As you look forward to this new year, what are you taking with you from the past year? That may sound like an obvious question, but in reality many of us don’t take time to reflect on what we are taking into the new year from the previous one.

While you may be making plans for what you would like for your life in the coming year, I want to challenge you to take a look at what you are carrying with you from the past year. If you do not take inventory of what you are bringing but focus only on what you want to achieve, you may find yourself struggling to achieve your goals for 2017 mainly because they are being sabotaged by things you brought with you from 2016.

Unfortunately, most of us do not realize how the baggage we carry from one year to the next is affecting us until we become discouraged and give up on our goals. Oftentimes, we may never make that connection at all. We either blame it on other factors or conclude it wasn’t meant to be.

Let me suggest some things you should consider leaving behind from 2016 that could hinder you from achieving your goals in 2017. You can likely name other factors as well.

Relationships. You may need to leave behind some unhealthy relationships in order to achieve your goals for 2017. You may have some people in your life who, rather than helping you make progress, would prefer that you remain with them where they are: stuck, depressed, angry, blaming others, and loving misery. Perhaps you have been involved with these relationships for years and nothing has changed. It is time for you to let go and let someone else work with them. As you reflect on them, you see that they are not only keeping themselves down, they are keeping you down as well. If you don’t want a repeat of last year, then it is time to move on.

Habits. You may have some habits that you must leave behind if you want to be successful in meeting your goals for 2017. For some of us, it is the old habit of procrastination, the habit of putting things off in order to do what is immediately before us, though often time is not as important as what we are putting off. We put things off because we don’t feel like it or are not in the mood.

For others it is the habit of sleeping in when instead of getting up in order to do what must be done in order to achieve goals.

Perhaps for others, it is the habit of waiting on others rather than taking action to achieve goals. Perhaps you arranged an exercise partner to help you meet your health goal, but for whatever reason they keep not showing up to join you. Rather than quitting because they are not consistent, take action to remedy the situation so you can meet your goal. Stop waiting on others.

Mindsets. This is probably the biggest set back for many of us, and if we are not careful, it will sabotage us for yet another year. Reflect on the mindset that kept you from achieving some of your goals in the past year. Perhaps some of the following sound familiar.

• This is too hard.
• What will people think of me?
• I can do this, but it’s not so important anyway.
• I wish I was like so and so; then I would be able to do that.

These are just some of the self-defeating thoughts that get in the way of achieving your goals. Pay close attention to your thoughts when you find yourself struggling to pursue the goals you have for 2017. Many times you will discover that what is needed to overcome the struggle is a change in mindset.

Time management. Time management is one of the biggest killers of dreams. Too many of us set goals without setting aside the time to achieve those goals. If this is your struggle, I have some bad news for you. There will be no more time in a day in 2017 than there was in 2016; there are still seven days each week and 24 hours in each day. You have no more time in the coming year than you had in the past year. Therefore, to achieve your goals you will need to become better at how you use your time. Start out by planning your week, making sure that you schedule in the important things that will lead to achieving your goals. As you start each day, review your schedule, once again making sure you are doing the important things. If you don’t schedule it, most likely you will not do it.

As you go into 2017 with all the hope and excitement of the new year, I encourage you to take some time and reflect on the things from 2016 that did not serve you well in pursuit of your goals, and make a conscious decision to leave those behind. If you don’t, you may be in for another insane year, doing the same things you did last year but expecting a different result.

If you would like help in achieving your goals as a leader or in any area of your life, call us at 208-880-0307 or email us at errol@errolcarrim.com to schedule a complimentary coaching session. To read Errol’s other posts, visit Christ-Centered Life Coaching.

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