Your 2021 personal roadmap
This is not your typical new year’s list.
I love to plan. In past years, however, my planning process for the new year hasn’t worked. I’d imagine what I would accomplish (“run a 5K”, “lose ten pounds”, “start writing a book”) and then life would get in the way. Come March, I’d practically forgotten the list. Does this sound familiar? Well, this year, I’m stopping the insanity (i.e., doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result), and instead, I’m putting my coaching skills to work.
As the new year approaches, I invite you to join me and build your 2021 roadmap as I build mine too. Over the next three weeks (in separate articles) I’ll be sharing the mindsets and steps I’m taking that you can also adopt when envisioning the year ahead. Let’s start with the first step.
What do you REALLY want?
No guilt, no buts: what is it that your heart desires? Thinking about and writing down the answer is the first step. But before you start writing, I invite you to think specifically about:
1. How do you want to grow?
2. How do you want to feel?
1. How do you want to grow?
When we focus on growth, our intentions revolve around mastering something new and expanding our knowledge. We perform to become more competent and skilled, which serves us more consistently and for longer than when we focus on achieving a reward-driven goal (check out this short video where I talk about the different intentions with which we can approach our goals).
For example, when I think about my health, this year, I’d like to expand my knowledge of nutrition and how our bodies work in response to what we eat. Rather than jumping to my tried and failed “lose 10 pounds”, I’d like to equip myself with more knowledge to better inform the decisions I make about my health. I know this knowledge expansion has the potential to serve me for life and shift my focus to how I feel instead of how I look.
2. How do you want to feel?
We often confuse our goals with what we’re really after: the feeling generated by achieving our goals. Our actions and accomplishments are fleeting, yet we remember and relish the feelings. The feelings we’re after are the core goals. In fact, by identifying the feelings we’re after, we allow ourselves the opportunity to identify many more ways to experience the feeling, instead of just through one or two goals. Even better, we can identify ways to create those feelings now, during the journey, rather than later, when a goal is complete.
In 2021, I want to feel vibrant, nourished (body, soul, mind), and peaceful. Already, I have a few ideas for how I can experience these feelings — reading and writing more and trying out a few new business ideas. Why wait until some unknown day in the future to experience these feelings, when I can start now, while I work on goals?
What about you? How do you want to feel and grow this coming year? Let me know through your comments!
In my next article, I’ll be diving into the second component of your 2021 personal roadmap. Stay tuned!
