It’s 5 days until the end of the year and my 40th birthday! This year to celebrate I want to set you up for your dreamiest year yet. Over the next 5 days I’ll be sharing a special sequence of steps that I’ve put together so that come January 1st you feel incredibly clear and inspired. Each step will be simple, you can do them all or just the ones that speak to you, and they shouldn’t take you more than a few minutes to complete.
Step 1: Review Your Highs and Lows for 2016.
Warning: Most people will not want to do this because they won’t want to look at what didn’t work or go well. However, whether you realize it or not this stuff is on your mind anyway and will come back up until you deal with it. You cannot see the stars without the darkness so dive in and prepare to be surprised. I bet there are a lot more stars than you think.
1. Get out a clean piece of paper and divide it into 2 columns.
2. Write Highs in the first column and Lows in the second column.
3. Review your year and put the Highs and Lows you can remember in each column.
4. Next check through your calendar, journal, photos, or social media accounts.
5. Add anything you missed to your list of Highs and Lows.
Now ask yourself these 3 questions:
1. Are there are any patterns or trends? Look at both columns. Do your highs consistent mostly of travel and time with family. Do your lows have to do with poor financial decisions?
2. Is there a negativity bias? According to Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow humans have a natural negativity bias which means that experiences of a negative nature will have a greater effect on us than experiences of a positive or neutral nature even when they are of equal intensity. In other words are you giving too much weight to the negative and not enough credit to the positive things that happened this year?
3. Did you celebrate the Highs. Look at the highs and allow yourself to be transported back to this moment or experience. Acknowledge the action, decision, or vision that made that moment or experience possible. Smile and allow yourself to celebrate and own your part in making it happen.
Whenever I do this process with a group the thing I notice is how surprised people are at how far they’ve come. I hope that in doing this short exercise you have a better sense of all that you’ve accomplished. That you take the lows as data for better decision making and the highs as clues from the universe that you are on the right track. That you realize that the sky is full of stars that you put there. Stay tuned for Step 2.
Our countdown to the end of the year continues and with it I’m bringing you Step 2 to Your Dreamiest Year yet. Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of today’s practice or be tempted to skip over it.
Part of creating your Dreamiest Year is figuring out what that means for you and in order to do that you have to be willing to ask yourself some important questions. However, asking those questions without taking what you already have and have already done into account sets you up to create from a place of lack. Instead we want to create from a place of abundance and we do that by beginning with gratitude
Step 2: 3 Breaths, 3 Gratitudes
1. Close your eyes and take 3 deep breaths.
2. During each breath think of something that you are grateful for today.
3. Remember to be specific with your gratitude.
For example: I am grateful for my health becomes I am grateful I went for a hike.
4. Repeat throughout the day.
If you just do this one time it will be a win but if you do it over and over again throughout the day I think you will notice a shift in your energy and attitude. If you find yourself waiting in line, sitting in your car, or doing something mundane like washing dishes or folding laundry take the opportunity to tune in to your breath and practice your gratitude. The more you do it, the more you will be setting yourself up to really go for it tomorrow.
Only 2 days left in 2016! That means it is time for Step 4 to Your Dreamiest Year yet. Yesterday we covered vision and goals so if you missed it and want to review it click here. Today, we are going to talk about taking your goals and making them visual. If you did my Dream Bigger Workshop you know how excited I am about this concept.
Last year, I did a one page plan for my year with my top 5 goals and the steps I was going to take to achieve those goals. I kept it up in my office and I looked at it often. Around the same time we were given a gift of a beautiful photograph of a home that we had stayed at in Taos, New Mexico with some friends many years ago. We framed it and put it in our office. I’d often find myself staring at it when I was lost in thought or just taking a break from the computer screen. Three months later we planned a road trip to three mountains including a stop in Taos.
I know for a fact that we would not have included Taos in our itinerary if we had not been looking at that picture. Looking at the picture made us long to go back there because we had had so much fun. Now that I’ve been back I don’t look at that picture the same way at all. It created in us a desire that was very strong and top of mind.
I know there is power in what you look at everyday but for some reason it didn’t occur to me to explicitly make my goals visual until now. Since I got the idea, I collected photographs that represent my goals. A beautiful home in Costa Rica, a picture of a family backpacking out in the wilderness, and my dream home. That way I can start 2017 with my goals decorating the walls of my office, inspiring me throughout the year to keep going towards my vision.
Step 3: Inside Out Goals
Who do you want to become? When you look out into your future maybe even decades from now, who do you see? Close your eyes and sit with this picture for a few minutes then when you are ready write down your answers to the questions below.
1. Describe your future self.
For example:
I am a thought leader.
I am strong and fit.
I am inspiring to others.
I am generous.
I am wealthy.
I am well travelled.
2. Why is becoming x important to me? Write down your answers.
I want to be a thought leader because it means I’m at the top of my field.
I want to be strong and fit because I like how it feels.
I want to inspire others because it feels good to help people live richer lives.
I am generous because I like giving to others.
I am wealthy because I enjoy having money to spend and money saved.
I am well travelled because I love visiting new places and learning about people.
3. How will you know when you’ve become each of the things you wrote above?
I am a Keynote Speaker at x conference.
I finished a triathlon.
I am a regular contributor to three top self help publications.
I am active in two volunteer organizations which I support with time and money.
I have a million dollars in the bank.
I have travelled to Greece, India, Bali and Iceland.
4. Now look at your list, circle 1, 2, or 3 things that stand out to you right now as the goals you want to work on. Can you rewrite them to make them even more specific to the coming year?
Complete a triathlon becomes ->
Complete 3 running, biking, or swimming events.
Have a million dollars in the bank becomes ->
Increase the amount we have in savings by 20%.
I am active in two volunteer organizations becomes ->
Start volunteering at the Humane Society.
I like doing goals this way because they come from your vision of your future self. No one can see this vision but you…for now. When your goals are in alignment with that vision they take on more life and meaning than if you just made a random list of things that sound good or that you think you should be doing. As you go about your day keep thinking about the question, who do I want to become? And keep refining that vision in your mind’s eye because the clearer it is the easier it is to get there.
Only 2 days left in 2016! That means it is time for Step 4 to Your Dreamiest Year yet. Yesterday we covered vision and goals so if you missed it and want to review it click here. Today, we are going to talk about taking your goals and making them visual. If you did my Dream Bigger Workshop you know how excited I am about this concept.
Last year, I did a one page plan for my year with my top 5 goals and the steps I was going to take to achieve those goals. I kept it up in my office and I looked at it often. Around the same time we were given a gift of a beautiful photograph of a home that we had stayed at in Taos, New Mexico with friends many years ago. We framed it and put it in our office. I’d often find myself staring at it when I was lost in thought or just taking a break from the computer screen. Three months later we were in Taos again. It made me realize the power of a photograph and that I need to see my goals!
Step 4: Make Your Goals Visual
1. Take the goals that you made yesterday and find an image that captures each one. Good sources of images are Unsplash.com, Stocksy.com, and CreativeMarket.com.
2. Print the images. You can use your printer of course but since I wanted to put mine up in my office I decided to get higher quality prints made. I went with the ultra-thick signature prints from Artifact Uprising. I also like to make digital collages to save as my screensaver. For that I use Canva.com and I choose the Desktop Wallpaper template and then upload my pictures and drag and drop them into place.
3. Now you don’t have to worry about remembering your goals! Have fun looking at your goals and making them happen!
Stay tuned for Step 5. It’s my favorite way to start a new year!
