Planning for your best year ever is important if you want to have your best year ever. First, by figuring out what you want, you can then make an action plan for a fantastic year.
With only a little bit more time until the start of the new year, it’s time to start planning for what you want in the next year.
What if I said you could have your best year ever next year?
Do you want to have a great year? What would having a great year look like? Is there anything in the way from making this happen?
Here’s a fact: you deserve the best and you have the potential to CREATE the best for yourself.
You are smart, powerful, and the creator of your life.
In this post, I’m going to present you with the steps you can take to plan for your the year of your dreams.
First, it’s important to figure out what you want, and then after, you can start setting goals and creating an action plan to making next year the best year ever.
Two Questions to Answer for Planning Your Best Year
First, without questions, there are no answers.
Planning for your best year can’t start without breaking it down into smaller questions which get at the core of who you are, how you enjoy your time, and what you like to do on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.
I believe there are two question sets which will get you started towards creating your dream year. The first part of the two sets of questions is:
When are you most happiest and what are you doing when you are experiencing this joy?
This is a simple question. When do you feel happiest? What activity or thing are you doing which brings the happiness?
For me, happiness comes from having new experiences and connecting with others to learn and help them grow.
Happiness also comes from doing things on my own terms and having the freedom to create what I want when I want.
What’s your answer? After you have it, you can move on to the next question.
The second part of this set of questions is:
How often are you able to do these activities, and what’s holding you back from experiencing them whenever you’d like?
If you are already doing what makes you happy all the time (from the first question), then the second question doesn’t really make sense.
In my opinion, your best year will be about pushing towards doing what makes you happiest and understanding that while today might not be where you want to be, over time you can get there.
Right now, I’m starting to plan for my next year. There’s so much I want to do, but mainly I want to travel, keep exercising, and improving my relationships.
For you, again, it starts with answering the two questions above, and having these thoughts in your head for when you go to create your goals and a plan.
Now that you have these thoughts in your head, below are 5 concrete steps for you to take control of next year and make a plan for success and happiness.
5 Steps for Planning Your Best Year
When beginning to think ahead about next year, we first need to start with questions and goals.
First, let’s identify what you want with your year.
We both only have one year and limited time. In my year, I want to be doing things I enjoy and that are bringing joy to the people around me.
After understanding your goals and dreams, then it’s time to come up with a game plan, and take bold action.
The 5 steps for making next year your best year are:
- Identify Your Goals and Dreams
- Create a Happiness Game Plan
- Be Intentional and Take Action
- Be Consistent with Your Actions
- Plan to Reassess and Tweak Things Over the Next Year
Let’s dive into each of these steps individually now in more detail.
1. Identify Your Goals and Dreams
What are your goals? What makes you happiest? Where do you want to be in 1 year?
As we discussed in the last section, there is a lot that goes into answering these difficult questions.
However, with a picture of what you want, you can start to work towards your dream year and ideal situation.
Split your goals, thoughts, and dreams into multiple buckets:
- social
- financial
- spiritual
- physical
- emotional
- work
- fun
Some example questions for you may be:
- Do you want to get a promotion or change in responsibilities at work?
- Would you want more money in the bank?
- Would you be happy if your business made an extra $1,000 a month?
- Do you want to be able to take more vacations with your family?
- Are you looking to start a new hobby?
- What things stress you out?
- Do you want to lose 10 pounds?
After asking yourself these questions, KEEP GOING! Let your powerful brain do some more work!
After getting some answers to the questions which matter to your situation, now it’s time to work backwards.
2. Create a Happiness Game Plan
You know your goals, now it’s time to come up with a game plan.
You have your dream. What do you have to do to MAKE it happen?
Let’s take the example of losing 10 pounds.
If you want to lose 10 pounds, it’s time for more questions. Let’s see how this line of thinking plays out:
- How is a person’s weight determined?
- A person’s weight is determined through a number of factors, but changes come from daily habits and a simple equation: calories in minus calories out.
- If weight changes come from calories in minus calories out, then how do I decrease this amount for myself?
- First, what does this equation look like for you today? What gets measured, gets managed!
- After measuring where you are at on a daily basis, are you in a calorie surplus or calorie deficit?
After you’ve asked and answered these questions for yourself (and there are probably 3+ more levels to go if you want to go that deep), again KEEP GOING!
Let your powerful brain and body work towards your goals and dreams!
Writing down your thoughts, creating S.M.A.R.T. goals, and telling others about your plan are all great ways to set goals once you’ve came up with your plan.
After coming up with your game plan for success and happiness, it’s now time to take ACTION.
3. Be Intentional and Take Action
It’s great to know what you have to do, but if you never take action, you will never achieve your goals and dreams.
Intentional living is all about taking action and working on bettering your year situation.
Sitting on the couch and watching Netflix is fun and relaxing, but it probably won’t lead to a very fulfilling year (unless watching Netflix 24/7 is part of your dream year…).
Taking action (for me) involves getting out and into the world.
Start today with your actions and live intentionally. You’ll be pleased as you start to see your dream year come to fruition.
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao-Tzu
“An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
4. Be Consistent With Your Actions
Humans overestimate what they can do in a day, but underestimate what they can do in a year.
Have you ever started on your goals only to stop? Did you end up reaching your goal?
Each day, if you can spend at least 10 minutes working towards your goals, you’ll be amazed at your progress.
At the end of one year, you will have spent 3650 minutes, or 60 hours.
60 hours over a year? How much closer to your goals would you be after 60 hours?
That’s the power of consistency. Consistent actions over time WILL lead to massive success.
5. Reassessing and Tweaking Your Game Plan Over Time
From time to time, you will need to see if you are still on track.
I stay accountable to myself monthly. You can do a personal check-in weekly, monthly, or every few months. It’s up to you.
If you aren’t on track, make the necessary changes to your actions and daily habits to ensure you are working towards your goals.
It’s okay if you realize you aren’t on track; this doesn’t mean you failed.
All this setback means is you now have the opportunity to pick back up where you left off and keep getting better!
Just because you eat one unhealthy meal doesn’t mean your whole healthy eating plan is ruined. It just means you ate one unhealthy meal. You can always continue eating healthy for your next meal, and it will in fact be beneficial.
This outlook works for every part of your plan.
Being self aware on your path to the year you want and deserve will help tremendously.
Living an intentionally requires patience and understanding, and also will require some flexibility.
Having your best year obviously won’t happen in the first day, but the next 12 months, through tweaks and consistency, you’ll get there. 🙂
Starting Planning for Your Best Year Ever and Make it Happen
With this post, I’m excited to see what you come up with for your dream year.
Again, you deserve the best and with your plan, you can achieve and create the best for yourself.
In a year, you’ll thank yourself for taking action and living your life to the fullest.
Thanks for reading!
Readers: what do you want to make happen next year? What does your best year look like? What steps do you need to take to make your best year happen?
Erik