I love beginning a new year. My favourite public holiday is New Year’s Day. Christmas is done and dusted, summer is in full swing, people are still in a festive, relaxed holiday mode and the Universe gives us a fresh canvas.

It’s a cosmic dose of hope and love

New Year usually begins with a sunrise salute and giving thanks followed by a plunge in the ocean.  Then I cast my gaze up and ahead, and begin the dreaming. Dreaming big; grand and bold.  I will mind map my desires, vision board them into tangible realness, set goals and make plans.

When I used to work in corporate, we would set our goals and targets or KPIs for the year, but that was always a dreary exercise.  You may be familiar with the workplace term – SMART goals. Make them specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound.  They always felt a bit arbitrary and not of my personal choosing but related to the business.  BORING!

After years of self-employment in my various Life & Love enterprises – as coach, celebrant & consultant – I have taken that discipline of goal setting but disrupted the old SMART approach instead advocating now for a desire to create SILLY goals.

And besides, being self-employed, the only person you answer to is yourself, and let’s admit it, that’s a whole different set of motivation and accountability…..not unlike retirement or semi-retirement…..the buck stops with you!

When you only have yourself to answer to and you only have yourself to motivate you, the way to go is to be as SILLY  as possible but what this really means is to orient your goals to be  fun, meaningful and all about life & love.

To join me in the SILLY goals revolution, you follow this formula:

S is for Significant – it has to be connected to a motivation that is deep, compelling and loaded with personal meaning.

I is for Interesting – my energy is limited, I want to be excited, be in a state of learning and be nourished by it

L is all about Legacy – creating something lasting and worthwhile, that benefits more than just yourself

L Is for LOVE – you’ve gotta love it and it has to create more opportunities to give love and share love by doing it

Y is for YOU – don’t forget about yourself. Make them about YOU; make them nourish and enrich YOU. YOU only live once (YOLO – “you only live once”)

My goal this year is not just to work sillier, but be ‘sillier’.  In fact, I’m going to be completely SILLY.

What that is going to look like is I will be doing a new study/learning endeavour, reading a couple of novels (now that will be novel), hosting the odd dinner party, and learning to play guitar for singalongs with my muso husband.

Welcome 2017! Let’s be SILLY together.

Much love. Sarah

Sarah Tolmie is a life & love coach, therapist and consultant. Her practice focuses on helping individuals, couples and families navigate, grow and heal through all their life & love events, changes and challenges –  including love, marriage & family relationships; success, health & wellness; and grief & loss, as well as coping with illness, dying and death. Sarah is also a Life & Love Celebrant, and Pastoral Care Practitioner, creating profound and meaningful ceremonies for all life & love events. In her practice Sarah’s focus is on maintaining a heart-based, love-led, laughter-filled and meaning-making life.  Sarah is also an Isagenix consultant for health, weight management and longevity. You can visit her website new.sarahtolmie.com.au  and receive her Daily Love updates on her Facebook page at Sarah Tolmie – Life & Love.