Motivation Monday: The most powerful 90 days of the year.

Since the start of September, I've been thinking a lot about my goals.  More importantly, there's this feeling I have like the next several months of this year will probably be the most critical of 2013.

Normally, I take the last two weeks of the year off and prepare for the year ahead.  I plan my goals, I visualize, I strategize and do other things to get ready for January 1, 2014.  That worked well enough for me but I'm ready to raise my standards and take this process to the next level.

Now is a perfect time to get aligned and reconnected to my goals because there are approximately 90 days left in the year (give or take).  This 90 day time span is perfect for creating laser like focus.  Instead of waiting for January 1, 2014 to get started, I'm taking a totally different approach.  I want to gain a huge head start.  Three months from now, I see myself having achieved (or made huge progress) in most of my goals.  By the time the new year rolls around, I want be creating new intentions, not carrying around left over goals from the previous year.

My process will look something like this:

01.  I will take inventory of the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year or create new ones.

02.  I then set some clear, specific, realistic goals for the next 90 days.

03.  Once my intentions are identified and written down, I think of actions I can take every day to help me reach those goals.

Because 90 days isn't a long time, the only way to make measurable impact in that time frame is to take some sort of action related to my goal on a daily basis (or close it). Another benefit to this 90 day plan is the ability to create milestones along the way.  I can see myself creating 3 milestones (1 every 30 days or perhaps even weekly) to check in and see how I'm doing and to see if I need to make drastic shifts, along the way, to still achieve my outcome.

I was watching a Youtube video the other day on goals.  The guy teaching the session said something that struck me.  He said that too many times, we fail to reach our goal and simply accept that outcome.  Instead, he challenged the viewers to utilize milestones to figure what we need to do differently so the goal is reached. No excuses.  If you set an intention to save a certain amount of money in 90 days and you find that thirty days in, you haven't made a dent in your savings, you don't simply give up, you use the milestone to set brand new actions that will still get you to your outcome by the goal date.  I know that I'm guilty of carrying a goals around  for years because my lack of intensity around making sure a goal is met. I like this new approach of doing whatever it takes to make sure the goal happens.

I feel like this ritual will be powerful for me.  Especially if I continue to practice it year after year. I see this process as a way to "set up" success for the new year.  In the game of volley ball, the team receiving the ball will usually come in contact with it three times before it crosses the net. First someone will bump the ball, then another person uses two hands to lift/push the ball in the air. Finally, a third person spikes the ball over the net in hopes of scoring a point.  The second person to touch the ball sets the team up for a possible point.  This is what we will do for the next 90 days, we are setting up for an amazing 2014.

I am so looking forward to this.