New Year is a powerful time for revamping your life
New Year is the time where we look back, evaluate how things have gone throughout the past year, and focus on how we wish to change or reinvent for the year ahead.
It’s a potent time of personal stories ending and fresh beginnings opening up.
Ditch the resolutions
Many of us settle on well-meaning, but lame, New Year’s resolutions we rarely intend to keep. A few years ago, Forbes conducted research that revealed only 8% of us achieve our New Year goals.
So, I say – ditch the resolutions and focus on an important area of your life you really want to revolutionize.
Steer life in the direction you want to go
If you truly desire to change or improve some area in your life – your career, relationships, family life, health, financial situation, or your dreams – it’s crucial to take the necessary creative and structural steps to generate positive and purposeful change in your life.
Otherwise, you will be buffeted by life’s daily happenings, stress and busyness so both your attention and intention will get waylaid.
8 vital steps to reinvent your life
Have you lived a lifetime of broken resolutions? I certainly have. Finally I decided to do something so the change I wanted actually manifested.
Here’s what I discovered – 8 essential steps to get you started on positive change and keep you motivated and on track:
- Understand what is fueling your desire
to reinvent at this time
Before you start, get clear about what is the underlying motivation for you to revamp your life at this time. Did something happen in your external world? Is something emerging from inside of you, the feeling that it is time to re-energize yourself in some way, and refresh your life?
- Choose
one key area of your life to focus on
Change is difficult and humans are wired to resist change. It will help if you narrow your focus to one main area you want to work on and give it all you’ve got.
Once you get started, you’ll discover reinvention has a cascading effect and other areas of your life will begin transforming with no extra effort.
3. Visualize the change you want
It’s important to be really clear around the outcome you want in this area of your life.
Desire to change is not enough, you must really want the change, and be persistent in moving towards it. Visualize the change when you wake, before you go to sleep, and throughout the day when you can.
4. Be clear about the price of not changing
Make a list of all the ways you would feel if you don’t change. This should be a powerful reminder for you to keep on the path of positive change when the going gets tough.
5. State the ultimate goal you want to achieve
In one short sentence, write down the goal you want to achieve at the end of the process – ensure you use simple, clear, achievable language.
6. Identify potential obstacles and how you will manage them
Obstacles can come from within you, or from the outside world. Write a list of both inner and outer obstacles that might sabotage the process. Then take each obstacle and work out how you intend to manage them if they appear.
7. Create a clear, actionable plan to follow
Your plan should be simple and actionable, with steps you need to take to achieve your goal. Set a deadline for the change to have happened and then write your plan from now until that date.
Dumb it down and don’t complicate it. Write actions for each week or month, step by step.
8. Choose wise people support – don’t go it alone
You may want to keep your reinvention or change plan to yourself. That’s fine if you have strong qualities of inner direction.
But a wise way to keep to your action plan is to choose a trusted friend, coach or mentor to be your change buddy. They are there to keep you focused on your action plan, and support you when things get tough.
Starting is the hardest part.
Renewing and reinventing your life can be an overnight decision, but starting can be difficult.
Be courageous.
Tune into your heart and intuition.
Take the first step, and move life in the direction you want it to go.