Imagine how you would respond to this greeting when you answer your telephone: “Hello! This is Your Best Year Yet calling. Are you in?”
Would you be glancing in the rear view mirror of your life, only seeing the debris? Want to unload it, travel lighter in the year that’s calling? It’s time to write new plans on your new calendar.
Here are 3 steps you can take today toward answering the call to your best year yet.
1. Adopt new attitudes that free you from your past and write them down.
Write a gratitude list of what means the most to you today. List new ones as they unfold. Review it with a thankful heart each morning.
Make a separate quick-reference list to keep in your wallet. On one side, write the past experiences that are most important to you. Should you feel your spirit veering off course, review your list right where you stand to remind you that you are on a right track.
Each night before you sleep, review your day. See if there are any amends you need to make. Commit to make them soon and do it. Venture onto the fast track of gratitude now and then: Choose one person each day to whom you will express gratitude and then follow through. Choose to forgive one person each day who has harmed you, and let them go in peace. Let gratitude steer you.
2. Own your experiences and give them substance of things hoped for.
Like new tyres smooth a car ride, letting go is key to exchanging worn out habits for new ones. Think of it as transforming a messy dirty pathway into a new path so beautiful that you want to follow it just for the joy it brings. See the smooth, flat stones across the bright, green grass that gently greets your feet as you pass. That sounds lovely; how do I do this, you wonder. You can, as have countless others, so believe it.
You viewed your past experiences as they unfolded through a weaker lens than you now own. Like new glasses, stronger lenses give you a new perspective, but you have to clean them regularly to see clearly. Similarly, don’t let the pollution of your past cloud your view of today.
Take a fresh look at dusty disappointments swaying like cobwebs in your memory. Only you can sweep them away. Check for unwelcome squatters, the naysayers who should have been evicted long ago. Open the gate without a second glance.
You can fashion the toughest experiences of your life into new tools to build your best year yet. Soon, you will be breathing the fresh air of promise along your newly paved path.
3. Dream big and draft a plan.
Your hopes and dreams matter. Every day some come true, however small they may seem. Acknowledge them as a foundation upon which you build bigger ones. Tune in only to experiences past or present that support your goals.
Tour your past and present dreams. Write them on paper without judging them no matter how insignificant or unlikely they seem. Check off rather than cross out all that have come true. Make this your Ta-Da instead of To Do list. Never cross out any dreams on your list. Let them continue to inspire you.
Successful people plan the launch of a dream. Choose 3 dreams from your bucket list: one to make happen by the end of this week, a second one to finish by the end of the month, and a big one to work toward by the end of this year. Open the gratitude list tucked into your wallet, write these three dreams on the blank side and return it to its place. Update as needed. Now write a plan of action.
Visualize these dreams exactly as you want them. Spare no details. Write down one thing you are willing to do today toward each dream, and commit to it. When you follow through, check it off and declare ta-da!
Life presents obstacles. Your plan of action will steer you clear of them faster than winging it will. So, read as often as needed. Should you feel overwhelmed, remember that your best year yet will happen when you have a plan of action not because you stick to it exactly, but because you have one.
Review it each night. Choose a new task to work on the next day and commit to it. Check off each accomplishment, confidently choose the next task and proudly proclaim, “Ta-da!”
Regardless of your present circumstances, it is as temporary as the ones in the past. Enter each day in gratitude, stay in the present and launch your dreams. Boldly respond to the call to make this your best year yet, “Yes! Count me in!”