Have you WRITTEN DOWN your goals?

Have you made a contract with yourself? And signed and dated it?

Part of the project here was to set down some goals -- and to sign and date that you would accomplish them by X date.

Have you accomplished your first goals?

Have you SET your goals?

You are in charge of your own destiny. Before you decided to unleash your inner Bond grrl, you probably floated through life, just taking what came your way. My guess is that it was not a habit of yours to set goals.

Time to change that!

It's nearly a new month. When you look back on last month, are you proud and happy? Do you see your accomplishments? Were you everything that you could be?

NO?

Guess what. Every minute, you get a chance to start again. So put some emotion behind it -- get excited, get angry with yourself, get SOMETHING -- but get going!

What motivates you? If you know the end-goal of a week, a month, 3 months, then see if you can go through some magazines and cut out some representations of what you're aiming for. Now, we KNOW that you're not going to get the castle on the estate in 3 months -- you can save that for your "end" goal. But what about some pictures of money to represent abundance and paying bills, or a picture of something who is not model-thin but who looks fine (have you SEEN Janet Jackson after losing 60 lbs?), and use them as something to really "see" that goal. Heck, find a picture of YOURSELF -- that's best!

Look, the key to this whole thing is that it's not easy. I know. You're going to want to be back in the comfy rut you have been in for a long, long time. But the difference between success and failure, someone once told me, is the successful person just picks themselves up one more time after being knocked down than the person who gives up. Similarly, the folks out there who are successful -- guess what -- it didn't just "happen upon them." I can see Oprah, when she was a weather girl, writing down goals, taping them up on her wall, planning. I mean, aiming a little higher, a little higher -- and continuing and continuing. (She's SUCH my hero.) Can't you see it? You can do that!!

I mean, how exciting would it be to get a check in the mail with enough "left over" so that you could support a charity that's meaningful to you. All your debts paid, and to be able to give a significant amount to help others in need. Often, we have gotten ourselves "in need" by buying clothes/purses/"crap" that we never really use, etc. -- we bought it to fill up a black hole inside. OK, now I am going to get serious with you -- imagine instead that all that debt on your cards had gone to the women in the Congo. Do you realize that you could be considered pretty much a saint? Do you realize you could save women's lives? Do you realize that that "latte here, posh jeans there" could have gotten a woman out of a horrible, horrible situation?

I want you to think about that. We all fall on hard times -- but the most fulfilling thing that I do each month has to do with giving to charity. And I only am able to give because I stopped "treating" myself and shopping, shopping, shopping. Just a thought.

I want you to hold yourself responsible. I want you to write down your goals. I want you to stop blaming others, and watch how things will immediately change. Set a goal -- and don't let yourself down. If your boss had given you that goal and said "that's it, if you can't accomplish it, you're fired," you'd be pissed, but you'd find SOME way to do it, wouldn't you? If you had live fire on your tail and you had to get that goal accomplished or be mowed over, you'd do it, wouldn't you? So why do you let yourself down, laze out, on your vision?

You need accountability and responsibility to yourself. You have to have goals and a vision. And you have to have passion to reach that goal. It's time to take control -- stop blaming, look inward, get your "gut" involved, and give yourself the present of success in achieving your goals.

Here are some long term ones -- write them down. What do YOU want? (And what will you need to do to step-by-step get there?)
1. Pay off your credit cards?
2. Have a vacation?
3. Quit your job and find one you're passionate about?

In thinking about this, I heard someone in a movie the other day say "we are just little people, and we can just do little things each day. So what little thing can we do today, to chip away at this big problem?" That really hit me. So here are some other questions to answer:

1. What little thing could you do differently right now, to chip away at a problem or contribute to your overall success? Something small, that you could just about get up and do right this second? Now, what's something a little bigger, that you can accomplish this week?

2. What makes you excited? What made you excited when you were a little girl? Are you getting that into your life, at LEAST once a week? I don't care what it is -- you gotta go back to your little "girl" and see what she loved -- she's still in there and I bet you still love whatever that was. (Do you gotta go buy some Crayons? Get out in the woods? Go to the zoo? Read princess books?)

3. What have you "always wanted to do," but didn't have the money for? What would you do if you didn't have to worry about money? (See, for me, that's going to the Congo and helping those women. It's not bling. That's where my heart is definitely.)

4. What additional amount in your bank account every month would let you relax and help you make ends meet? It's probably not THAT much once you get rid of the crap you're doing because you're not thinking (e.g., buying a latte every day -- ka-CHING that's like $100/month). What about thinking about a business you could run out of your house? (I do Passion Parties, for example -- I made $300 this weekend in 3 hours and had a blast.)

These are just a few questions I came up with -- what are yours?