Making This Your Best Year YET!
Successful people know the importance of planning and having a strategy to achieve their goals. Unfortunately, many people aren’t clear in what they are wanting, or are too vague, so when it comes to creating a strategy, they don’t know where to begin. One method that can be helpful if you’re not sure what action to take to start your journey to success is to start by looking at where it is you want to end up. When we know where we want to end up, sometimes it is easier to think backwards to determine what we need to do to get there. For example, when planning a vacation, the first thing to consider is where you’re going. Once you know where you are going for vacation, then you can make the plan to get there. The questions of “How will we get there?”, “What do we need to pack?”, and the like become much easier to answer.
If you’re struggling to decide what you need to do to achieve your goals for this year, consider where you want to end up on December 31st. If everything went really well for you this year, what would that look like on December 31st? What would have to happen for you to think "WOW! It was a GREAT year!" What successes, activities, and events would you be celebrating? The following exercise is designed to help you figure out exactly that.
The exercise
Imagine a whole year has passed and and it's now time to you reflect on the good things that happened. How would you feel if this year went especially well for you? What would you have achieved? What challenges would you have overcome and what successes would you celebrate?
Write down, in concrete terms, what is going to happen this year in order to create a good, if not perfect, year. You might want to divide them into the following five areas:
Professional - what would your perfect year look like in terms of your work and career?
Relationships and family - what would a good year look like for you and your family, intimate relationships, and friendships?
Health and self-care - how would you take care of yourself and your health?
Free time and hobbies - what are all the things you would like to do?
Self-development and experience - what important experiences would you have, what insights would you gain, and how would you develop and grow?
What will you do?
Now, that you know what you want to be celebrating on December 31st. The next task is to name what it will take for you to get there. If you want to be promoted to Vice President at work, what are the activities that you need to take so that you are bringing value and are being noticed so that when it comes time to naming the next VP, people think of you?
If you want more meaningful relationships, what will you do to make them more meaningful? Will you be a better listener? Now, being a “better listener” is pretty general, so get very specific of what it is that you will do that will make you a better listener. Does being a better listerner mean that you will stop interrupting? What does being a “better listener” mean for you?
If getting healthy and losing weight is a goal. How will you go about doing that? Remember, that we have more success by adding than by subtracting. For example, many people have more success by eating more fruits and vegetables than they do by swearing off all candy bars. With that, I will also recommend that you keep things in balance. An “all in” or “extreme” mindset, rules, guidelines are a sure way to cause frustration and defeat. Everything in life is to be in moderation… everything.
How will you know you’re succeeding?
Once you have identified what you will do to get to your end goal, the next step is to decide what resources you will need and how you will measure your progress. Some questions to consider are:
What resources do I need to make this happen?
What do I need to learn?
How will I know that I am making progress, moving in the right direction?
When will I pause to evaluate my progress? (I recommend putting this day on your calendar).
Who will be my accountability partner and help me identify holes in my plan or help me to consider alternative tasks if I get stuck?
What will I do if things are not going according to plan (as there is a high probability that they won’t all of the time)?
I encourage you to discuss your answers to these questions as well as your plans, wishes, and goals for the next year with your coach in one of your next sessions. Together, you can find out what it is that you need to create your perfect year and how you can turn your wishes into tangible goals and concrete action.