So here it is, January 1st, 2016. I love a clean sheet, a fresh start, and a opportunity to learn and grow, develop and improve. Some of my resolutions (developed from my ‘Core Desired Feelings’ ) are to have more energy, reduce my inflammation, cultivate a yoga practice, and forgive myself and others more.
If you have read my previous post on ‘Setting Goals with Soul’ you will know I’m a huge fan of goal setting and wanting to improve your health and happiness, so I’ve detailed below the process I use with both myself and my clients for goal achieving.

1) Work Backwards

Where do you want to be with your wellbeing on December 1st, 2016? Rocking a little black dress, hosting a healthy dinner party, celebrating the marathon you ran, or relaxing on a yoga retreat in Guatemala? Identifying some BHAG’s (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) should make you feel a little nervous and a little excited at the same time – think good butterflies!

Setting these goals gives us a destination for the journey, and once we have a destination we can start plotting out the journey…

2) Chunk the Journey

Let’s start to make this journey more manageable. If you are holding an extra 30 pounds, rocking that little black dress may seem a little far fetched. If you’ve never run a 5km, but completing a marathon is your goal, you may feel like giving up before you even lace your sneakers. But by setting mini goals and mini milestones it makes the process seem less daunting, and maybe even fun!

I like to use each quarter of the year as my mini milestone, so I look at what I need to achieve by the end of March, end of June, and the end of September, to get to where I want to be by the end of December.

Chunking the journey also gives us reason to celebrate our successes along the way, which is going to keep your more motivated and more compliant than waiting 12 months to give yourself a pat on the back!

3) How to Get There

This is the nitty gritty of goal achieving, and my favorite part of the process (I LOVE to plan and organize)! When I work through this process with my clients I help them break down their wellbeing into four components:

• Nutrition
• Fitness
• Healthy Lifestyle
• Self Care

From here we look at another process called ‘habit layering’. Habit layering is a wonderful tool as it provides a managable structure to create healthy habits. When we try and change everything all at once it becomes too overwhelming, and we are more likely to throw in the towel. Healthy habit layering is the process of introducing one new habit a week from the catergories above and implementing ‘Action Steps’. For me the most important part of this process are the Action Steps as they are the concrete strategies to achieve the goals.

For example, if a client’s goal is to lose 30 pounds by the end of the year, her first week of habit layering may look like this:

Component	What	Action Step
Nutrition	Increase intake of Fruit and Vegetables	Sign up for local farm box delivery
Fitness	Find a Personal Trainer	Research gyms in local area and book at least one trial session
Lifestyle	Meet people who are interested in healthy living	Find a healthy living Meetup group nearby
Self Care	Increase hours of sleep	Set regular bed time of 10.30pm

Creating these tables every week, on a month by month and quarterly basis quickly adds up to so many healthy habits that it cant fail to create change! It designs a wonderfully simple roadmap to follow to guide you through the journey to wellness to the place and person you wish to find at the end of the year.

I love working through this process for both myself and my clients, and I’m excited to be facilitating this both online through my Pop Expert Sessions, and through my ‘Real World Wellness’ workshops for those of you in Boston.

If you plan to make 2016 your healthiest, happiest year yet I have an amazing goal achieving package to give away!

Comment below to win a copy of my favorite book about goals and desire: Danielle LaPorte’s ‘The Desire Map’, A Pop Expert One to One Healthy Goal Setting Session with me, and a ticket to my Real World Wellness: Goal Setting Workshop for those of you close to Boston.

To enter just comment below with one of your health and wellbeing goals for 2016. Not only will you be entered into the giveaway, I will also respond to all comments with an Action Step for you to take to help you reach your goal.

The winner will be picked at random and will be notified by email by 1/7/2016.

Wishing you all the healthiest, happiest 2016!