As we approach the halfway point of the month, many people have set their goals and made their resolutions, laid out plans, and may have even started taking action.
How about you?
Are you someone who made resolutions for 2022 but along the way you have been derailed and are struggling to stick to your goals?
Or you could be someone who just wanted to start something, yet you don’t know how and where to start?
Perhaps you are that person who has set goals and made plans, but has been surrounded by too much information and is unable to take action?
But regardless of where you are right now, let me share three key questions that we can ask ourselves to help us make plans for the year 2022.
Let me just say upfront that it is never too late to start, and it is not mandatory to do this at the beginning of the year.
“A fresh start isn’t a new place, it’s a new mindset.”
I have read or heard this line somewhere and I forgot where I read them or heard them from, but truly it’s not the timing, but our mindfulness and desire to make a change and restart our life in the best possible way that we design them to be. It’s up to us.
Before we start planning, the first question we need to ask ourselves is:
WHAT DO YOU WANT?
What do you want to do in your life?
What is it that you want?
What is it that tugs you underneath or gives you that feeling of ants crawling through your chest just by hearing and thinking about it?
What are those things that you feel so jealous about and you just really wish you could just be like that, or have that or be there?
What is it that you want?
Making a list of resolutions of things that you wanted to set as a goal for the year I believe sprang from our desires. And listing up goals or things that we want to do or achieve could be quite easy. And I bet we have done this quite several times before. Some of us may have succeeded or a portion of those lists was successful however some have failed.
Either because we were not able to start, or we quit halfway, or our actions took a different turn that deviated us from our targets. And I think one of the reasons for this is that we lack that motivation to continue in our pursuit because unconsciously or along the way we had a fall out with those goals because we don’t like them, and we don’t want them enough.
That is why in one of my podcast episodes https://bit.ly/3HLtlrz we talked about reflecting and unpacking ourselves to better know what it is that we want.
The second question that we need to ask is, WHY?
A cliché, right but it’s true. The WHY,
Gives meaning to the things that we want. This question unravels the reason, and this will be the driving force that will make us stick to the things we need to do to achieve our goals.
If the degree of importance proves to be shallow after the WHY, it gives us the idea of how much the answers we have for question no. 1 rings true for us.
The third question we can ask ourselves is,
What is my THEME for the year?
Yes, THEME.
A THEME helps us formulate or conceptualize our goals and plans.
A THEME can be a word, a phrase, or a sentence that captures the essence of what you want to accomplish.
Setting a theme will guide our thought process to determining the things or actions we want to emulate for the year. While we think about our plans and goals, organizing them around a specific theme inspires us, while guiding our thoughts and making them more relevant.
It also gives us another advantage, which is being able to streamline our efforts. Since the goals we have set are relevant to each other, the actions that we need to do to achieve those goals will be bound to be similar and we can further maximize and leverage on the shared actions and steps that will bring us closer to not just one but two or more of our goals.
When we choose a theme for ourselves, it should also help remind us of our WHY. This is because making plans and resolutions are not that hard, I believe. What makes it difficult is the fear, that originates both from our experiences and limiting beliefs that we won’t be able to stick with it and emerge successful in the end.
But if we constantly, remind ourselves why we are doing what we do. It also becomes our motivation. And we don’t have to be performance-driven, the key is consistency.
We only need to take each step one day at a time.
Since it is only a word or a phrase, it is fairly easy for us to constantly remind ourselves. We can write it on a piece of paper and paste it on the wall where we can see it the moment we wake up or we can also scribble it down on sticky notes and paste it everywhere. On the mirror, on the fridge, on your computer monitor, or make it a wallpaper on your phone or tablet. Anywhere, that it would be conspicuous enough to remind us that once we see it our minds automatically goes like; “Hey! By the way, I made these goals to blah, blah, blah because of yadda, yadda, yadda (which is your theme). Or for example, your chosen theme is the saying “Health is wealth”. So, when you see it thought like “Yeah! I have yet to finish my 10,000 steps, you know Health is Wealth”.
Setting a theme is not just for the planning but also for the execution and to measure our progress.
These three key questions that you can ask yourself;
1. WHAT DO YOU WANT?
2. WHY?
3. WHAT IS YOUR THEME FOR THE YEAR?
Are so interconnected that asking ourselves these questions regularly, reminds us that we exist. That our existence though singular is unique and has potential. Regardless of who we are, where we are, or our current situation is. We are alive, at this moment. And we need to keep on living.
We need to stop dwelling on the past, fearing the future, and sabotaging our present life.
Yes, we can do it and we can begin with making a plan. It's never too late for us to start planning now.
Because today is always the best time to start.
It is never too late.
But if somehow you are lost and not sure what to do. We only need to remind ourselves that whatever is happening around us, regardless of the many failures, disappointments, and discouragement we wake ourselves into every day. We are still living.
And even though we are not at the most beautiful place or situation or shape that we aspire ourselves to be, the fact that we feel these not so lovely thoughts is a sign. That hey! we are still alive. And again, we still need to keep on living. Even if we are so burdened with our guilts from the past. Even if we are wary and anxious about what could happen tomorrow.
Still, we need to live. So first, live well.
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