A new year brings a sense of renewal. Many people use this time to set goals for the upcoming year, and review the previous year’s successes and challenges. I felt it was timely to write about goal setting this month.

Probably the most liberating and exhilarating information that I learned last year was about the Law of Attraction. We are creating our lives, the good and the bad, with our thoughts. Our thoughts govern our beliefs, our attitudes, and our behaviors. They can be limiting or they can be encouraging.

To set (SMART) goals is important to succeed. To believe them and live like they are already achieved is crucial to attracting them into our lives. For example, Mary sets a goal for the year to reduce her weight by 25 lbs. by December. This is a SMART goal (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Trackable)

Mary begins by telling her family and friends of her desire to lose 25 lbs. She mentions that her clothes are just not fitting, that she is tired of the excess weight, and that since her children were born she has had difficulty maintaining her ideal weight. She speaks of her diet and the challenges she faces with her family wanting to eat different foods than she…etc. In other words, Mary has committed to setting a goal and setting out to achieve it, but her thoughts are still focused on her weight and her dissatisfaction with it. The Law of Attraction brings about what you are thinking, so Mary has set herself up well to attract everything she has been thinking and talking about; namely, maintaining her heavy weight, her ill fitting clothes, her difficulty losing the weight, and the challenges with her diet.

What would be more effective for Mary is if she set her goal and believed to have received the results already. She would begin acting like she was 25 lbs. thinner, eating portions appropriate for her ideal weight, exercising as those with her ideal weight do, admiring people who are at her ideal weight, visioning herself at her ideal weight, posting photos of herself when she was her ideal weight and believing that she is already receiving that which she desires. Only then, with thoughts that match her goals, can she ensure that they will get accomplished.

What are your goals for 2008? Trust that you are only one thought away from manifesting what you want in your life.

If you set a goal to quit smoking – stop thinking about smoking and start thinking about good health and clean air to attract it. If you set a goal for financial gain – stop thinking about debt, and bills, and not enough money. Start thinking about having money and how you will handle it. Visualize yourself having the money you want and doing with it what you desire. Tell yourself that you deserve to have an abundance.

Goal setting is a great success strategy, but you need to also believe in your ability to achieve your goals and keep your thoughts on what you want…not on what you don’t want.

Gratitude is also important. Being grateful for what we have sets us on the frequency of receiving…but I will save that topic for another time.

Best wishes for great goal setting and positive thinking to attract what you want.

Penny