As the holidays approach our spirits start to rise with the sense of goodwill and anticipation for the New Year, offering a renewed opportunity for positive change, achieving our goals, and becoming our best selves. For many of us this feeling is temporary and slowly withers away after the holidays as we regress back to our regular routines and habits.

Imagine if you could maintain your high spirits and conviction to change and grow all year round.  What would your life look like?  Would the book you’ve always wanted to write be a reality?  Would you travel more? Start that business you always dreamed of?  Be in the best shape of your life?

Have you ever set out with great intentions of accomplishing goals that would improve your life, and not followed through? If so, you know that intentions don’t always translate into action.  Do you know why? Because the goal was never considered to be a top priority.

Consider this:  I asked a friend who was having some problems, “Would ten thousand dollars fix this situation?” He enthusiastically said, “Yes!”  Then I asked if he could make ten thousand dollars in the next month.  “Probably not,” he answered. I then said, “If you were dying and the only way to save your life was to come up with ten thousand dollars in the next month, would you find a way to do that?”  Of course he said he would!

The point is, in order to achieve anything worthwhile you must give it a high degree of importance.  Whatever you’ve always dreamed of doing, it won’t get done under you consider it important enough to be a top priority in your life.

Charles Lindberg, the first man to fly across the Atlantic…  Benjamin Franklin, whose inventions and writings improved the lives of everyone… Pablo Picasso, who inspired the world with his masterpieces…  They all gave great importance to what mattered most to them, and their goals became the focal points of their lives.  No doubt they thought about their goals practically every waking moment.

So the questions is, what are your most dominant thoughts? What consumes your brain activity?

In today’s society, people seem to be more interested in what’s going on with the lives of members of a reality show than what’s going on in their own lives.  They don’t seem to care that their kids are giving more attention to video games than their school work or to developing social skills.  If this sounds familiar, the focus needs to return to your inner circle, not what’s going on in an imaginary world or one that has absolutely no relevance to your own life.

I encourage you to identify what’s truly important for you to be, do, and have in your life.  Mark Twain said, “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”  I’ve discovered that many people have decided to forgo giving importance to their “why”; in other words, what would truly fulfill them, their true purpose.

To help identify your goals and your purpose, put some thought into why you are here. What do you want to accomplish in this life?  What do you want to leave behind?

Here’s another way to think of it:  Ask yourself how you would like to be thought of by others.  How would you like them to describe you?  Then consider what you must do to become that person.  For example, if you want to be known as a thought leader in your field, then you must… what?  What are the concrete steps you must take?

Don’t wait for the New Year to start on your path to achievements—you can start right now!

  1. Each day set a goal, which when completed would make your day a success.
  2. If the goal would take more than a day to bring to fruition, write down the date of its expected completion.  Always have a deadline for completing goals. You can set a goal only if you’ve also set a date for its completion.
  3. Write down how you will benefit from achieving that goal, as well as how it will benefit others. This will help keep you motivated.
  4. Narrow your focus. Focusing on too many things at once will only clutter your mind and overwhelm you.
  5. Invest the majority of your time on the tasks that will add the most to your life. When making decisions, ask yourself, Will this bring me closer to my goal?
  6. Remove any distractions that attempt to hinder your growth and achieving your goals.
  7. Always project energy when speaking about your goals and life’s work.  When asked what you’re working on, refrain from using ambiguous words like “stuff.” Always be specific; this gives your intentions value and importance.  Never downplay what you do and what’s important to you.
  8. Consider your goal important enough that you will constantly direct your thoughts to it. A tremendous amount of energy and potential is released when you give something the highest degree of importance.

There are only two things you ever have to do in life:  you have to die and you have to live until you die.  What you do in between is up to you. You can be, do, or have whatever you want as long as you make it important enough.  And what you think about becomes what is most important to you.

That said, for the next 30 days pay close attention to your most dominant thoughts.  Each night write down whatever you thought most about during the day, and see if your thoughts are being directed to what you truly want. We become what we think about most.  Think wisely!

Renowned Performance Trainer in the field of Business and Self-Development, Nikkos (Nikk) Zorbas passionately helps people dream big and release their potential from within.  Nikk is the Best-Selling author of “Discovering Your Personal Power, and “Discover Your Business Power” both available on Amazon.com.  His columns appear regularly on www.MesquiteLocalNews.com. To learn more visit www.DiscoverYourBusinessPower.com/