Start Your New Year Off Right

With the hustle of the holidays over we turn to the New Year.  This is the time of year when people are trying to turn over a new leaf. The New Year is the perfect time to make a change. This is when people make New Year’s Resolutions. But good intentions tend to fade out after a month or two, so let’s approach the New Year properly, with a manageable plan that’s focused, realistic and achievable. To start off the New Year on the right foot let’s review three ways to do it properly.

1) Do a Yearly Review

Take stock of where you’ve been and appreciate all of the accomplishments you’ve made in the last year.  In a typical yearly review, you should answer these types of questions:

What went well for me last year?

What accomplishments did I have?

How did I improve my life?

How did I improve my relationships?

What did I remove from my life that is now making me happier?

What do I wish I had taken more time for?

Ask these types of questions about all the important areas of your life, such as family, relationships, financial, career, home, etc. These questions will help you appreciate all you’ve accomplished in the previous year, and you can use this information to start the new year off right, and set better goals for the next year.

2) Finish What You Started

Which projects, errands, and general list of to-do items do you have left over from the previous year that you can complete in 2 hours or less? Do them now to clear your mind of the old items.

Keeping projects around like pets doesn’t do us any good—they just weigh on our minds, and people will spend hours thinking about something that will only take 10 minutes to take care of. Cross those things off your list and give yourself a fresh start.

3) Focus on What You Really Want

Dreaming is fabulous and highly recommended, but if you want to accomplish some improvements in your life, you need to be realistic. As much as you may want something, it’s very likely you don’t really believe you can have it. (If you did you would already have achieved it.) We have to turn a dream into something we can picture accomplishing before it can become a reality.

Take your dream and start breaking it down into milestones. Break those steps down further so you can create a game-plan and start working towards accomplishing that dream.

While it’s true the New Year is an opportunity for change, what is more important is to recognize you don’t need a special occasion to change things. In every single second the ability for positive growth is open and available.

A new year inspires renewed energy and excitement for what could happen. It’s a fresh start and the perfect time to reflect on the past and plan for the future–to set goals and figure out how to meet them.