How to Transform Your Vision into a Successful New Year  

Now that the new year has begun, it is time to start working toward the goals you set for the new year. The following three C’s will help you transform your vision into the outcome that you choose for this year and beyond.

Celebrate
Celebrate your accomplishments. Offering positive reinforcement and encouragement are the best ways to ensure someone succeeds. You can use these tools for your own goals, as well. Focus on what you’ve accomplished rather than on a long, overwhelming list of what you’ve still got to do. This allows you to reflect on what has worked well and why you succeeded.

Celebrating your accomplishments also helps you cultivate a “success” mindset. There’s a chemical reaction behind this: When we achieve a goal, or even simply anticipate success, a neurotransmitter called dopamine is released into our brain. This leads to feelings of satisfaction and contentment. We enjoy these feelings, so we will do the activities, such as experiencing success, that release dopamine more often. Breaking down your goals to specific, smaller benchmarks allows you to experience success frequently, thus developing a mental approach that builds on the momentum of your past achievements.

Create
Create the life that you choose by visualizing what you desire in every aspect, including finances, romance, health, family, and career. Then set goals and identify the benchmarks that will help you move toward those goals and, ultimately, create the life you envisioned. It’s okay to dream big! Keep in mind the lyrics from a country song I recently heard: “A man without a dream is like a car without gasoline.” Without gas, a car won’t go anywhere. This applies to humans, as well. If you have trouble picturing what you desire in life, surround yourself with people who exemplify what you aspire to. Remember that anything is possible—once you have envisioned what you want, take the steps that are necessary to create it.

Choose
Choose emotions, thoughts and beliefs that align with your vision. A positive emotional state is crucial to accomplishing your goals. While it is necessary to think in order to plan, it is even more important to feel in order to take action. The key to successfully achieving your vision is to align your emotions and beliefs so that you act as if you have already accomplished your goals. If you feel frustrated with the process, or doubt that you will realize your dreams, these negative emotions will impede your progress. On the other hand, if you feel hope, excitement, and passion about where you are heading, you will continue to take the necessary actions that lead to small successes. These small successes are what will eventually fulfill your vision.

In their book, “The One Thing,” Gary Keller and Jay Papasan discuss the Domino Effect, the notion that a single domino is capable of bringing down another domino that is actually 50% larger.

You can use this concept to get extraordinary results in your own life. Determine what you must do first to bring about your desired change in one aspect of your life. This doesn’t need to be a big effort; remember, your first domino can be small, because success is sequential, not simultaneous. Keep working at achieving this one goal until you succeed. This achievement will lead to a second, with each accomplishment building on the previous one and moving you toward the highest success possible. Remember that someone who is knowledgeable and has accomplished a lot has done it over time. Someone with a lot of money did not earn it overnight. Making significant changes in your life is not instantaneous; it is a gradual process.

While keeping the three C’s in mind, it is also beneficial to begin a daily mindfulness practice to begin to train your mind and emotions to align with your goals and vision. To begin your mindfulness practice, simply sit for 10-20 minutes a day. Close your eyes and become aware of your breath. Focus on your center–a point about two inches below the belly button and about an inch toward the spine. While focusing on this point, inhale for a count of four, take a gentle pause (1-2 seconds), exhale for a count of four, and then take another gentle pause. Continue with this focused breath. If distractions come to mind, gently refocus on your breath and center. Doing this practice consistently–ideally on a daily basis–will result in a calmer, more focused mind.

Using the three C’s and beginning a mindfulness practice will help you train your brain to consciously create the life you want. Work toward aligning your thoughts, beliefs, and emotions with your vision and take actions one at a time to create an extraordinary 2017 and life.