How to Create YOUR Best Year Yet
What do you want in the year to come?
Do you want to be more on your parenting game? Create a sustainable self-care routine? (Re)dedicate to your partnership? And even feel financially prosperous in 2014?
In other words, are you interested in creating your best year yet? Yes, you are! I thought so. I mean, who isn’t?! We all start out the year with good intentions, maybe even a plan—but few learn the critical tools that create long-term shifts.
Not you, though. Not anymore.
2014: YOUR Best Year Yet* Design and create your loveliest life in 2014!
* Reflect on 2013 and what you’ve accomplished
* Gain clarity on the roles you play in your life, and what you truly want for yourself and your family
* Set clear goals for the year to come
* Create a plan for making IT happen
* Get guidance for how to stay on track all year long!
Based on the book, Your Best Year Yet: Ten Questions for Making the Next Twelve Months Your Most Successful Ever by Jenny Ditzler, this is so much more than just a process of setting New Year’s resolutions. It’s a way of giving yourself the time, space and guidance to discover what matters most and to figure out how you really want (family) life to look and feel.
As a result of taking the time to create YOUR BEST YEAR YET!, you will not only gain the necessary clarity, but leave with an actionable set of guidelines that will help you get on track, and STAY on track, so you can live the life of your dreams.
The Top 10 Big Ideas
1
What Did You Accomplish This year?
Taking time to list your successes -- what worked, what felt good, what brought joy and peace and love… -- is an important aspect of Taking time to list out your accomplishments is deeply critical to shaping your future. Rarely do we stop and think about what we’ve achieved in a day, much less a year. Awareness brings its own rewards. Shifting your attention to what you have accomplished in the past year awakens your ‘Can do!’ attitude and gets you back in touch with your ability to make things happen.
2
What Were Your Biggest Disappointments This Year?
We’ll investigate what dreams didn’t come true? What expectations weren’t fulfilled? What do you regret/resent? There’s more value than you can imagine in just writing these disappointments down. While it seems something to avoid – who wants to think about all this?—I’ve always felt a great weight lift from me when I give myself time to think about what happened rather than pretending it didn’t hurt so much. Plus, telling the truth provides a great release, and doing it inside the Best Year Yet context shows you the way ahead.
3
What Did You Learn From These Successes and Disappointments?
Analyzing what was in place for the accomplishments to flourish is a key to understanding how to achieve more in your days to come. Additionally, distinguishing the factors that played into your disappointments help move you forward to a more clear, proactive, and distilled plan to achieving your best year yet.
4
Which Lessons, Could Make the Most Difference To You and Those Around You?
After all this analysis, turn the lessons into instructions to follow the next year. Start with verbs to make the statements punchy. Make them as short and as clearly and powerfully stated as possible.
5
What is Your New Paradigm?
“A paradigm is a way of seeing and thinking about yourself, someone else, an aspect of life, anything.” So let’s shift from focusing on what you don’t want to focusing on what you DO want! Keep it… Personal, Present tense, Positive, Powerfully stated and Pointing to a new possibility. Go beyond reasonableness and ordinary rationale. Make a quantum leap in your thinking. Allow yourself to think seriously about new possibilities and become enthusiastic about what could happen in your life. Expect a few miracles. It’s time to stand apart from your limiting thoughts and feelings and replace them with ones that lead you in the direction you want to go.
6
What Are Your Personal Values?
Dig in and explore...How do you want to feel? Peaceful, loving, strong, wise, healthy, etc. How do you want others to feel in relationship to you? Cared for, joyful, creative, appreciated, accepted, unconditionally loved? Lets outline everything that’s valuable and meaningful to you.
7
What Roles Do You Play In Your Life?
Out of all the roles you play, we’ll narrow them to 8 roles. This exercise provides direction. It places who you are – your values – at the center of your life. It generates balance in your life. And it increases your natural motivation!
8
What Are Your Goals For Each Role?
Once your roles are clear - we’ll connect #6 and #7 to set value-driven goals. Specific, measurable, and time-framed goals are most effective. You’ll start with a verb and be realistic. Example of results or process goals:Result–Feel more carefree.
Process–Take a walk 3 mornings a week while singing.
9
What Are Your Top Ten Goals for 2014?
Now we’ll review all the goals you’ve set for each of your roles and select the ten that mean the most to you and that will, when achieved, make the most difference to you. Once you have made your choices, check the list again to make sure you’re happy with the balance of roles and values. Anything left out? Anything getting too much or too little attention? Prioritize your list, putting your major focus first and the rest in descending order of priority.
10
How Can You Make Sure You Achieve These Goals?
There must be a balance between the goals we want and the way we perceive our chances of success. You’ll establish a strategy to see, touch, and execute your plan every day.
