New Year Planning: How to Live Your Best Year Yet [+ FREE Planner]

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Is there anything more exciting than planning for a new year?! As another year comes to an end, everyone (and their dogs) is getting ready to set new goals, hoping to make the most out of the fresh, new start that’s ahead of us all!

It’s also true that this initial excitement typically wears off by February, which is exactly when most people fall off track with their healthy habits and decide to give it all up…

Wasting yet another year.

If you’re reading this article, chances are that you’ve promised yourself that this year was going to be YOUR year, and – fear not – I’m here to show you exactly how you can live your best year yet!

Are you ready for a good, successful New Year planning sesh? Then, let’s get started!

Last updated: October 7, 2024

The Importance of Planning for the New Year

Whether you’re a type A kind of person (like me), or someone who dreads routine and takes life more spontaneously, here’s the universal truth: planning for the new year will increase your chances of achieving your goals!

Research shows that people are 42% more likely to achieve their goals if they write them down.

There are two reasons why taking the time to plan and write your goals works:

1. It works as a visual reminder of the vision you have for your life
2. You’re naturally encoding information (which will be more likely remembered, making it easier to take aligned actions)

So, if you’re committed to seriously changing your life this year, you need to set aside some time to sit down with yourself and…simply do the planning.

I promise: it’s going to pay off!

NB ➔ To better follow along with this yearly planning guide, you can download for FREE the Dream Life Planner!

How to Create a Realistic and Actionable New Year’s Goal Plan

Without further ado, let’s talk about the steps you must take to plan your life for the new year! Are you ready?

Reflect on the Past Year

While I’m a fan of goal setting myself, there is an important step in the process that often is forgotten: taking a step back to acknowledge how far you’ve come.

Before moving to your next big goal and the long list of New Year’s resolutions, I want you to first reflect on the year you’ve just lived.

It’s so easy to get stuck into the mindset for which we want more, we crave more, we work for more. This leads to forgetting to be grateful for all we already have…

Take a moment to embrace the abundance in your life, as it is.

Express your gratitude for all you have, who you’ve become, and what you’ve been through.

Maybe you’re not the best version of yourself, yet. Maybe you’re not living your dream life, yet.

But you’re getting there.

Today you are one step closer than you were yesterday.

Today, you’re further along your personal growth journey than you were one year ago.

Any improvement – no matter how small – is worth celebrating.

Don’t be so focused on the destination that you forget to enjoy the journey.

Trust the process. Embrace it. Be grateful for it.

Related: Read also “41 Positive Affirmations for the New Year”

Life Audit: The Wheel of Life

Well, now that you’ve acknowledged how far you’ve come, it’s time to get crystal clear on where you are in life.

To analyze your current life situation, one of the best tools to conduct an effective life audit is using the “Wheel of Life”.

This technique involves assessing a score from 0 (fully unsatisfied) to 10 (completely satisfied) for every area of your life, such as:

• Personal Growth
• Health
• Mindset
• Relationships
• Creativity
• Happiness
• Career
• Finance

Once you’ve defined your overall satisfaction rate for each category, you’ll have a clear picture of what you need to work on with the most urgency.

How to Level Up

Taking a look back at your “Wheel of Life”, you’ll now want to brainstorm ideas on how you can reach Level 10 in all areas of your life.

Ok, I know it sounds like we’re going overboard with this whole planning thing, but the real question you should ask is: “Why would you limit yourself to be just good when you could be great?”.

If you could score a 10 on all areas of your life, why would you not want to go for it?!

So yeah, even for those areas in which you’re thinking “Meh, it ain’t that bad…”, I still want you to think of ways to reach level 10.

Don’t panic: you’re not going to focus on all areas at the same time – that’s just humanly impossible.

How are you going to level up? We’ll come back to this in a moment. For now, just stick with me!

Word for the Year

Before we move into the detailed planning of your year, there is an extra step that you might decide to skip (or not) during your new year planning process: choosing your word for the year.

Your word can be anything: it just needs to be aligned with who you are – or want to become – and what you’d like to get more of – or create – in the new year!

Some of the most popular words are:

• Balance
• Connection
• Growth
• Joy
• Fulfillment
• Adventure
• Gratitude
• Abundance
• Resilience
• Intuition
• Mindful
• Peace
• Discipline
• Creativity
• Purpose

Why Is It Important to Choose a Word of the Year?

The word you set for the year ahead will help you navigate through life as you get faced with new challenges and choices daily.

Let’s say you chose the word “connection”…

It’s a random Saturday afternoon, that you’re spending scrolling the time away since it’s rainy and gloomy outside. You have nothing better to do than scrolling on TikTok and Instagram, looking at how much fun others are having while you sink into a bubble of self-pity, loneliness, and discouragement.

Well, since your word is “connection” – why don’t you seek it?

You get reminded of your word for the year, so you pick up the phone and call a friend. Next thing you know, you’re on your way to the mall for an uplifting shopping run with your bestie!

