It’s day 5 of the 7-day New Year for a New You annual review and reflection on Marketing Creativity! Welcome back! If you’re just joining in, catch up by prepping your end-year review and answering the prompts from …
:: day 1 :: day 2 :: day 3 :: day 4
At whatever pace you take this review, I’m honored you’re here.
Each day, I work through the previous day’s prompts and then offer a new set for us to work on. Yesterday we were talking about intentional goal-setting, and we’ll spend the rest of the series working on follow-through and making these big dreams come true.
As I work through the series this year (it’s the fourth annual), I realize that I’ve experienced many of the same setbacks each year. I keep repeating the same mistakes! Last year, I flipped the calendar and asked myself: what if I don’t screw up my finances, engage in unhealthy relationships and overindulge in wine, lady locks and #realityTV this year? What would happen?!
Really, how far could you get in one year if you focused on a main goal and challenged yourself to persevere?
Goal-Setting for 2016
The following are the answers to the question: What do I want from 2016? Based on the five pillars for Harmonic Wealth by James Arthur Ray.
:: Financial: I’ve named a very specific number that I aim to earn in 2016, and it easily covers my business expenses, home projects and updates, a luxury vacation, orthodontist appointments, weekend travel, beautiful cars, and fun shopping.
Once I had the new income goal in place, I divided it by twelve to figure out how much I would have to earn each month to meet it. It was a lot – way more than I’d ever earned in a single month before.
Fortunately, I’ve been studying up on a book titled, Get Rich, Lucky Bitch! by Denise Duffield-Thomas. I feel like what I learned in this one book deserves a whole series on my blog, but the main idea is that you break through mental blocks through all types of exercises (decluttering your physical space, getting rid of things + ideas that drain you, etc.) to lead a richer life.
I had so many mental blocks around wealth and abundance – way more than I realized. I thought Get Rich, Lucky Bitch! was going to be a light + fun read, but instead I found myself with 14 pages of notes and a whole new mentality around money.
I *highly* recommend the book, but the reason I bring it up during our review is because I was ready to tackle this enormous income goal in 2016. When I looked at what I needed to bring in every month to meet it, it seemed scary and insurmountable. TRULY!
To make it less scary, I thought I’d take a practice round. I used the system taught in Get Rich, Lucky Bitch! – I worked it step-by-step and followed the lessons very carefully. I was playing with meeting my new + outrageous monthly goal, and I challenged myself to meet it in December – in a fun, no-pressure kind of way because it was still 2015.
I told myself that if I actually earned that outrageously gorgeous amount of money in December, I would book the Disney cruise my family’s been dreaming about for almost a decade as a reward. In addition to the earning formula, I also followed the system in the book that is designed to help you make travel dreams come true.
You guys, I bagged that goal. The trip is booked. Mickey and Minnie even called our home on Christmas Eve to tell the kids they were going on a Disney cruise!
I feel so confident that I’m going to, not only meet my financial goals, but easily surpass them in 2016. YES, PLEASE! And my favorite new affirmation is this:
It is safe for me to be happier, healthier, and wealthier in EVERY aspect of Life + for the highest good of all concerned.
:: Spiritual: More please! Quite honestly, when I’m connected spiritually, I feel like I could fly away on a cloud of love, prosperity and blessings. It’s truly a very joyful place for me. I find that bliss through mindful practices: yoga, meditation, studying spiritual texts and journaling. While that’s the most rejuvenating way to end the day, it’s not always the easiest. Checking out in front of the TV watching junk programming with a glass of wine is much easier. It’s a quicker way to turn off, but it doesn’t fully recharge my batteries the way winding down in a cleaner, healthier way does.
:: Mental: I’m all about learning and implementing big lessons in 2016. As in my example with the financial wealth + abundance book I’m studying, I not only read texts now, I study them and take pages upon pages of notes with an action plan for implementation.
This is producing excellent results for me. I highly recommend it.
:: Relational: I’m looking for more outings + adventure in 2016 for my family of six. I’ve been wishing and hoping for more travel for years now, but I haven’t done much to make it happen.
That’s changing in 2016, and I’m looking forward to planning more weekend getaways and making lots of great memories this year.
:: Physical: I’ll be eating cleaner, moving more, and training myself into a healthier condition in 2016. I’ve spent 2015 cleaning a lot of emotional junk from my life + space, now I’m all that’s left to work on! I have plenty of time and attention to tend to my body.
The exercise issued yesterday was to apply each goal above to the following list from Tony Robbins. To mind my length, I’m going to summarize all five intentions for this blog post and answer this list just once.
Since I feel weight is my biggest challenge ahead in 2016, I’m going to focus my answers there – but these are great questions to ask of each of your goals, in all five pillars.
:: What do I really want? (vision)
To feel confident and comfortable in my skin. I don’t like the extra 10-15 pounds I’ve been carrying, and I find myself ducking out of pictures and shying away from the video camera. This is not only not good for my health, it’s not good for my career either.
The way I present myself has always been important, but I think I’m really going to be called to put myself out there in 2016.
:: What is important about it? (values)
It’s everything. It affects my health, mood, confidence and well-being.
:: How will I get it? (methods)
I’m going to keep my goals front and center and drive directly towards them. No more with the two steps toward progress, two steps backward in self-sabatoge.
:: What is preventing me from having it? (obstacles)
The biggest obstacle is a failure to plan ahead. That’s all I have to do to get started – create a routine every Sunday night where I spend an hour meal-planning and grocery-list making. Quick decisions and lazy choices are my worst enemy.
:: How will I know I am successful? (measurements)
In the past, I’ve set monthly weight goals (i.e., lose 3 pounds), but smaller goals haven’t worked for me. I meet the goal, take a week off my regimen, wind up back where I started- it’s crazy how quickly I can undo all my hard work!
This year, I’m going into it like a fighter entering a training period. There is no “off” or “over” until the fight’s been won.
Today’s Prompts
Choose a direction. Based on your answers to yesterday’s prompts, create a list of specific things you’d like to achieve in 2016. Consider the following questions:
- What are some things I could be doing that I’ve been afraid to try? How can I stretch my comfort zone?
- What would I do this year if I knew I could not fail?
- What long-term goals can I intentionally work toward this year?
Create an outline. Create a 3-month outline for what you’d like to achieve. Then, break that outline down into what you need to do this month, this week, today and right now to get started.
P.S. During the New Year for a New You event, you can enjoy 20% on any edition or bundle of Your Best Year 2016 on Etsy. (Discount already applied.)
Enter to Win a Best Year Prize Package ($756 Value)
For those readers already using + enjoying Your Best Year 2016, I have a fabulous giveaway, created just for you! To enter, share your planning days on social media using #yby2016 and tag me in the caption for your chance to win a $756 business-boosting bundle that’ll get your year off to the right start! (Existing shares count – just be sure I’m tagged somewhere so I can find them.)
The winner will receive:
- Your Best Year 2016 bundle (if you already have this kit, you can giveaway or gift it)
- A one-year membership to The Luminaries Club
- A one-on-one private coaching session with ME to help YOU form a plan to make the most of your time + marketing efforts in 2016
Thank you for joining me for Day 5 of this 7-day series! I’ll meet you back here tomorrow with a new set of prompts + my answers to today’s list.
It’s time to make your big dreams happen already. Here’s to your best year yet,
