My Process for Planning a New Year

Since it’s the beginning of a new year, I figured I’d share my process for achieving goals and envisioning success. I know a lot of you are probably setting your own goals or reflecting on the previous year - and I’ve certainly learned a thing or two about the importance of holding myself accountable. Being a small business owner and entrepreneur has taught me a LOT of self-discipline, so I’m constantly setting new goals for myself and my business. So, here’s my process when I want to kick it into high gear…

Reflection

First of all, you’re in control of your life - don’t wait until the new year to completely reevaluate your life and goals. This is something I constantly do throughout the year whenever I feel like I need it or am just in the mood to. You can reflect upon the previous week, month, 6 months or whatever timeframe you want. Then, write down what went well, what didn’t go so well, lessons learned, biggest wins, happiest moments etc. This will help you figure out what goals to set and how you’re going to achieve them.

GOALS

After reflecting, I like to write down my goals. New things may come to mind so feel free to add to them throughout the week or whenever they come to you. I like to just do a brain dump of everything I’ve been wanting to accomplish and refine them later. Separate each goal into business/financial and personal/growth. It’s important to have equal goals in both categories.

Refine your goals and make sure they follow SMART. Specific; Measurable; Attainable; Relevant; Time-bounded. I also think it’s important to write down your why behind each goal. This will really make you think and help get to your personal core values of what drives you to stay motivated. Some of my goals this year are to read a book a month, take up tennis as a new hobby, and save money - I always outline a specific amount and timeframe (hint hint SMART).

Envision

Create a visual - I’m a visual person so I like to print my goals out and stick them where I’ll see them everyday as well as create a vision board. I like to separate my goals into sections: business/financial and personal/growth to keep them organized. This helps me visualize what it will look like during/after reaching my goals.

Action 

You will also want to create actions that you need to take in order to make your goals a reality. For instance, what steps do you need to take to achieve a certain goal? Having big goals can seem overwhelming, but if you break them up into individual steps or actions, then they won’t seem so out of reach.

Something I also love doing when I really want to get on track is get my morning routine in order. I recently read The Miracle Morning - I highly recommend reading it if that’s something you’re into learning more about. The basic principles are to Meditate, Affirmations, Visualize, Exercise, Read, Journal before you start your day. You can spend 2 minutes or 20 minutes on each task depending on your schedule and when you wake up. I don’t do this every morning but when I really want to jolt myself into having better habits, this is a great way to start. You’ll notice how inspired you feel to conquer the day!

This process is something I do often - not just at the beginning of the year - so feel free to refer back to it anytime! Your goals might change throughout the year, and it’s important to constantly refine them, change them, or create new ones. Like I said before, you are in control of your own life and you can do anything you put your mind to!

Goal Essentials