It’s the end of April already…of 2016. I know everyone says this all of the time, but seriously, where has the time gone?! It seems as though the year is flying by so incredibly fast, and it’s hard to keep in touch with all of our time-oriented goals. Just four short months ago, most of us made a list of New Year’s resolutions, or at least thought about what we wanted to improve in the new year. A lot of commonly made goals include things like losing weight, saving more money or progressing in our careers. I read an interesting article the other day that made me rethink not only my New Year's resolutions, but also how I will make all of my goals in the future.

The article challenged me (a reader), as I attempt to do in mine, the way in which we create and manifest our dreams or goals. Instead of thinking about what we want to do or what we need to buy in order to be better, it challenged me to think of how I want to feel during the new year. Instead of thinking how much weight I wanted to lose or muscle to gain, I asked myself how I wanted to physically feel during the new year. Did I want to feel more confident with my body, be more muscular, more energetic? For me, this was a revolutionary thought process because it allowed me to work backward in my thought process. First starting with the end result—how I ultimately wanted to feel—and then ending with possible ways I could achieve my goals. From there, I continued with every aspect of my life and how I wanted to ideally feel in each of those areas.

You may be asking, how does this apply to me—the reader? Just as with me, you can make a list of all, or even some of the aspects of your life that you would like to improve. I made a list that included my schooling, work, my relationships (friends and family), my physical state/workout programs, eating habits and my relationship with myself. These were all areas of my life that I thought needed improvement, and some more than others. You too can make a list of the general areas in your life that you would like to improve. Remember, in this first step you don’t have to know yet how you will improve these things, but just simply that you want to. After making your list, ask yourself how you want to feel in each of those areas. You may want to feel more motivated at work, more confident in the gym, more at peace with yourself or even something like feeling less angry with your loved ones. Even after thinking about how you want to feel, you might even start thinking about how you want to be treated, how you want to act and even what kind of changes in thought you want to have while doing these things.

Then comes the more challenging but fun part of deciding what small changes you can make in your daily life that would help you to really feel the way you want to feel. Maybe take a moment while you’re reading this to make a three-part list including the areas of your life you want to improve, how you want to feel in each of these areas and what you think you can do to achieve these goals. Keep in mind that this is a fun, mid-year self-assessment that can be as intense or laid back as you choose. It doesn’t innately require you to buy or do specific things, but simply for you to think about your goals in a different light. Perhaps you’ll find that all you needed to reach a goal was to see your life in a different perspective. Good luck and have fun!