With the new year comes all sort of posts and advice about maximising the year. And it’s understandable. A new year holds so much potential and promise. But then again, it would be no different if we have no firm plans and work actively to actualise them.

Personally, as I said in my first post of 2018, I hadn’t exactly caught the buzz of the new year yet. I was still sort of drifting – not quite firmly sure what I wanted out of the year. And the reason for me was simple. I had not put pen to paper to strategically map out my goals and how to achieve them.

So despite the flood of posts on maximising the new year, and the very cliche title of this post, it’s a post that could possibly make this new year your best year yet.

Maryam Ikhina, who is an advocate of intentional living and creator of the 365 days of intentional living planner, reached out to share her very insightful tips with us, and I have to say there’s so much wisdom in these 5 tips. Enjoy!

The reason many high achieving people hit their goals early on in the year is simple – CLARITY!

The thing with clarity is that it rids you of distractions, envy, fear, doubt and all the unnecessary baggage that could slow you down on your journey.

Now that it’s the new year, it feels like a fresh start – filled with opportunities, important changes, healthy habits and more.

So here’s how to make the most of the new year.

1. Set aside the time to reflect!

I am a big advocate for planning. There’s a certain peace and magic that comes with creating the sacred space to sit down and reflect on the past year. This is not the time to make yourself feel bad about how the year went and overwhelm yourself with unrealistic resolutions for the new year.

On the contrary, this should be an enjoyable process.

Set aside a block of time to reflect and dream. Take a look at all ten areas – personal care, career, entrepreneurial, health, personal growth, fitness – and think deeply about where you are now and where you want to be in the next 365 days.

This should be a fun process – don’t feel rushed to make plans, just reflect, relive the beautiful moments, take note of the fails and challenging times, be grateful for the lessons learnt.

Don’t feel rushed to make a plan, and design a year that doesn’t truly fit with what you want to do and how you want to feel.

Remember, be honest with yourself.

2. Dream up new goals – create your vision

Now that you know where you are, it’s time to dream up new goals for yourself. This is not about creating resolutions, it’s about designing your life.

Get clear on what you want your life to feel and look like. Think big, get creative, use your imagination and get really clear on your vision in a way that you are able to articulate for anybody to understand.

Who will you spend the most time with? What activities will you spend your time doing? Where will you travel to and when? There are no wrong or right answers, it’s more about what you truly want for yourself.

Then think – what are the actions you need to take, routines you need to set, habits you need to change or form to get to where you want. And if you need help coming up with new goals for the year, get the tools and resources that are perfect for you.

3. Deploy your Goals in seasons

Want to run crazy, get depressed and be frustrated? Try deploying all your goals at the same time!

It’s important to be realistic about how much you can handle at a time. Break down and share your goals into different seasons of the year. It could be weekly, monthly, or even quarterly.

Never underestimate the power of focus.

Document your strategy, plan your activities and action plans.
However you choose to structure it, limit yourself to to a few goals for different parts of the year – trying to do everything at once will not allow you to give your best to each goal and limit your productivity.

Take it one day at a time, take comfort knowing that you don’t have to overhaul your life all in January.

4. Create support mechanisms

As fun as goal setting can be, it can start to feel overwhelming and lonely too. It helps to remember that you don’t have to do it all alone – learn to delegate, learn to ask for help. Of all the things that you could have to do in a day, only a few of them will require that you do them yourself.

For you to achieve success in every area of your life, certain tasks and processes need to automated or delegated. Who are the people that consistently show up for you? Your partner, kids, family? Ask yourself who can support you – not just with goals, but with your life in general.Get clear on the relationships  that best support you and will make accomplishing your goals for the next year easier than ever.

5. Make planning a regular practice

To do this, you need a planner. Now that you’ve figured all these out, you need to deploy.
Schedule your day by the hour, be disciplined with your time, maintain a to do list, block out times to carry out your most important tasks of the day – tasks that take you closer to your big goals.

Things don’t always go a planned but having a structure in place will help you adapt to changes in a profitable manner.

Give yourself the gift of living life on purpose.

I’m thankful to Maryam for sharing these tips with us. I particularly love the bit of deploying your goals in seasons. We’d be overwhelmed if we try to achieve everything at once. Maryam’s 365 Days of Intentional Living Planner is a great tool to help you make the best out of this year and is filled with useful guides and worksheets. She’s giving a 10% discount to readers and you simply have to quote Kachee365 for your discount. Please reach out to her on Instagram – @maryamikhina for more details and to order a planner.

Even better news, she’d be giving a couple of planners away for free, and details will be up on my Instagram – @kacheetee.

So, what one new goal would you like to achieve this year, and in what practical ways do you to do that? Let’s hear!

Love,
Kachee.. Xx