Episode 18: New Year, Focused You

Dec 29, 2020

2020 doesn’t have to be a lost year. For some of us it was hard, full of obstacles and ever-changing rules and challenges. And some of us had huge health battles to overcome. The closing of a chapter.

 

Others of us can use this year as a launching point, a teachable moment to steer us in a new direction and get clear on our bigger purpose. 

 

I hope for most of you listening, 2020 will go down as the latter.

 

Reflecting on the past 12 months is about more than numbers though, it’s about being wealthy in all the other ways that one can be.

1. business
2. personal wellness
3. relationships with family, friends, and self
4. home
5. community

 

Today, I’ll share my very basic year-end reflection process and what I’m doing to navigate 2021!

 

1. Crafting a vision board: this visual representation of goals through images can be done in a physical sense (cutting and pasting pictures and quotes from books and magazines) or digitally through software like Canva. Let your mind wander as you pick out photos that speak to you or represent your goals for the new year. What I’ve found most helpful about vision boards is that even if I’m not actively meditating on them or even looking at the board each day, just having the photos in my immediate physical space helps me to think about these goals and bring them to life.

 

2. Word of the Year: by picking a word of focus each year, it helps me come back to my intentions and big goals for the time ahead. In 2020, my word was “joy” and while each day wasn’t joyful, having this word as a reminder made me more aware of creating and seeking out joy even on the darkest days of the pandemic. 

 

3. Breaking down big goals into smaller steps: when I put a picture of a podcast mic on my vision board in 2020, I looked at it for 6 months without achieving anything. Having the photo wasn’t enough. So mid-year, I broke the big goal of launching a podcast into smaller steps for each month so that I could launch the Small-Minded Podcast in August. I got big sticky sheets of paper that I could hang on the walls of my office as a reminder of my tasks for each month. As I conquered these smaller steps, it gave me momentum to keep going and even though it took me a little longer than intended (September), those small steps added up to my ultimate goal.

 

In 2021, I’m going to incorporate these same strategies as I plan and vision for my family, my business, and myself. Let me know what you’re doing to create goals and resolutions for the new year in the comments below!

 

Important Links from the episode:

*Episode 348 of the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast with Amy Porterfield and Patrice Washington: https://www.amyporterfield.com/2020/11/348/

 

*Enneagram Info https://www.truity.com/blog/breaking-down-enneagram-guide-total-beginners