Taking Charge of 2018 NOW!
It may seem a bit early to start thinking about 2018 when we haven’t yet had our Christmas turkey, but I want you to get a head start, and really think hard about them New Year’s resolutions and goals.
Far too often we say to people “Where has this year gone” and “I can’t believe it’s another year gone”. I hear it so frequently with my job and it allows me a great opportunity to reflect on the past 12 months. What did I achieve? What did I promise myself I would complete however still failed to get it done?
I love the analogy that your life is a book, and each year is a chapter. I try to make each year a chapter that I would want to read. So that when I look back on 2017 in 10, 20 or even 30 year’s time I can be proud of what I attempted, what I achieved and most importantly (in my opinion), of the amazing stories I produced.
Ask yourself; would you enjoy reading the 2017 chapter in years to come?
Now I appreciate some things are out of your control which can have an effect on what you remember for a whole year. A loved one may have passed, your marriage ended, potentially you became unemployed, or whatever else which would have a significant effect of your lasting memory for a whole year – so this practice may not work for everyone, and you may have more important things you need to tackle first.
However if we start thinking now, a good week before 2018 arrives, on what we want to achieve and what we want to get out of it, perhaps we’ll have a greater chance in December 2018 being immensely proud of what we accomplished.
So let’s start off. Write down for me a list of goals/activities/adventures/accomplishments/“things” you would have liked to have done in 2017. Stories you wish you could tell at that New Years Eve party in a weeks time. It could be anything from applying for a job in a new field of work, running a 5km park run, visiting an old friend overseas, overcoming your fear of heights by climbing to the top of a tall building, learning to paint, catch a really big fish – whatever. Now ask yourself; "Why you didn’t get this stuff done"?
Is there anything stopping you in 2018 completing that goal or activity?
Is it impossible to find 1 afternoon a month to commit to your passion?
Do you want to find yourself in December 2018 being frustrated that yet another year has passed with no good stories?
If you answered ‘No’ to the last three questions - perfect. That list you made of missed opportunities for 2017 is now your goal for 2018 to absolutely nail. So you can guarantee that in 12 months time you’ve had a fun and inspiring 2018.
If you aren’t sure on what to write down check out an old blog of ours where we did a new thing every week for a year – so at the end of the year we had done 52 new things.
Here is my list of what I’d like to have achieved in 2018:
1/ Learn a song on the piano (I tried this in 2017 and neglected it by April time!)
2/ Become better at French
3/ Visit the Scottish Highlands and Islay
What’s your goals for 2018? Comment below to help inspire others and let us know how you get on.
Remember; your life is a book, make it interesting and fun to read and something you will be proud of. No-one wants to read about office meetings and how you binge watched 3 seasons on Netflix in a weekend. Get out there and start doing!