This year has been a bit of roller coaster for many. Unexpected, to say the least. Although 2020 has hit everyone differently, we’ve all had to deal with significant changes in a very short span of time. I don’t know about you, but for me it has all gone by in the blink of an eye. Do you feel the same way? Like time has absolutely flown by. It feels like we were welcoming the new year just a few months ago.
And not just any year… I can still picture us, happily toasting to the beginning of a prosperous new chapter, without a clue of what 2020 really had in store for us… then bang. “It’ssss-a-pandemic!”
But hey, a few quarantines, elections, riots, and economic downturns later here we are, still with our head above water.
So if all you did this year was survive, I still think you should give yourself a pat in the back.
We have a little bit more than a month before we can finally wave 2020 goodbye, and I know that some of you can’t wait to get passed that threshold.
However, let’s not fool ourselves: Adding a “1” to that number won’t change a thing. If you want this coming year to be a better one, the only person in charge of making that happen is yourself.
So here’s the deal. Most people wait until some time around late December or even January to figure out what they are going to do with their lives and careers for the following year and then proceed to put together a cliche ‘new years resolution’ list that will most likely end up being forgotten.
If you’ve got big and ambitious plans for the year ahead – and since you’re reading this I am guessing you do – you can’t wait until then. You have to start now. This is the time to think long and hard about what it is that you are trying to do with your life, what you want to change, and what you want to accomplish in the following months.
If you’re thinking “It’s not even December yet, relax.” or you’re the type of person who likes to live in the present and fully embrace the ‘now’, that’s awesome. I get it. I really do, but…
You still need to have an eye towards where you are headed, because that will inform the actions you take today. And the more clear we are about where we want to go, and the more often we work in calibrating and redirecting ourselves towards that specific direction, the easier it will be to get what we want.
So all I’m trying to say is: be mindful of what’s next and try to step in the upcoming year more intentionally.
Sometimes we get caught up thinking about the tiny things in life and spend very little time thinking about the bigger questions. The things that have a profound and long term impact on our lives – things like, where do we live? Do we like where we live? What about where we work? Do we like what we do for a living? Is it fulfilling? Does it match our purpose? Who do we surround ourselves with? Is it uplifting or toxic? What do we believe to be true about ourselves? How do we treat the people closest to us? How do we treat and speak to ourselves? Where is most of our energy being directed to? Does it feel right? Does it make you happy?
We should not just think about these once a year. What about the rest of 364 days in between? If we don’t check and calibrate our compass more often, we might just end up walking in circles. And I know I don’t want that. Do you want that?
Personally, I want to go forward. And if you do too, here’s what I suggest:
When you finish reading this, grab a pen and piece of paper and take a moment to envision the 2021 you want for yourself. Including your big plans and audacious goals. Your dream projects. The habits you want to build, as much as the ones you want to get rid of. All of it. Visualize it.
What comes to mind? Write it down. Both the achievable and the far-fetched. Don’t limit your thoughts. Take a look at your list. Does it excite you? Does it get you going?
Keep writing until you have something that does. The list doesn’t have to be long, but it has to be meaningful. So if your list is made out of just two things that’s absolutely fine, but make them be the two things that really make you excited to get out of bed in the morning.
If you’re a bit like me, then you might find yourself in the opposite spectrum, where your list fills up quickly with a bunch of things you wish to manifest in your 2021.
The problem with that is that we end up trying to bite off more than we can chew, which usually results in not fully accomplishing any of it.
Find your focus
So the next step is to narrow down your goals and choose your focus. And for those who are always curious to experiment with many different disciplines, choosing is incredibly hard. However, it is important to accept that we can’t be everything. At least not properly, and not at the same time.
So take a long look at your list and decide what are the two or three big projects that you are going to focus on the following year.
