New Year, New You – Again?

‘Tis the season and time of year to . . . evaluate your whole life based on a review and assessment of your currently closing last year. It sounds ridiculous, yet year after year, when the calendar is about to roll over, “new year, new life” is the mantra that’s top of mind and agendas.

We hear things, okay, say things like, “This year I’m going to…” and it becomes the starting point of all that’s ready to be inked into our crisp new planners. 

I mean, if last year’s results were less than stellar, we’ve got to go bigger this year, right? How else can you close that gap from where you should have been by now, to where you have to be by this time next year?

Psst! 👉Before you choose or put a pen to your next planner → Read This.

Relax. If you can already feel your heart and mind’s pace pick up a bit, go ahead and take a breath. I’m not one for goal-getting for the sake of tradition or the latest cultural influences or trends.   

Now don’t get me wrong — I love me some good goal-setting (planning), but it’s the reward of goal-getting (strategies & consistency) that propels us to that “new life” and recognizable change we’re looking for. 

The only way to put some direction on your dreams is to properly calibrate your personal GPS!

I’m talking about Goals, Plans & Strategies. You can read about those HERE or click the image.

New Year resolutions or New Year determinations? 

Which one of those evokes more emotion in you? Odds are one sparks a little something, something while the other, not so much. Yet, they both mean essentially the same thing. 

Our friends at Merriam-Webster describe them this way:

Determination: 

• a judicial decision settling and ending a controversy
• firm or fixed intention to achieve a desired end
• a fixing or finding of the position, magnitude, value, or character of something

Resolution:

• the act of analyzing a complex notion into simpler ones
• the act of answering: SOLVING
• the act of determining

Now I don’t know about you, but it seems that I’ve not only grown accustomed to using the word resolution but just as numb to it’s meaning and potential. Which is why for me at least, I’m gravitating toward paying more attention to its sister, determination. (I also like words that begin with ‘d’ just look at the Prioritized Focus Roadmap 🤷‍♀️)

Plan small and execute big however you resolve or determine to achieve your goals. 

Sounds simple, but we often reverse those two and plan big, and execute little. Just me? 🙋‍♀️

I could go into more detail and present why and how, but I kinda already did here with a short post called dream big, plan small.

The bottom line and key takeaways as your plan your New Year are:

• to pay attention to your BIG dream. That’s the lifetime, legacy thing that will outlive you while still impacting others. Yeah, that BIG dream. I’ve got lots more to say about your BIG dream, so much so that I wrote a book about it! (it’s with the editor as I write this with a goal to have that baby published in the next 90 days 🙌)

• To take the time to work backwards from that BIG dream. What do you need? Well, you can start with your GPS (Goals, Plans & Strategies), but don’t neglect to pay attention to God’s Positioning System 😉And most importantly, WHO do you need to become in order to handle that BIG dream of yours?

• Use that information to create bite-sized goals. Whether you decide to make S.M.A.R.T. goals or my personal preference, D.U.M.B. ones, be resolute or determined about them and your consistency!

The most important part of any year is to give yourself grace and remember to dole it out based on the amount that you need it! (for me that’s a LOT y’all!) And no matter what the New Year brings know that you are valued and amazing! 

Cheers to you and your New Year

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