When my children were young I would lay down with them on our trampoline outside in our backyard and we would look at the sky together and play a game we called “Sky Castles”. In our game we would take turns building our pretend sky castles by saying what we saw happening in our life first looking out one year, then looking out five years, and finally looking out ten years. We would share our vision of our castle as if we were living in each time as we told it, as if the picture had already come to pass for that time period. It was a game we played religiously throughout their childhood years and it has played a major role in each of us in our family accomplishing our life goals.

I am a HUGE believer in the power of Goals. I am an even bigger believer in the power of a Goal Poster. And as I sit here typing this tonight I have to point out that all of us have exactly two days to write down our goals and prepare our Goal Poster for 2014!

Any of you who know me or who have ever heard me speak at a conference know that I am all about the magic of the Goal Poster. I believe that my life has become what it has due largely in part to the creation of my first Goal Poster in my early 20’s. I may not have realized its magic at the time I created it but as the years went by I became increasingly aware of the power and magic it had brought into my life. At this point it has become a true passion for me to not only continue to add to my own Goal Poster, but to go about making sure I tell everyone and anyone I can of its importance and its magic, so that everyone can have their lives impacted the way my own life has been.

“I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don’t set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential. When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life.” -M. Russell Ballard

My suggestion when you sit down to write up your goals for 2014 is to THINK BIG!!! Don’t limit what you can accomplish. If you have the desire for it then write it down. Add it to your poster. The sky is the limit! Don’t worry about what someone else might think or whether people will make fun of your for being so bold – who cares what other people think! This isn’t about them, it’s about you! There will always be those who will criticize or try to hold you back, but if and when that happens just keep the following quote in mind:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” -Theodore Roosevelt

Get out your paper and pen and start making your list. Be bold. Be courageous. Get out of your comfort zone. Think BIG, REALLY BIG! Don’t be afraid. Don’t hold back. Write it all down. Then take the list and make it into a visual Goal Poster of images to hang on your wall. Hang it somewhere you will see it often.

Now is the perfect time to set your goals. We all have two days before this New Year will begin and there is no better time to start a new set of goals than January 1st, 2014. After all, 2014 is going to be our most epic year yet! Magic!

~Amy