My 3 favourite tips for ensuring YOU have an amazing year
/At this time of year everywhere you turn you see or hear something about planning and setting goals. All that information can be overwhelming and it can be a bit daunting if you’ve struggled to set goals, let alone achieve them, in the past.
Let’s get to the heart of what will help you create an amazing year, a year you’ll really love.
- Be grateful for and acknowledge who you are and what you’ve experienced, achieved and learnt so far.
- Get crystal clear about what your ideal year will be like.
- Take purposeful action and direct your attention, energy and focus to what means most to you.
Grab a book and a pen. Let’s get started with each of those 3 tips.
Tip # 1 - Be grateful for and acknowledge who you are and what you’ve experienced, achieved and learnt so far.
Too often people wait for some magical place and point in time when they’ll be happy, have all the experience and knowledge they need, and feel confident about making decisions. That magical place is ‘here’ and that time is ‘now’.
Think back over your life and notice how much you’ve done and learnt – you’ve gathered a huge amount of experience and knowledge plus you’ve made decisions and taken action. You are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.
Take the time now to write down what you appreciate about yourself, your qualities, skills and talents, what you’re passionate about and what you’re good at. Add to the list what you’ve achieved in the last 12 months (or longer).
Tip # 2 - Get crystal clear About What your Ideal Year will be like.
Allow yourself to dream. At this point, even before starting to dream, people start saying things like “but I don’t have the skills”, “I’m not lucky enough”, “I don’t have the money”, “I don’t know how to make that happen” and on it goes. STOP. Allow yourself to dream without judgement.
What does your ideal year look like? Imagine yourself on the 31st December 2015, you’re reflecting on the year or perhaps telling a good friend about it, what would you be saying and how would you be feeling? Write down everything that comes to mind.
Tip # 3 - Take purposeful action and direct your attention, energy and focus to what means most to you.
One of the common mistakes people make when planning is thinking they need to know every single action or step required to achieve the goal. What happens when they realise they don’t know everything? They drop the goal like a hot potato because it’s too hard or seems impossible to achieve. I haven’t yet met anyone who knew every single action they’d need to take but they’ve achieved their goals. Their secret - they knew the first few actions and were committed to the goal so they made a start. That’s all you need to do. Take the first step, then the next and the next…
Write down the actions you need to take so you can head towards your ideal year. Big or small, it doesn’t matter. The key here is to take a step. Say you want to travel to a country you’ve not been too, one of your first steps might be to talk with a travel agent, look online or talk to friends who travel a lot.
An amazing year...
Planning is simpler than most people think and it’s not something that only businesses should do. If you want to have an amazing year, set yourself up for success. Acknowledge and be grateful for who you are and what you’ve already experienced, achieved and learnt. Give yourself permission to dream about the year and write it all down. Then take purposeful action that moves you towards bringing the year to life just as you imagined.
Be sure to live as only you can in a way that makes you happy.
Tracey