Welcome back to Day 6 of the 7-Day New Year for a New You series. We’re wrapping up with intentional goal-setting. If you’re just joining me, it’s easy to catch up! Simply gather the prompts from days …
:: 1 :: 2 :: 3 :: 4 :: 5 … and go at your own pace.
I’ll tell you what, I had no idea this New Year for a New You was going to become this enormous project. I half-planned to follow along with the same prompts I’ve used in previous years, but I worked it up on a project map and it took on a life of its own. I didn’t even plan on working much this week, but I’ve spent several hours entrenched in this series every day! I want to thank you for jumping down this rabbit’s hole with me!
Choose a direction. I have to be honest with you. As I looked at my goals more closely (+ all the mistakes I no longer want to continue to make), I got scared to make the big commitments. It’s easy to say I’ll give up self-sabatoging old patterns for a month, but even looking out at just three months’ worth of clean living + good behaviors makes me feel overwhelmed.
I took a hard look at what I really want last night. I’m afraid that when I cut out all of the junk in my life, I’ll cut out all that’s fun, exciting and carefree as well. The truth is, I’m more afraid of being boring than I am of self-sabatoge.
I do not know what’s on the other side of these goals I’m about to set. I truly don’t. But, I can’t help but wonder:
What if making the harder choices that we all know to create a better life will actually bring me my best year yet? I decided to go for it! I have nothing to lose and everything to gain by trying.
Create an outline. I prefer to break up my big goals into 3-month challenges, but some goals don’t apply to that timeline (such as a year-long income or weight loss goal).
If you have a specific professional or personal goal that requires many smaller steps to achieve, such as “write a book” or “run a marathon”, it will do best on a project map. I like to use a page of a children’s large drawing pad (typically 16×22″) to map each major project I’m facing. I’m going to show you exactly how to create one tomorrow.
For my year-long goals, I used a 5-subject notebook and recorded each of my major goals (financial, relational, spiritual, mental and physical) into its own section.
The first page of the section lists the things I want to accomplish for that pillar of life as one general goal, such as “Pay off consumer debt” followed by the specific tasks I need to complete to accomplish it. Each goal is also issued a deadline.
The next page of the section starts a monthly progress log, and in some cases, a daily progress log follows. For example, my physical goal is to “Lose # pounds” and I wrote down the weight I want to achieve. The next page tracks my monthly progress (my starting weight + a weigh-in every month), and the page after that tracks my daily progress (a food and workout diary). Like so:
The way I see it, the only way I’m going to effect real change is if I commit to a year (instead of my usual month) and then take it day-by-day. What usually happens is: I start out gung-ho for change, feel accomplished from one month of good work and then promptly return back to my old patterns + bad habits.
Instead, I’m going to create a daily routine that will lead me to my goals if I simply follow its schedule every day and check-in every month. I can’t promise it’s going to work – this is a particularly experimental New Year for a New You, but I’m optimistic that this will at least get me further, and with less setbacks, than I’ve ever gotten before.
I’m not issuing anymore prompts tonight; we’ve worked very hard this week! I plan to close the series tomorrow with some solid tips for follow-through, including the template for a project map that I’ve been promising for weeks.
Thank you for joining me for Day 6 of this 7-day series! I’ll meet you back here tomorrow with the finale post. It’s time to make your big dreams happen already. Here’s to your best year yet,
Loving these posts Lisa! I have been working on a little year map of my own!! 1 Main priority + 10ish Goals accomplished by using 100ish micro habits! It is so fun dreaming, planning, plotting and setting a course for the new year!
I agree, Jacinta! Thank you so much for joining me for this series. I truly appreciate it.
This is exactly what I need to do this year also! I am planning a year worth of goals and then breaking them down. I think I get discouraged when I don’t keep up and then I give up (so to speak). So, this year my goal is to remember why I’m doing this and get right back up and keep going if I have a setback.
Thanks for adding, Kristine. I know that follow-through is going to be a huge topic of discussion here this year. I appreciate your comment & thanks so much for joining me for the series.
Hi Lisa! Thank you so much for sharing my printable from SecretOwl.org!
I have been a fan since learning of you through Roost Tribe in 2013 when you released your workbook/calendar for 2014.
I bought it as well as your 2015 workbook and I love both. 🙂 It has a special place in my Life Binder.
Everything you post and create is so helpful and beautiful. I adore the images you use along with these posts – the one with the binders. So bright and pretty!
I don’t need to tell you to keep doing what you’re doing! You’re obviously on a roll!
Michelle, I was tickled to hear you’d had Your Best Year before! I love your printable, thanks so much for that. I appreciate your comment very much 🙂