Hash it down
The things you write down in your list can be as ambitious as ‘starting my own business’ or as primary as ‘getting more sleep’, ‘spending more quality time with family’ or ‘letting go of negative talk and toxic people’. No matter which projects you choose to focus on for your 2021, and no matter how big or small they are, hashing them down top to bottom into smaller actionable pieces is the real key to progress in your path towards them.
Remember that a dream written down with a date becomes a goal. That same goal, broken down into smaller steps and a timeline becomes a plan. And only when that plan is backed by consistent action will it become a reality.
So if you’ve decided to start taking your dreams more seriously this year, you’ll take that same pen and paper and you’ll hash it down into the action steps required for you to get closer to that goal.
Instead of thinking what it is that you need to do next to get from point A to point B, I suggest you try a different angle: work backwards. So, if your dream is to be at Z (considering Z your broad ambitious goal), what is the direct previous step needed to get there? That ‘s Y, which is a little bit easier. Okay, and what would you need to become ‘Y’? You’d need to work on T, U, and W first, which might require some training, research and time, but is already more achievable. Do you get where I’m going?
It’s called backward planning, and the idea is to start with your ultimate objective, your end goal, and then work backwards from there to develop your plan.
When you look at your hashed-out plan, it might not look very different from a regular plan. However, the difference resides in the thinking process behind it, in the way you have to change your perspective and mindset to envision yourself already in the scenario where you’ve accomplished that goal in order to think backwards from there. That requires envisioning yourself in a more advanced stage than the one you’re currently at, and that’s a necessary and powerful thought.
Because before you achieve any goal, you first need to be capable of believing that you will get there, so always envision yourself as eventually succeeding. So I invite you to envision your dream in vivid detail often, and to picture yourself going into the next level, because constant visualization of your dream already coming to life (together with the excitement you’d feel, who you would tell and celebrate with, or even what would you do next…) is actually an incredibly powerful exercise to fuel your motivation and even creative process.
And trust me, you’ll need to recharge yourself with that fuel every now and then.
Achieving consistency
To keep going and not quitting means being consistent. And being consistent is fundamental to achieving any long-term goal or project. However, it’s also one of the things most people struggle with, which is why it’s so common for the majority of us to forget about our ‘new year’s resolutions’ after a few months in.
It’s easy to exercise for a couple weeks in a row. Not so much doing it every single day for a year. It’s easy to write every couple weeks. Not so much doing it every single day for a year. It’s easy to draft a business plan in a couple months. Not so much following it through for a year. You get my point.
So now that you have narrowed down your focus, and hashed down your big ambitious goals into more achievable steps, you need to find ways to make yourself accountable and follow through with those milestones you’ve set for yourself.
What are you going to do to help yourself stay motivated? Can you find good incentives? How much time are you going to dedicate to working on this specific goal each day? Can you measure what you’re doing? Maybe by creating a tracker or calendar of some sort? What will your sources of inspiration be? Could you consider involving other people for support?
Whichever method works best for you, but make sure that your 2021 vision is supported by a motivational system with incentives that nurture your excitement and ambition to get to the next level.
If this year has been particularly rough on you, your objective might simply be to heal yourself, get back on the right track, or work on your mental health. Which can also be highly ambitious, challenging and important projects to be working on. Even if that’s the case, writing down your vision for 2021 can still be an incredibly helpful exercise. Not only as a way to structure your recovery and hold yourself accountable for it, but also as a way to nurture an optimistic attitude towards what is coming, while staying grateful for everything that you already have. It will help you remember that there’s great things coming your way, if you’re ready to welcome them into your life. That you are in charge and that you have choices, always. That you can think new thoughts, learn new things, and take different paths. And that you don’t need a number being added to this 2020 for that, because you can reset and have a fresh start whenever you’re in the need of one.
So why not start today? Start by writing your vision for 2021 and let me know how it feels. If you find it enjoyable or useful, and want to read more about journaling prompts or vision journaling for a more intentional life, let me know in the comments below and I’ll be sure to share more of these with you.
All the luck in the world and happy writing,
Maitane