How to Set Up Your New Year For Success
Expansion (n): the action of becoming larger or more extension.
Towards the end of the year, I start to do a lot of reflection on the past year, making mental notes of areas that need work as well as reminding myself how much I have accomplished. It is honestly an exercise in accepting that I am not perfect while still showing myself grace. I find that the end of the year is the perfect time to do this because as we all know it lends itself to a feeling of finishing a chapter.
While reviewing the previous year, I simultaneously start looking toward the new year thinking about goals I want to set and certain things I want to obtain. Themes, consistencies, synchronicities, or anything that seems to follow a trend are things that stick out for me in describing what my entire year has looked like. This process helps me to discover what the feeling of the next year will be. I am a firm believer that one year builds on to the next like stepping stones to your purpose. In so many words I take this process pretty seriously and I like to have lots of time to myself for reflection. Finding the right energy is important to me, I don’t want to miss anything by being distracted. Sometimes it is easiest to find guidance in the stillness and calm of solitude.
A few years ago I started the practice of finding a word or a statement that would describe my year. Most of the time it was a statement because committing to one word did not give enough context. I got this idea from the book, “LIfe Word: Discover Your One Word to Leave a Legacy,” which talks about finding a word that inspires you to live your best life while creating and leaving your legacy. As you know BRB is dedicated to living a life well-lived, so this was a really great compliment for my core values and beliefs. There are 5 steps that are outlined to create your “Life Word: Discover Your One Word to Leave a Legacy.” Each step is designed around the idea of being present enough to look at yourself in a holistic way.
Prepare your heart by looking in.
Ask your inner circle for insight to look at what is around you.
Begin with the end in mind by looking ahead.
Discover that your Life Word is all about looking up.
Live out your life work by looking out!!!
Specifically, this process was to define a word to describe your entire life and what you would say the meaning of your life was at the end. However, I felt like this process could be better suited to my needs by defining every year instead of my whole life. This approach lends itself to greater discovery for those of us who still haven’t quite figured it all out yet.
Finding a statement or one word really pulls into perspective the direction in which all my goals are aligned and with what intention I am doing things. Moving haphazardly gives me anxiety because I am somebody that is a tasker. Meaning checking things off a list brings me a certain amount of calm. Since 2016 I have been maintaining this practice and it has kept me on track for how I want to conduct my smaller goals to obtain the life I want. It is a mental check for me to keep putting myself first and keeps me in alignment with my eyes on the prize. Here are a few of my words or statements from previous years:
2016: Dance Through It
2017: Reckless Abandon (Big thanks to Datwon for this one!!!)
2018: Renewal and Transformation
2019: Routine Consistency
2020: New Foundation
With the exception of 2020, each year was singularly focused on what the objective for the year was. In 2020, despite all the mess, I decided that I would take the opportunity to design the decade. I had plenty of practice from the previous 4 years so why not go BIGGER. I would rather choose my life than let it choose me. Passively moving from one thing to the next is no way to live, eventually, you will come to the point where you don’t know who you are. In deciding the theme for the year here are a few helpful tips that help me along the way.
Start with what your previous year felt like. What words would you use to describe how the year progressed? Doing this will lead you to know what the next steps must take place in the upcoming year for you to be aligned.
Create a list of goals. The smaller the better. I like to look at how I want my day to flow and create goals and intentions around that. It also helps me map out more attainable goals to accomplish. It also creates focus on how to obtain larger goals.
Write down everything. This is truly an underestimated key. Writing things down makes them real. You are transferring that energy and giving it action. When an idea presents itself to you it is asking you for permission to be manifested. You can either say yes or no. If you choose to accept, you should write it down to affirm your intention.
Notice all the similarities between what you have chosen to prioritize and create some words that encompass what you want to tackle in the new year.
Don’t be afraid to create a phrase if one word doesn’t do it for you. Sometimes a phrase has more energy around action around it that a word cannot express.
Hopefully, these few tips can help you plan out your year as well as your life. Having a guide or some landmarks to reach back to stay aligned is important. This year my word is EXPANSION. It has been like a small whisper in my mind and after some careful reflections, it seems right. The last few years have felt like preparation for what is to come in the future. I feel like it is time to expand into all areas and take up space. Last year was for preparation this year is for application. Let’s keep growing, cheers to an amazing new year.