4 Actions to Build Success in the New Year

The first days of 2016 are a great chance to look back over the year. Celebrate successes, learn from failures, and set intentions for next year. Whether you do new years resolutions or not, there’s definitely wisdom to laying out tangible goals for you and your business and the first week of January 2016 is the perfect time to start.From motivation to organization there are many ways you can empower yourself in the New Year. Here are a few of my favorite items that can help.1. Write Your Goals DownIt’s easy to have an idea and then have it vanish over the course of a day, week or month. Dr. Gail Matthews (psychology professor at Dominican University in California) did a study on goal setting with 267 participants. She found that you are 42 percent more likely to achieve your goals just by writing them down.If you don’t love your handwriting or don’t know where you would put your list once completed, this company is offering the opportunity to have your goals for the New Year hand written in calligraphy and framed. You can then hang it above your desk or place it somewhere visible to ensure that you always have your goals in-mind throughout the year. "What you do today can improve all your tomorrows." -Ralph Marston2. Track Your ProgressOnce you’ve set your goals and written them down, tracking progress and celebrating milestones is very important to stay motivated. There are lots of progress trackers out there but one of my favorites is MindBloom. This app helps to visually layout all the elements of your life and helps you map out the meaningful actions that you can take towards them. There are also resources and community elements which help you continually stay motivated and on track.On average, 25 percent of people abandon their New Year’s resolutions after one week –don’t let this be you!"Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right." -Henry Ford3. Organize Your Physical SpaceWhere you work affects how you work. If your office space is cluttered and messy there’s a good chance you’re not going to feel great about it and it will take a toll on your productivity.Starting with getting rid of clutter and unnecessary items. For a bit of inspiration check out this guy who is an extreme minimalist and only has 15 items. Whether you end up with 15 or 55 items in your office, it’s important to organize the space and take inventory on what you do and do not need. Funnily enough having a bigger trashcan mentally helps you throw things away more frequently since it’s more visible and top of mind.As for desk organizers a unique one is the Pratonzolo, which adds a bit of green to your space in addition to the flexibility of keeping your small items right where you can see them. Another great design is the minimalist desktop organizer by Oliver Franz. “W+W” stands for white ceramic and wood and these two elements that complement each other with flawless beauty."If you look at what you have in life, you'll always have more. If you look at what you don't have in life, you'll never have enough." -Oprah Winfrey4. Get Enough SleepYou can survive without eating for weeks, but you will only live 11 days without sleeping. We all can use a better nights sleep and there’s a combination of good sleep habits and understanding how much sleep you personally need.Sleep Cycle is an app (available for both IPhone and Android) that watches your sleep habits from your nightstand in order to help wake you up at the best possible time of the morning. You get motion monitoring, which allows the app to observe when you toss, and turn and when you wake in the middle of the night. The app collects its data and then presents it to you in easy-to-understand graphs, and lets you even mark conditions for the night, including behaviors you may have changed, so you can see their effect on your night's rest.For the cooler months this heated massage pillow incorporates shiatsu or finger-pressure massage, which is a Japanese style of physiotherapy which will both relax and warm you up before falling asleep.You can also get this special light bulb that filters out blue light by 50%, helping your body produce more melatonin before you intend to sleep. Most normal bulbs emit short wavelength blue light, which delays melatonin."Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined." -Henry David ThoreauI’d love to hear from you! Let me know if you’ve found other awesome gadgets/tools for growing success. Here’s to an even better 2016!