I’ve never been one for new years resolutions, but I am passionate about a few straight forward and flexible processes that set my energy and intentions for the year.
1. Looking back – rear view mirror
The first step is the rear view mirror – having a look back at last year. This is a time for listing your achievements, large and small, and noting any undesired outcomes or things you don’t wish to continue with. Celebrating the year that’s been is the best way of paving the way for your new and continuing goals. And acknowledging that everything did not go quite as planned can bring a new perspective, sometimes including unexpected benefits. See previous post.
You can make this as simple as a list, or as attractive and visual as you like, but don’t skip the powerful sense of completion and achievement it brings. It’s very likely you’ll surprise yourself with how much you did in 2011!
2. Looking forward – wide angle view
Start with the big picture – what would your ideal life (business, relationships, family, home etc etc) look like. This is where you get to imagine and dream, and to decide which things are most important to you.
For example, if it’s important that your business or career fits around your family, this key value gives you a foundation on which to build your career goals. Doing this “wide angle view” first means you can avoid having conflicting goals later.
During this process, look at what’s already working for you, so you can keep that going. And if there are things not working so well, note them for review in the next stage.
3. Getting closer – zoooming in
To borrow another metaphor from photography, now you need to zoom in a little on the individual aspects of your life and identify your big goals for the coming year. They may be parts of longer term goals, and that’s fine.
Don’t get too detailed at this stage, that comes later. Just work on identifying the three to five most important items on your agenda for this year. They may be from different aspects of life.
The only rules are: the goals excite and inspire you; they feel like a stretch, but not to snapping point; and you’re willing to make a commitment to them.
4. Feel the love – attaching emotion
As just mentioned, goals that really mean something to you, and that you will stick with, are the ones that have positive emotions attached to them. Even if you have a few anxious thoughts, the prominent emotions will be excitement, anticipation, inspiration, exhilaration, eagerness etc. Basically you can’t wait to get started.
Take some time now to create a vision board, or another visual representation of your goals for 2012. While you do so, really get into the zone of how it will feel as you achieve your goals, adding this positive intent to the images.
Put your visual goals up somewhere that you can see them often, to remind you and refresh the enthusiasm you feel.
5. Up close and personal – the detail
Now we come to the details. Maintain the excitement you created in the step above while you break down your bigger goals into smaller chunks. This does two things: it prevents overwhelm; and gives you managable tasks to work on.
It’s up to you how much you need to break your goals down and how detailed you want your task list to be – absolutely a personal preference based on how you work best. This may take more than one session to complete, or you may choose to fill in the detail as you go, but do give yourself a basic map to take you forward.
6. Lights, camera, action…
The ground work is laid, now comes the action and commitment. If you do one thing every day to progress your big goals you’ll be amazed and delighted at how quickly they start to move for you.
The “just one thing a day” commitment is almost magical, giving you the sense that you are stepping closer and closer to the outcomes you desire. You’ll attract people, events and circumstances that you could never have predicted or even asked for, that will help you reach your goals.
It also shows that once you are moving forward, it doesn’t take much to keep you on course, and small changes in direction add up to major results in the end.
I’m sure there are as many variations in planning and creating for a new year as there are people reading this – so feel free to take any or all of these suggestions to use in your own way. Most of all, enjoy creating your map, then watching your year unfold!
