How to set heart-centered goals for the New Year

The first New Moon of 2024 is on Thursday 11 Jan; the Moon will be in Capricorn.

The symbol of Capricorn is the sea goat, a mythological creature with the body of a goat and tail of a fish. This reflects on Capricorn’s abilities at navigating both the material & emotional realms.

As a cardinal sign, Capricorn is about initiating and working towards LONG-TERM GOALS. Unwavering focus and determination to overcome whatever stands in their way. Scaling the steepest mountains (goat) whilst building up emotional mastery (fish tail). CREATING A FOUNDATION for growth that support and hold us in a sustainable way.

In view of Cappie’s strengths, it is, therefore, an ideal opportunity to leverage on its energy to properly set long-term goals for the New Year, and that opportunity is at this New Moon.

You might ask, why New Moon? This is because New Moon marks the start of the monthly lunar cycle, therefore it is a good time to:

• Reflect, plan and strategize
• Brainstorm creatively
• Plant seeds of inspiration
• Feel into the vision of what’s possible for you in the next lunar cycle
• Formulate what you want to manifest…and why
• Set new intentions and goals
• Nurture your ideas

New Moon is an opportunity to reflect on what goals you want to set as well as changes you want to make moving forward, from which you take actions in pursuing those goals and improvements during the remaining weeks of the lunar cycle or over the course of several lunar cycles.

Do you still do New Year Resolutions?

Most of us don’t do New Year Resolutions anymore. We feel gung-ho about setting goals for the New Year only to throw those goals out of the window by the end of January, lol! We feel like this year after year until we become cynical about New Year Resolutions and not set any new goals. But later at some point, we may wonder what goals have we achieved or what improvements have we consciously made in our lives.

There are two reasons why we don’t consciously make New Year Resolutions or set any new goals every year:

• Goal-setting exercise becomes a mind-based, mental activity only. We list down the goals that we want to achieve and commence our pursuit based on that. But most of the goals listed tend to be goals that we *should* achieve.

• We don’t ask ourselves – why do we want to achieve those goals? If we do ask ourselves that question though, we don’t ATTUNE to OUR FEELINGS about those goals.

But if we were to list goals that are our soul’s desires, identify reasons behind those goals and attune to how we feel about them, the goal-setting exercise becomes a HEART-CENTERED activity.  

As life would have it, invariably there will be obstacles and challenges. When goal-setting is merely a mind-based mental activity, we tend to give up easily on our goals each time we come across challenges. This is because the goals that we set are not aligned with our heart and soul.

However, when goal-setting becomes a heart-centered activity, we get CLEAR about the REASONS for wanting those goals – reasons that touch your heart and soul so much so that you can FEEL how much those goals mean to you. As you encounter obstacles, the reasons and feelings about those goals will serve as a reminder to you, hence you will less likely to give up but move forward in working through those challenges instead.

Set heart-centered goals

Here are steps to set heart-centered goals for the New Year. It’s kinda like New Year Resolutions with a twist!

• List down the goals that you want to achieve. Don’t overthink it. Just write what comes to you.

• For each goal listed, write down the reasons why you want to achieve it. Once again, don’t overthink it. Write what comes to you. If no reason comes to mind, skip and move on to the next goal.

• After identifying the reasons for each goal, go back to goal no. 1 and attune to how you feel about it. Don’t overthink it. Just feel and write what immediately comes to you.
  • Do you feel excited, passionate, optimistic or good vibes? Some people naturally smile or feel a tingle as they think about the goal.
  • Do you feel meh, dreadful, pessimistic or just nothing?

• Review your list.
  • The goals that you feel not-so-good vibes – these are probably not your soul’s desires.
  • The goals that you feel meh or nothing – put them aside. Perhaps you are not ready to pursue them just yet.
  • The goals that you feel GOOD VIBES – these are your focus for the year.

It doesn’t matter if your GOOD VIBES goals are only one or two. Just set an intention that you will dedicate time, space and energy to pursue them. Sometimes lesser goals are better – you are able to explore them in-depth.

Note: I would like to add that it is very important NOT to dwell on the HOW during the goal-setting exercise: how to pursue your goals, the ways in which to bring them fruition. When we bring the ‘how’ into the exercise, we may get stuck in overthinking in the mind which tends to lead to fears and doubts.

Just focus on the ‘WHAT’ and ‘WHY’ – the goals that deeply matter to you; the ones that are aligned with your heart and soul.

Once you’ve identified them, your next steps are:

• Close your eyes, relax and breathe.

• When you feel sufficiently calm and relaxed, visualize yourself already achieving those goals. Attune to your feelings as you visualize it. Allow yourself to flow in that visualization.

• Offer those goals to the Divine (or the Universe/God/Creator, however you want to call it). You can say these words in your heart, “Divine Beloved, I offer my 2024 goals to you for all its highest good. Please take care of them and show me the way.”

• When you’re ready, open your eyes.

You are now ready in taking steps to pursue those goals.

Goal-Setting at anytime of the year

At the time of writing, this blog post is meant to help you in setting new goals for Year 2024. I want you to know as well that goal-setting can be done at any time of the year. It doesn’t have to be in January or at New Moon in Capricorn or at New Moon only (though New Moon is always a fantastic opportunity to set new goals and new intentions).

Just follow your intuition instead. Whenever you feel inclined to do the goal-setting exercise, ensure that you are dedicating time, space and energy to reflect and connect with your mind, body and soul, so you can have clarity on what you really want in life and why.

Your new heart-centered (and divinely aligned) goals will clearly make an impact in how you live life – different and for the better.