DID YOU HAVE AN AMAZING JANUARY? WHAT'S NEXT???
This week, being that we are now into the second week of Feb, I wanted to check in with you and see how the year is moving on. I struggled to find a friend last month who wasn’t sober and now that it’s over, it’s been fun watching everyone rip in again. And why not, 31 days is a solid effort!
The reason I wanted to check in is because I want to make sure that all those good efforts don’t go to waste and you continue to make positive changes throughout the year. Basically I want you asking yourself, what’s next? This can be a difficult question to ask yourself and a great way to go about answering it is to first; connect back to your dream and second; reflect on the month you just had.
I talked about the importance of having a dream several weeks ago, so I won’t go into too much detail today. The main point here is to have some kind of big picture or big goal that will provide the motivation to continue goal setting along the way. When having this discussion with my clients, I encourage them to dream big. Lay out anything and everything you’ve ever wanted. Write a list, mind map, brain storm, use colors, use markers, use big sheets of paper, just get it all out of your head and into the world. There aren’t any consequences to making moves on the things you want in life so just get clear on exactly what they are and then you can figure out how to obtain them. This could be as simple as wanting to go on a holiday or wanting to be pain free and energized so that you can play with your kids. If the motivation is strong enough, you won’t find excuses not to do the work. Once you have this, write down your mission statement in a few simple sentences. “I am happy, healthy…” Do this every month and you will have the most successful year of your life.
With all this motivation to change, we also need to make time to reflect and look at what worked and what didn’t. Let’s face it, sometimes it might just not be the right time for that big idea and that’s ok, as long as you ask yourself why. So here are a few simple questions you can ask yourself nightly, weekly or at least monthly to check in with yourself and recognize how your actions are affecting your life. If you are resistant to doing this kind of work, give yourself a 90 second time limit with each question; it will force you to write something when you would otherwise tell yourself you can’t. If you love this kind of thing , spend as much time as you want!
Questions you can ask yourself:
- What did I achieve or what am I proud of?
- What did I learn?
- Were there any common distractions, mental blocks or fears?
- What did I do for myself that made me feel good?
- What did I put off doing and why?
- How can I improve?
- What were my greatest insights I learnt this month?
- Did I ever feel like I was in a flow state and what did I do to create this?
A really useful resource that I have been taking advantage of this year and an inspiration for this piece is the Freedom Mastery Life Planner. It’s been helping me stay organized and is full of great reminders and activities; like the one above, which can be done every day to stay accountable and motivated towards achieving your life goals.