Here’s another example: this time, you’ve chosen “discipline” as your word.

You got home last night from a 2-week vacation, and now you have to go back to your routine (ugh, is there anything worse?!).

You look at your to-do list: you have to clean, cook, work out, and catch up on emails. Obviously, you don’t feel like doing any of these – your mind is still in vacation mode!

But, since your word is “discipline” – you ask yourself: “How would a disciplined person behave?”.

While it might be easier to indulge in extra time off, you also know that those things won’t get done by themselves. So, you pull up your sleeves and get to work – yes, even if it’s hard! Why? Because that’s what a disciplined person would do 😉

Now you see how beneficial it can be to pick a word for the year?

📌 SHORT ON TIME? PIN IT FOR LATER! 📌

New Year’s Goals and Resolutions

As you move onto this step, you’ll want to keep in the back of your mind the word you’re going to focus on this year.

While you decide on the list of goals and resolutions you’d like to achieve this year, it’s important to ensure that they’re actually in alignment with your North Star.

By continuing on the examples above, if your focus is “connection”, some goals you might set are:

• Attend a social event every week
• Call or text with a family member every day
• Reach out to a friend every week
• Plan a romantic date once a month
• Spend a maximum of one hour online per day

As you move along, all the dots should be easily connected to ensure you have the most successful year!

Create Your Action Plan

It’s now time to get your hands dirty!

Take a look back at your “Wheel of Life” and the “Level up” ideas you brainstormed, together with the list of goals and resolutions you’ve just drafted.

Before we start, take a look at the two lists and see if there are any overlaps or insignificant goals you might want to get rid of.

And, if those long lists are starting to make you feel overwhelmed – fear not! We’re going to break everything down into tiny, easy steps.

Quarterly Planning

When planning your year in advance, one of the best strategies is to break down your year into four quarters:

1. Quarter 1 (January, February, March)
2. Quarter 2 (April, May, June)
3. Quarter 3 (July, August, September)
4. Quarter 4 (October, November, December)

By doing so, you will set yourself up for a successful year. Why?

In case you screw up at the beginning of the year, you have 3 more chances for a complete re-do!

Doesn’t that take pressure off on having to do everything perfectly the first time? Also, doesn’t that make your planning feel more tangible – like you can actually see the end goal?

Ideally, you’d want to focus on 1 to 3 areas of your life per quarter.

Once you’ve decided on the area(s) you’re working on, it’s time to break that down even further!

Monthly Planning

Whether you’ve decided to focus on 1 area or 3, you now must set specific goals for each month of the given quarter.

Let’s say, for example, that you’ve decided to tackle your relationships first during the first quarter of the year.

Your goals are:

• January ➔ focus on friendships
• February ➔ focus on the relationship with your significant other
• March ➔ focus on family harmony

Now, all you have to do is to set S.M.A.R.T. monthly goals. For example:

• January goals
  • Reach out to a friend every week
  • Attend at least one social event per week
  • Go to new places to find a like-minded community
• February goals
  • Organize a date night bi-weekly
  • Practice active listening
  • Do small acts of love randomly
• March goals
  • Call a family member once a week
  • Set personal boundaries
  • Be open to accepting different points of view

Now that you have your goals all sorted out, it’s time to make it happen!

Weekly Planning

The truth is: if you don’t put it in your calendar, it’s never going to happen!

You could come up with a great list of goals and have the best intention to achieve them, but you also need to make time for them!

If you don’t, you’ll end up like most people do: shocked and sad, on December 30th, when finding out that your New Year’s resolution list was only made to collect dust…

Before filling your week with things you must do, there is an important exercise you should complete: assess your ideal week vs. your current one.

• How would your week look like if you were already your best self?
• What would you do every week if you were already living your dream life?
• How would you spend your week if you had already achieved [that goal]?
• How are you currently spending your time?
• In what ways do your ideal and current week differ?
• What actions can you take to bridge that gap?
• Basically: how can you start living your ideal week, NOW?

After reflecting on those questions, the next thing left to do is plan your week to the detail.

Hold Yourself Accountable

If you want to live your best year yet, the secret to success is consistency!

There are several ways you could hold yourself accountable and ensure to stay on top of your goals, such as:

• Using a monthly, weekly, or daily habit tracker
• Sharing your goals with a friend, relative, or partner
• Doing monthly and weekly check-ins to review your goals and take corrective actions (if necessary)
• Sharing your personal growth journey online
• Finding an accountability buddy

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🌟 FREE NEW YEAR PLANNER 🌟

If you’ve made it this far – WOW, you’re seriously committed to making the most of this year!

And…I have a gift for you!

The new year planning process I’ve just guided you through is based on the FREE “Dream Life Planner” I’ve personally designed!

What are you waiting for?! Grab it below and get ready to live the best year yet – starting by planning it! 😉

Q: “What’s your #1 goal for this year?” – Share it in a comment! 🙂

Until next time,

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