When I was a kid, I loved having to do all the new year rituals and traditions that my family practiced. I’d eat grapes, drink a glass of champagne, jump up 12 times, and of course, made my new year resolutions.
Only, that didn’t work. I’d make my resolutions, and find myself making the same resolution 12 months after.
I’ve finally had enough.
This one practice has given me so much clarity, results, and push, that it literally changed my life, the moment I started to commit to doing it.
It’s Annual Planning
There is no other feeling like having a renewed sense of clarity and purpose. A strong push to achieve what matters most to me. As well as a realization of what I have, and the potential and dreams that I have, and want to bring about into the world.
The first time I went through a process to plan for the year ahead, I felt a renewed sense of purpose and motivation.
It became clear to me where I was coming from, what I was taking from my past experiences, and what kind of future I wanted to build.
It also gave me a sense of gratitude of what I had to go through, as well as the relationships that I had, and kept me going through my darkest times.
I first did my annual planning process the December of my darkest year.
And ever since then, my life has gone nowhere, but up.
Is your life out of control?
Before I was doing my planning process, I used to always feel that my life was not in my control.
I felt so many things were out of my control.
I just waited for whatever it was to come to me.
Sad to say, that wasn’t a lot.
And as I just sat there in my office chair, wondering about what’s going to happen to my life, and feeling powerless to make a change, a deep feeling inside of me actually asked myself:
“Where are you headed with your life?”
Find, and create your vision.
Only when I began to get clear on what I wanted, and actually took steps to go for it, did it all begin to make sense.
You design your life. You make the plans and determine what’s important to you, and take steps to get them. That is your responsibility, and nobody else’s.
Live life by design, not by default.
What’s the plan?
When you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
And never has that been truer than before you start a new venture, a new project, role, relationship,
Or, when you start a new year.
See, whenever I would enter into a new year, I would get a renewed sense of hope and the feeling that it’s a blank slate again, full of possibilities.
But, the reality is, if you just rely on those feelings, you will run out of motivation when the going gets tough, when you don’t see results, and when you don’t have a plan to carry out your dreams and goals.
The plan is what keeps everything together, and an integral part of what keeps you moving forward.
You plan to succeed.
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