The start of a new year brings new excitement for the forthcoming happiness, joy and new events that hopefully await us. We tend to plan something great.
As a coach, I tend to visualise a plan too but the secret of how to do it is what I am going to share with you in this blog. These techniques are what I use when I plan for myself.
Think big, go long
In order to plan your resolution for the new year, don’t start with this year itself. When we think short-term, the brain tends to be very practical and realistic. Since the time frame is short, we are compelled to be restricted within what is a realistic environment.
One year is too short for the brain to think big without limitations.
In order to build a new year’s plan, I suggest you visualise a midterm image of goals between 3-5 years.
Given how long that period is to realistically visualise goals, your beliefs and thoughts will free up. An unclear image will help you un limit your potential. Read more on Unlocking Your Potential
Write down every wish you would have and how you would like to live your life in 5 years. Yes, the goals are essential for this year. But you will land on them when you aim midterm.
M.O.V.E
M.O.V.E stands for Meaning, Observation, Value, Empower. This is a process I use and teach for better insight into complex life situations.
After you list your goals, think of what each means to you and why it’s important for you to achieve them. We are often unconscious to the reasons behind wanting to achieve our goals when we visualise them.
Ask yourself: what meaning do my wishes hold for me?
That is where your inner journey begins.
Assuming those wishes are realised, observe how your emotions flow. How would you feel if your wishes are fulfilled? Would you feel excited, joyful, loved?
Your emotions are linked to your inner happiness.
Linking your wishes to your emotional movement will help you understand their value.
Everyone has diverse values in their lives – someone may care about family relationships more, someone may give importance to career success, someone may be passionate about social justice, or someone may be seeking adventure.
Understanding what you are attaching most value to will give you awareness about your wishes, which will then positively become more personal and convincing for you. It will become clear to you how achieving your wishes will satisfy the value you seek in life.
Empower that value and those goals. To do that, I suggest sizing down your long-term vision to a short-term one.
This achievement or realisation could be learning something or connecting with new people or getting recognition. It doesn’t necessarily have to be an action. But imagine the kind of output you would like to have at the end of this year.
For instance, if you are seeking an output of new learning and ask yourself what you need to do to achieve that. It is essential to be conscious of how this learning will be linked to the values you are looking for or believe in.
Release Your Wishes
This step might seem a bit contradictory to what I have advised until now, but it is an important one. Release all your wishes into the air.
We are at the beginning of the year right now and don’t know the kind of turns life will take. In a larger perspective, the time frame of a year may seem insignificant but from where we are standing, one year looks long enough.
Many things will be out of our control. We may be showered with either great joy or great sadness.
This is why I recommend you detach yourself from your wishes. Be aware of them, of course, but don’t put undue pressure on yourself to achieve them.
Let each wish go out into the universe. Focus instead on all you can do today.
But any concrete action we take, no matter how small or big, will contribute to our expected outcome at the end of the year.
Wishing you all a happy new year and I hope every one of you is able to achieve what you set out to achieve.