depositing wisdom and knowledge into your life is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself. If you don't have time to read, then listen to books while driving or doing your cardio at the gym.

5. Improve your productivity - Log your activities for a week to assess time-wasters. Make sure you're not spending chunks of time on activities that don't move you forward or improve your life. TV and Social media (FB, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Youtube etc), while great for networking, are very much time robbers. My advice, set aside a time that you allot for social media and put a timer or alarm on and stick to that. If not, you'll find yourself on your device all day long and you'll be asking yourself - where did the time go, while you still haven't accomplished any of your daily goals, nor finished that book you started last year! Successful people are very vigilant about their time and things that keep them stagnant or move them forward.

6. Go to bed earlier and wake up earlier - Studies show that people who get at least 7 hours of sleep and get up early, lead a more productive life. At the very least try to improve on this goal by getting up early enough to pray, contemplate on what you want to accomplish for the day, reflect on the goodness of life, give thanks and finally have a good protein filled breakfast. How many of us get up with just enough time to hit the alarm clock buzzer, shower, get dressed and grab a quick snack (carbs!) then out the door. Let's work on that morning routine folks. Make personal wellness a priority. Which should include some form or exercise regimine.

7. Get an accountability partner - so important to have someone in your circle to check in with regularly to review accomplishments, areas for improvement and next steps. Personally, I have 3 amazing accountability partners that I meet with or touch base via phone or in person regularly. These three (2 females and one male) are successful, progressive, action-oriented, spirit-filled, faith filled and true mentors in my life. They sharpen me and push me to be better and do greater.

8. Do something you've always wanted to do this year - Life can be short; don't wait to live your BEST life yet. What have you always desired to do, yet never make the time for, or keep putting it off. Is it starting a Degree Program, travelling somewhere, learning a language, writing a book, starting a fitness program, going camping, learning to swim, flying a plane etc.

9. Invest more time in experiences, rather than things - It's so easy to get consumed with wanting to attain things for status and to look good. Looking good is something most of us enjoy; however, accumulating things whether it be for the house, clothes or gadgets, do not help build depth of character, moral fibre, traditions, or long lasting memories. These are temporal things. Focus on things that birth impact and change - like giving back, and making a difference in someone's life. Start some traditions with your family. Games night on Friday. Movie night on Saturdays. Praying togther as a family. Going to see live theatre at least once a year. Trips to the bookstore. Festivals, concerts, culture shows, exhibits - these all build a tapestry of experiences that create our footprint of cultural depth. Experience as much of the world as you can, while you can - whether simple or grand, these are indelible memories. I still remember when my dad took me ice-skating on Saturday mornings, then to the snack bar for sweet tarts or love heart candy and hot chocolate, then off to the marketplace to shop for custom cheese, the deli counter, the bakery - you name it! He would take my friends and I to the Cineplex Corporate Production Studio (where he worked) to watch all the edited movies that were just being released!! - ALL NIGHT! Imagine that. Needless to say, my friendship circle expanded rapidly as the word got out. No doubt, these experiences undoubtedly help to shape my current passion for life and culture.

10. Take small steps towards your goals - Whatever it is you seek, just get started. Commit to some SMART goals. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. Choose an activity or action that is relatively easy and feasible; one that inches you closer to those goals everyday. For example, if one of your goals is to workout and become more fit this year - it would be crazy to start out by saying I'm gonna start running 5 K everyday. Slow and steady wins the race!

11. Journal - Whether it's an idea, a problem you want to solve or inspiring quotes, write it down. Perhaps starting your 2016 journal with your goals is a good place to start. Capture and record other meaningful anecdotes from books you're reading, scriptures that are speaking to you, words that God has given you, and other material that brings you closer to your goals or simply helps you to reflect.

12. Practise mindfulness, humility and charity - You will improve your effectiveness, well-being and longevity, research shows, by learning how to stop needless ruminating, mindless activity or idleness in order to focus on the here and now, the things that matter. Be cognizant about your time and your practise. Be humble and grateful for what you have. Make giving back to the community and this world, a lifetime goal. I always tell my children, I desire them to be successful so they can give back to the world, more than they take. Don't get so caught up with big worldly goals that you lose sight of the small goals and miracles that you can achieve everyday by the smallest gestures like smiling at someone, offering to carry someone's grocery bags, to the bigger things like donating to a charity of your choice, or sowing into a church ministry that is doing Kingdom work.

13. Expand your capabilities - Learn a language, take a course, start running, take up chess, create a blog, get into photography, start weight lifting - whatever it is - this year expand your horizon and challenge yourself to take on something new or hone something you already started, but never quite mastered.

14. Seek wonder and greatness - Instead of the been there, done that mindset or the same 'ol, same 'ol mindset, see the world with fresh eyes. Realize that God created you to prosper, to have vision and accomplish greatness. Begin to have a nothing is impossible attitude and that with God, you can conquer all. Set this world on fire with your passion. Move forward in 2016 with greatness at the helm. Walk in your calling and destiny and seize everything that 2016 has in store for you. Stop waiting and take action. Time waits on no one, so get busy with your goal setting and believe that this is your BEST year yet.

Thanks for reading, and wishing you much greatness and success for 2016!