The importance of goal setting and how to be positive!

As we are about to start a new year it seems like a sensible time to talk about goals. Although I started The Bead Shop with a set of goals formally laid out in a business plan once I’d got my business loan planning fell by the wayside a bit. I had goals to move to a larger shop, start teaching workshops and start selling through an e-commerce website they were never written down.

I’d dabbled with keeping a journal as a teenager which became more of a record of how depressed I felt. I also wrote in a diary whilst I was pregnant with my daughter. But again this mainly became full of negative thoughts mixed in with a few facts and fleeting feelings of excitement.

After the Brexit referendum the depression I’d battled to defeat (and thought was a thing of the past) started to creep back in. It soon began to threaten all aspects of my life. I was determined to knock it on the head quickly before it affected my daughter and her future. One of my closest friends Jess seemed to have decided one day that she would be happy and positive regardless of what else was going on in her life. Through lots of chats and cups of tea with her I decided to start journalling and focusing on being more positive. I can’t thank her enough for this or her endless support.

As my daughter got older I noticed that naturally feeling happy was something that was getting harder for her. The negativity bias I’d always lived with seemed to be rubbing off on her. To combat this and help us both with positivity I started writing down three things i’m grateful for every day and encouraging her to follow suit. This has had a brilliant effect and we’re both much happier. Though I can always tell when she’s forgotten for a few days!

How gratitude makes us feel better

To help me get into the habit of daily gratitude and keep me focused on balancing all the areas of my life I bought a copy of the amazing Inspire Now journal. As you will know if you’ve ever met me I’ve been carrying this around everywhere I go for the last couple of years! I credit using this daily with being more positive and productive as it gets you to list your daily tasks and write down what you’re grateful for that day. I don’t think I’d have succeeded in launching two new businesses in the last year whilst co-running The Bead Shop without it.

The journal starts by getting you to list your short and long term goals in a SMART way (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant & Timely). This helps you break them down into small steps leading you towards your goal. Looking back at my old journals it’s amazing how many of my dreams have come true in the last 12 months. There’s something very powerful about committing your hopes and dreams to paper with a date you want to achieve them by.

I believe that you can achieve your business goals as long as you commit to them and break them down into realistic achievable steps. The first step is to find a system that works for you, whether that’s a bullet journal, notebook or electronically.

What method do you use to record your goals and keep you accountable? I’ve decided to start this year using a slightly different journal. My next post will be a review of the four journals I shortlisted, maybe one will be perfect for you to manifest and track your year.