Let this be your year. We are now at the 5th of January 2017. Do you feel any different to how you did as the seconds ticked down and 2016 came to an end?  With the start of a new year do you find yourself on a high, excited about your opportunities with a new found energy to empower you to step up and let this be your year?

Alas for many of you I know things feel no different. You find yourself just as frustrated as you were, anxious about the road ahead and confused to why you feel so empty and unable to get yourself going.

You’ve put so much expectations into what this year will bring. As the clock struck midnight you promised yourself this year would be different and you would truly do everything to turn your life around. Yet just six days in, you feel flat and remain clueless to what your best course of action may be.

You just have to listen to the radio to know you’re not alone. I’ve heard it said at least 10 times that statistically January is people’s worse month. Part of the reason for this is many of you are suffering from the financial implications of buying so many presents and ensuring your kitchen was full of all those wonderful Christmas foods. Your bank accounts are empty, credit cards full to the max and pay day is at least three weeks away. Some of you are still trying to physically and mentally recover from the exertions of the holiday seasons while others lament that their Christmas really didn’t happen for them this year. The weather as we have in England doesn’t encourage us either, it being very cold, rainy and the winds seem to be blowing a gale. Yet I am someone excited by January, knowing it is the month where I lay the foundations for my entire year ahead.

Its’ the time where I truly commit to determining how I want the year to work out and what I’m going to have to do to make it happen.

I start by reflecting upon the year just gone. What was good about 2016 and what was bad? I also look at each of the important areas of life to give each an overall score and this shows me the areas I need to make improvements in. This then gives me the ability to assess accurately what changes I want to bring about. This is the first key step in making this year awesome for me.

Knowing what’s important to change puts me in the position to ascertain my goals. As it’s the beginning of the year they are my New Year resolutions. They’re are not merely wishes or should do’s, but the things I really want. To determine what they are I create a vision in my mind that I call the perfect day. Seeing a day sometime in the future being the perfect day where I’m doing what I want to do, where I want to be, with the people I want around me. Then looking at this helps me see the path I want to take. Breaking down what I see in my vision I can then come up with my long term goals which I can then break down to shorter term goals which are steps towards the longer ones.

Having formulated these I then look at the ‘why’. Why I want them, what do they mean to me, how do they fulfil both the changes I said I wanted to make as well as bring about my vision of the future. It is the why that powers them up.

Then I determine what 5 things must I do to enable me to achieve these goals, both my long term and short term. 5 things I can focus my activities on which will enable me to move forward to the attainment of my goals.

I also work out a way to measure my success and use thus to check my progress to ensure I’m on track.

Everything I’ve mentioned I record on a single sheet of paper and I call this a Single Page Plan. Maybe there’s the secret to success for you this year. Don’t just come up with New Year Resolutions and leave it to lady luck to decide whether you’ll achieve them or not. Instead make a plan which you can follow.

If you don’t plan you may not know what to do tomorrow.

“If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” – Jim Rohn

photo credit: davidyuweb New Year Fireworks via photopin (license)