Having a fulfilling job, raising a responsible child, having a loving relationship with my husband, maximising my health, having a warm home where my family can relax together and my friends feel welcome, etc.  Your goals are probably different than mine, but one thing I am pretty sure we all have in common is that we want it all.

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I certainly do. But with so many “conflicting” roles, how to really live the life we too often only allow ourselves to dream of?

Well, have you noticed that we tend to spend the majority of our time on the areas of our lives for which we have set clear goals? I’ve observed it comes very naturally to a lot of people as far as work is concerned, but there is no reason not to achieve your personal goals too if you follow my 5-step approach below.

1.) Imagine The Life You’d Like To Live

Try to picture your dream life if you could do anything you wanted. Take into consideration various aspects e.g. family, self, fun and recreation, finances, romance, relationships, friendship, career, health, personal development, home, spirituality, community, etc., as well as your personal values e.g. family security, stimulating or comfortable life, social recognition, freedom, harmony, etc.

If you struggle to envision your dream life, then keep a daily journal of what makes you truly happy. After a month, reflect on what you’ve learned about yourself.

If you still struggle, then ask yourself what’s holding your back. There might be deeper issues that need to be addressed. It’s probably a good idea to confront them before going further.

2.) Select Your Main Life Categories

5 or 6 categories are enough really. You may want to group some categories together, say health, spirituality and friendship under ‘self’ for example. But bear in mind that at the end of the day, there are only so many categories and activities we can juggle in our schedules.

3.) Set Clear Goals

Set big-picture goals for each category of your life you’ve selected. Make sure you aren’t influenced by what others expect from you.

Writing your goals is essential to making them come true because you’ll start paying attention to things that’ll help you achieve what you want. Keep them simple. Don’t worry at this stage about how you’re going to get there.

4.) Define Tasks That’ll Help You Achieve Your Goals

The challenge you may be facing here is that there’ll be plenty of ways to achieve your goals.  So put all your ideas in writing first before selecting the top 2 or 3 for each category. The rest can always be postponed to a later time.

Let’s say one of my goals is to maximise my health, my 3 activities could be: (1) get 8-hour sleep,  (2) exercise three times a week, and (3) plan healthy meals.

If your goal involves your family, let’s say build strong family ties, and you want to achieve that through a Sunday family activity, it’s more likely to happen if you consult your family on what type of activity they’d like to do and whether Sunday is the best day for all involved.

5.) Block The Time In Your Diary

I can’t say this enough, if you want to make something happen, you need to block the time in your diary for all the activities you’ve identified and treat them as you would with any other commitments.

I’ve focused above on your life outside of work, but if you’re having trouble managing your time at work, you can apply the same approach and identify the core responsibilities you need to juggle.

Keep some time for yourself if you can amidst the travels and the celebrations to come up with your plan for 2016.  In case you see this process as time- consuming, bear in mind that you’ll only need to go through the first 3 steps again when you experience a big life change, otherwise our life vision and goals don’t typically change every year. Subsequently you’ll only have to re-look into the activities that’ll help you achieve your goals.

And beyond the time investment, have you thought of what’s in it for you? Think, for example, that whenever you’ll be about to add a task on your to-do list, you’ll be more inclined to ask yourself whether this task is going to help you achieve one of your goals and if not it’ll make it easier to let go of it. Isn’t feeling in control of your time one of the best presents you can give to yourself for Christmas? I’d love to help you on your journey so don’t hesitate to contact me!