Since the New Year is almost here, and resolutions are just around the corner, I thought I’d share with you my process for reviewing the previous year, and planning to make the new year your best one yet.
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Review of the previous year – I always start with a very simple list, with two parts: what went well, and what didn’t go well. The what went well portion is the easy part; we all know what went well, and if we dig in a little bit, we can find a lot more things that went well than we originally thought. Where a lot of the growth comes in is leaning into what didn’t go so well. And yes, it’s okay to review what didn’t go well, what could have gone better. In many ways there is more value in this than in reviewing the victories, because there is more to learn in this. And lastly, I make a short list of what I can do better to address what didn’t go well, and what the lessons are from that.
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Make a theme for the next year – it’s important to have an overarching theme for the year. What is the main vision you have for what a good life and a good year looks like? Anywhere from 1-10 words is good; you want it to be simple.
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Set goals for next year – what do you want the year to look like, what is important that you become or accomplish? I like to break these down into the various aspects of life, which can be done in a whole variety of ways. My loose guidelines are spiritual, relational/family, personal, business/work, and financial. In my experience, 2-5 are ideal for each category.
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Decide on the Big 3 for the year – focus is of the utmost importance, and if you get too scattered or spread too thin, your effectiveness will be greatly diminished. Out of everything you put down for the year, what are the three major goals for the year? The ones that will have the greatest impact on your life and your loved ones lives if you were to accomplish them? Be honest with yourself, choose the 3 that mean the most to you, not what you think someone else would want you to have as the primaries.
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Make a 90-day plan – a 90-day plan is huge, because it takes your vision and breaks it down into execution. At the end of the day, what you can actually execute on is all that matters. Without execution a vision will just remain a pipe dream. 90 days is a great amount of time, because it gives a sense of urgency, and not a lot of room for error. You can afford to miss a week or two, that’s it. And it also breaks everything down into very practical, actionable items. For more info, check out the 12 Week Year (insert link)
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Make a spreadsheet to track habits – I know, I know, I probably lost you at spreadsheet. But don’t worry, this is just a system to track habits. At the end of the day, as humans we are just really sophisticated habit machines, and our success or failure will be largely determined by our habits. It’s not what you do every once in a while that counts, it’s the small, seemingly insignificant things that you do daily. For me, these are things such as writing down 3 things I’m grateful for, getting to the gym 4+ times per week, eating healthy the majority of the time, etc. Decide what’s good for you, and track it!
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Throw the whole thing out and do it your own way – seriously, I’ve found that things work out best if I take feedback and systems from others, and alter it to make it my own. Go my own way, carve my own path. So if this doesn’t work for you, or if some of it does, and some of it doesn’t, just do your own thing. Take what works and throw away the rest. It’s the best way to be!
So that’s it! Easy as pie, right? 🙂 While I’m far from perfect, this is the blueprint I’ve used over the past 5 years or so to make sure I get the most from reflecting on the previous year, and making sure I hit the new year running.
My hope is you have a great rest of your holiday season, and a wonderful start to 2018. We look forward to serving you and your referrals in 2018, and making it a beautiful year.
Which brings me to our goal for the new year – we plan on helping 70 families with their real estate goals in 2018. Do you know anyone who wants to get a head start on planning their next move or investment? This is a GREAT time to get started planning, so if anyone comes to mind who could use our help, could you let them know about us, and get us connected? More than helping 70 families next year, we want those people to be just like you. So as people come to mind, just let us know!
Happy New Year!
The Dan Faulkner group 