How I Start Each Year For The Biggest Chance Of A Successful Year

Woo, it feels like it's been forever since I've written a blog. I decided to take a couple of weeks off after finding out my grandma passed over the holidays.

The topics I had planned just felt too inauthentic to write about after receiving news like that, so I took a much-needed break.

But now I'm back and motivated to create some great content for you. It's the new year and I definitely needed a fresh slate.

Not everyone loves celebrating a new year because a fresh slate can come any time of the year, but for me, beginning at the beginning of the year always feels like a fresh start, especially for business.

It's a new tax year / financial year. There's no getting around that. It's also a new quarter. I reevaluate things each quarter, so this is another new quarter. I set yearly goals, so it makes sense to reevaluate them each year. And if I'm being honest, this year especially, I just really wanted this fresh start.

I have a good yearly routine. I want to give myself lots of time to reach my goals, and setting them each year works well for me. I also love that, for me, I take holidays and downtime right before kicking things back up into high gear. I need that calmness, that space, that time of contemplation before I start racing towards new business goals and other goals.

So, what do I do to get ready to start each year?

1. I spend my holidays in thought and meditation

I am not a natural visioner. I struggle with visualization. I have a great imagination but I can really only imagine things that I have already seen or experienced. Creating something new, I have always struggled to do.

So, for me, I need some extra time to really tap into what I want. When someone says to spend a minute or two visualizing your big why I need a little more than a minute.

This year especially I spent a lot of time with myself and my thoughts. I went on a lot of long walks, sat in my favourite parks staring at the ocean, did puzzles (an activity where I am focused but do not need to think in words), journaled my thoughts, meditated, and had lots of quiet contemplation.

2. I created an online vision board and a Word of the year

A lot of people don't like the concept of the "word of the year," thinking it's pretty useless, and that's totally fine. I love the word of the year because it gives me a guide or a theme for the year. A focus where I can always turn back to when I need.

I try to make this a really intuitive process. I want the word to be exactly right, exactly what I need. I often will stop and think about the year I've just had and ask what message I need to move through the things I struggled with. The word will come naturally from that.

This year I felt stumped. A word hadn't just shown up. So I was doing a vision boarding party with Sabrina Phillip, an online coach, and we started with the word of the year. I wrote down quite a few different words to see how they felt, but none seemed quite right. People started putting their words in the chatbox, and at first, I ignored them because they were annoying to watch pop up, but then I randomly looked up and saw the word believe.

I then got that feeling, you know, the feeling when your first wand picks you in Olivanders (anyone a Harry Potter nerd), and I knew that was it!

3. Taking an inventory of the previous year

I think learning from what we've done is an important step to moving forward. I like to take an inventory of both my accomplishments and my hardships.

If we can't celebrate our accomplishments or successes we will never be fully happy with our lives or our progress. We'll just be chasing goals without that satisfactory feeling of completion. But we also need to take inventory of our mistakes and hardships so can pull the lessons out and learn from them if we need.

If you want each year to get better and better you have to learn to not make the same mistakes you did last year. Mistakes are inevitable (I know, rich coming from someone who hates making them), but they serve a purpose.

We are meant to make them so we can continue to learn and grow. So it's important to be honest and acknowledge them and record what lessons you have learned from them and what you're going to change for the next year. I write these out.

4. Writing out plenty of goals for the year and the quarters I'm aiming to complete them by

I use Michael Hyatt's Full Focus Planner, and I love the way you start each year. The first page is where you write out all of your goals/intentions and the quarter you want to complete them in.

I try to cover as many domains as I can, so I'm not only creating business intentions, but I'm creating health, wellness, intellectual, marital, and avocational goals, etc. I want to a nice well-rounded focus for the year. 

But I don't get stuck on due dates and specifics. If at the end of the year, I didn't reach a goal or it didn't quite look the way I had envisioned, then I acknowledge that that's okay and that I was actively working towards it. I don't always think the importance of goals is the completion of one but more the drive, journey, and work you put in to reach them. Life can often surprise you and not look exactly how you planned and it can still be well worth living.

5. Finally, I create motivators and action plans for each intention and routines to support them

This is the next part of the Full Focus planner. After you create your goals you then will break down each goal so you know where to start, how you're going to work towards it and what items you need to help motivate you when you falter.

I add a date for each (you don't have to, but if I don't have due dates, I don't get things done #ADHDLife), I add which domain the intention falls in and complete the items above.

For motivators, I try to make them both personal and involving others. For instance, for my income goal, personal motivators are paying off my personal debts and being able to purchase certain items I want and one involving others is taking care of my family. I don't just write down the "good-girl" motivators; you know, the ones you say so you look good but also the true motivators. I'm honest about desiring certain material possessions, and that's okay.

Then I write down the steps I need to take to reach that goal. This is a great way to give me a starting point. Sometimes I find I might set these lofty goals, but then I'm not even sure where to begin, so I never do. Instead, when I create my first few steps, I know how to begin and can build momentum from there.

Finally, I create my daily rituals or routines that will support me in being successful in my intentions. Things that best set me up for success for the day and, therefore, the year. I urge you not to skip this part. It's so easy to skip because we feel it's the least important part but I find having it written down holds me much more accountable for actually doing these every day.

These are the things I do to get ready for a new year. This is not a one-day process. This is more like a month-long process. I tend to start about the second week in December and carry it through until the first or second week of January. 

I do also create content plans and sales plans but those come a little after I have the above items set up. I find creating sales plans that support my overall goals to be a much easier way to ensure the goals are reached and the sales plan is stuck with.

Good luck to you as you start the year. Happy New Year!