Ignite Your Dreams

End of the Year Wrap Up

Now is a great time to set aside time each day to review how 2018 went for you, and identify where you want to grow in 2019.

So pull out your diary and schedule some time each day between now and December 31st. It’s a wonderful way for you to see how much progress you’ve made this year, and affirm your goals.

Reflections

Spend some time writing down the answers to some of these questions. You can use a notebook or a programme on your computer like Evernote.

What Were Your Goals

You may have written down some simple goals that you achieved. But now is also a great time to step back and identify some really big ones as well.

Often we don’t realize what we accomplished until we spend some time thinking about it.

How Many Did You Achieve

First, let’s look at the goals you set out for yourself back in January. How many of those did you achieve?

How Close Are You to Achieving the Rest

If you just need to do one more thing, then go do it! Or put it into your diary so it gets done in the next two weeks.

Do You Still Want to Achieve Those Goals

For the rest of the goals, how many times have they shown up over the years? If you’re perpetually wanting to lose the same amount of weight, or learn the same skill, it’s time to step back and ask yourself why you haven’t achieved it yet.

Maybe you’re overwhelmed and just need to break the goal down into smaller tasks like we discussed in a previous blog.

Maybe the goal isn’t really one you care about. And it’s ok to let go of goals that aren’t meaningful to you.

The Big Accomplishment Questions

Now let’s have some fun.

What was the most important goal you achieved this year?

What was your biggest fitness accomplishment?

Career?

Personal/Relationship/etc.?

How many books did you read this year? (Goodreads.com is a great way to track your reading)

Lessons Learned

If you put yourself out there this past year, then chances are you’ve learned some important lessons. Usually when someone says you’ve learned lessons, it means you’ve made mistakes.

Unfortunately we humans associate the word “mistake” with “bad” rather than with “growth.”

The best way for us to grow emotionally and spiritually is by making mistakes and learning from them. That’s your lesson.

If you keep making the same mistake the you haven’t learned the lesson that Life has put in front of you. And you will continue to bump into situations that test how well you’ve learned until Life is confident that you have grown and acquired a new skill.

Do you keep having the same disagreements (or arguments) with the same people? Or perhaps you change jobs and keep running into the same problems? Or do you keep dating the wrong person and wonder why?

I had one friend who worked for a lot of big corporations, and she kept finding herself in the same kind of situation that could best be called a “personality conflict.” My friend kept wondering how it could keep happening and finally justified it that she was a lightning rod for trouble.

Some day I hope she realizes that she brought something to the table as well – her seeing things as black and white and not backing down when she felt she was right about something.

We all have our blinders. The sooner you can learn what yours are, the better.

Of course, once you get rid of one set of blinders, you’ll have to find the next. It’s part of that growth process.

Was It Really A Mistake?

Sometimes a mistake is really a bit of a wake up call to us. It may help us realize that we didn’t want to go down that path after all.

Perhaps you took a class and did poorly. That doesn’t mean you’re a mistake or a failure. It could mean that the class is not one that will help you.

Time to Ask the Question

What was the biggest mistake you made this year, and what was the lesson that you learned?

And what was the biggest challenge you faced this year? How did you overcome it? What did you learn from that?

Another fun one is something that you learned about yourself from others. And something you learned about other people.  How does that fit into your growth plan?

Affirmations

Now that you know the lessons that you learned, it’s time to turn those into affirmations so you continue to grow.

It’s also a good idea to identify the skills you’re still working on, and craft affirmations around them as well.

Finally, have some super positive ones like “I’m so proud of myself for ….” When you’re feeling down, pull out these happy memory affirmations, and see how quickly your mood turns around.

Time to Ask the Questions

What was the most fun you had all year?

What was your biggest regret this past year? Your biggest disappointment?

Now I know those may not seem to belong in affirmations, but if you know what your regret was, then figure out why you regretted it. And then create an affirmation so when you run into the situation again, you can respond differently.

We usually have regrets from fear and disappointments because of unrealistic expectations. So you may also want to write some affirmations that let go of your expectations of others.  Allow them to grow as well.

Celebrations

It’s extremely important to celebrate your successes no matter how small. You should be celebrating them when you achieve them. And now is also a great time to look back and see how much you’ve done and how hard you’ve worked and give yourself more than a pat on the back.

Ready for More Questions?

What bad habit did you drop this year? And what positive habit did you adopt?

Did you stand up for yourself this year?

What was the scariest thing you faced this year? How did you do?

What was the nicest thing you did for someone else this year? And what was the nicest thing someone did for you?

Did you try a new food this year?

How about a new hobby? How did that go? What did you learn about yourself from that?

Did you plan self-care for yourself this year? Consistently?

Planning Your Success

To achieve your goals, you need to know how success will look once you’ve achieved them. This also helps us get clarity around what we really want.

Sometimes what we thought we wanted wasn’t the really big goal of our dreams. For example, if you were wanting to earn more money, but your true goal was to purchase a new automobile, then you got in your own way.

Earning money is lovely. But take a step back and ask yourself if it’s really the money that you wanted. And you’ll achieve your dreams faster if you focus on the dreams.

Record Your Thoughts

Go out and buy a new notebook or journal. Then record your lessons learned from last year. On another page, write down your successes from last year. And then write down the new skills you acquired this year.

Then write down your big goals for this year in health, wealth, relationships, career, and whatever else is important to you. Write one down every few pages.

Then you can write down some milestones, and a next step. That helps you break big scary dreams into simple actions.

Why Will You Achieve Them Faster?

Often, we fail to achieve our dreams because we get so hung up on how we will get something. What if you wanted a new automobile, and were so focused on needing to earn the money to purchase one that you miss opportunities to receive one.

My Final Thoughts

It’s important to slow down to speed up. The month of December is a lovely time to schedule in time for yourself to reflect, record, and celebrate all that you’ve done.

It will ignite your life in 2019 if you have a solid understanding of where you want to go.

And I’m proud of you for doing this for yourself!

Leave a comment with something that you did that amazed yourself!

 

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