Learn how to create your best year yet!

Happy 2024! Can you believe we’re already here?? I definitely can’t.

The New Year absolutely crept up on us so you might be feeling a little unprepared, but there is no time like the present to create a vision for your year ahead! Starting our year with resolutions and intentions helps us to make good decisions about our future, and more importantly, ensures our journey aligns with our dreams. But how do we make sure we’re setting a real intention and not just a wishy-washy New Year’s resolution?

According to a recent HCF survey of more than one thousand Australians, 80% set a New Year’s resolution but a whopping 46% said they got too busy to stick to their goal. The most common resolutions were exercise at 52%, lose weight at 47%, stress less at 42%, make more money or chase financial freedom at 38%, and get more sleep at 37%. Sadly, 62% of people said the cost-of-living pressures impacted their health goals. This got me thinking, how can we set a resolution and make sure it sticks?

I’d like to introduce to you VIVID VISIONING!

Cameron Herold introduced the concept of vivid visioning in his 2007 book ‘Double Double’. He explains the process as looking 3 years into the future of your business, goal, personal life etc, and then working backward to set smaller goals that allow you to reach your 3-year vision.

I’m going to take you through the vivid visioning exercise I use myself and with my family, friends, and staff. Hopefully, you find it just as powerful as we do! You can download the worksheet here:

https://www.happymoneyjourney.com.au/pl/2148161803 

First things first, and potentially the most important lesson you can learn when setting any goal or intention… GET CLEAR! And when you think you’re clear, get even clearer! Start by asking yourself a series of questions while picturing your life in 1-3 years. What do you see? Who do you want your friends to be? What does your work-life balance look like? What skills or knowledge helped you get there? What does your love life look like? Aim your questions to align with what you’re envisioning, eg business or personal life.  If you’re looking at the downloadable worksheets, you’ll see there are already some questions there to get you started.

One important thing you’ll notice is the blank worksheet specifically included for you to DRAW your vision. Did you know your frontal cortex literally expands when we use drawing rather than words? No matter how smart we think we are, our primitive little brains respond far easier to pictures than it does to words, go figure! So get creative, dream big, and don’t be stopped by your imagination or inner demons. Just go for it.

The final step once you’ve worked out what your actual vision is (and hopefully drawn it!) is to break it down into actionable steps. Actionable steps are things you need to do to get you where you want to go. Actionable steps also allow you to set yourself a timeline that you can actually stick to. While our overall vision is 1-3 years, we can break this down into small and manageable steps that each have their own little timeline. 

So, what are you waiting for? Start your year by giving yourself the best present of all: invigorating your passion and finding your ‘why’ again. And don’t forget to DREAM BIG!