Plan Your Best Year Yet in 5 Steps

There are 5 things I do for the new year, every year that I absolutely swear by and once you try them, I think you will too. These five steps help me to prepare to have a year better than the one before, stay aligned with my goals and keep me from getting off-track.

Maybe it’s just my belief, but one of the biggest reasons why people don’t achieve their goals or stick to their New Year’s resolutions is because they literally just set a goal and that’s kind of it. They don’t really do anything else or even forget about it. And look, we’re all in different phases or on different journeys, but the things we do every day, every week and every month start to compound. That’s why it’s important that you start looking at the bigger picture, the year overall, so you can start there and reverse engineer the things you need to do on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis to get you on the path in a trajectory to achieve the goals you have for THIS year. And what better time than at the turn of the year for you to really be thinking about what this next year is going to look like, feel like, what are the things you want to achieve, where you are in your journey now and what’s next.

So let’s dive in to my 5 step process I use year after year in my life + business to always have the best year I possibly can, and you can too!

The first step to prepare yourself to have a successful year is going to be to pick a word of the year. Yeah, you might have heard about this before and even done it, but I’m about to tell you why and how doing this is actually going to work. Picking a word for the year really helps you theme your year. It can be any word you can think of that speaks to you, but just have one word, make it simple, and make it something that’s really reminds you of what you want this next year to be about. This is going to help you set that intention because you’re committed to seeing the year through with this theme and it makes it very easy for you to filter out everything you’re choosing to do and not do based on if aligns with your word. For example, my word for 2024 is expansion. I will ask myself if things I do daily, weekly, and monthly are worth working on or putting time + energy + money into. Will it help me with expansion? If it’s a yes, then it’s something I’m diving into. If it’s a no, then it’s a hell no and I’m filtering that out. This helps me filter out the things I’m doing, the things I’m focusing on so I don’t find myself off-track and misaligned with my own goal. In previous years I’ve used words like purpose, growth, slow and savor and those words have really helped me build and mold the life I want and kind of stack on each other to get me where I am now, ready to expand.

The second step is to take my word of the year and set goals based off that word. Then what I’ll do is create a vision board which Is really just a visual representation or reminder both consciously and subconsciously to align with my theme for the year. Hot tip: put it in as many places as you can to remind yourself what goals you have and what you’re trying to achieve within the year. So to create the vision board, I choose 5-6 different categories based on my own human desires like health, home, money, etc. Try to find things that are measurable and things you can see yourself doing and if you keep doing them consistently and with discipline then you’re extremely more likely to achieve those goals. The categories I chose this year are family, health, wealth, love, friendship, and home. How I align those with my word expansion is, for example, knowing that for family I really want to work on spending more time with them and focusing on how I can expand my quality time with them and what do I actually do the time I have with them, how do I create more of that. Then it’s time to make them measurable and schedule times to do them. So saying 5 days a week I’m going to be doing this at this time and do the damn thing. Be specific with the different goals you want to hit in those categories, it’s the most important part so you see consistency and you can create the habits + routines you need knowing you’re going to hit that goal.

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So step three is taking all the goals you have and seeing if there are any projects in there. When I say “projects” I mean is there anything you have to do multiple steps for to complete the goal. Like “start journaling” and “lose 20 pounds” are completely different. One is a daily habit you want to create, and the other is a goal you need to take steps to achieve. So I’m going to identify any projects I have to complete to accomplish the goal and I’m going to work on figuring out the steps it’s going to take for me to complete each project. And the best way to do that brings me to step four.

It's time to goal map. Now if you’re not familiar with goal mapping, this is one of my favorite tools to help me know exactly what steps I need to take to execute any project. So I’m going to take the project/goal that I have and I’m going to reverse engineer it from the bigger picture to the very first step. Doing this helps you be a lot more detailed from the goal down to each step you’d take, so you don’t have to worry about taking that first step or the next one or the next one to really make sure that project/goal is completed. So many people just set the goal, kind of know what projects they have, but they don’t get detailed in the planning, and they aren’t really able to show up and execute any plans they have. If you don’t strategize, then you’re going to show up to try to execute and it’s not going to be easy and you’re probably going to fall off the wagon and lose focus and momentum (which is why those New Year’s resolutions don’t work and by the middle of February people feel like failures) and feel like “I suck, I can’t get any of this done. But the reality is that you just need to do these extra steps to get yourself on the path and the trajectory to really be able to execute and start achieving the things you want.

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And now, the final step in my 5-step process… take a little time to reflect on the past year or years. Sit down and really think about what worked before, what you’re maybe not celebrating or even recognizing that you did really well. And what are the things that didn’t go well? It’s all about taking a moment to learn from your mistakes so you can help yourself be better and better, year after year. If we don’t do this, we end up getting stuck having the same year over and over again. If you’re someone who’s like “I really want to achieve these things that I want and I’ve been saying this for months and years but I can’t seem to get over the hump” I am telling you right now it’s because you’re not doing the full 5 step system. You have to be able to eliminate stuff that isn’t working  and really focus on what’s going to work for you based on the steps in the project based on the measurable of the goals which are based of the overall arching theme of where you’re trying to go and how you’re going to have a successful year, year after year.

Happy 2024, friends. I hope this has been valuable information. If you’re more of a video person, make sure to go and subscribe to my YouTube channel or follow me on Instagram

BONUS for those who care:

How I’m putting my process into action:

I’ve chosen the word expansion for 2024.

I’ve created my vision board to include family, health, wealth, love, friendship, and home.

I want to maximize the times I have when my kids are off/out of school and expand on the time I’m spending with them.

I didn’t have a consistent home routine, so I’m working to create those habits + routines to help us stay consistent with the different things going on in our home.

I felt I wasn’t always on the same page with my husband, like we just didn’t have enough time for just me and him, so I’m ready to expand our relationship and devote more time to us.

I’m really focusing on how I’m feeling about things and not being afraid to sit in those feelings and work through them as opposed to staying busy and trying to deflect them.

I’ll be taking time to meditate and journal for self-reflection since the most important person to help is me sometimes and I’m going to be paying attention to me and my feelings and not be afraid to choose myself and put myself first when I need to.

I’ll be setting more boundaries and sticking to my priorities and the things that I have really identified that important to me and not letting other things and other noise really distract me.

I've figured out what needs to be scheduled and have scheduled those things in advance. 

I've reflected on my wins from 2023 and pinpointed what I need to cut out.

Stay tuned for my best year yet 😉