I’ve never been one for resolutions. Everyone knows that most New Year’s resolutions never make it out of January. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t prepare for the new year! The transition from one year to the next is a great time to take stock of your life, look mindfully at your journey over the past year, and think about where you’re heading. You know: out with the old, in with the new! New year, fresh start!
Out With the Old, In With the New: an 8-week Plan to Prepare for the New Year
I’ve put together this plan to help you wind the old year down and gracefully enter the new year ready to move forward with clarity and purpose. This is your chance to mindfully reorient yourself, assess your life, and think carefully about your next steps.
This plan is designed to be completed over an 8 week period. I know that sounds like a long time, but don’t worry! You only need an hour (or less) each week to complete the action items. I know this time of year is crazy enough and I’m not trying to overburden you!
Read on for the series overview and links to each week’s post!
Learning to Take Advantage of Transitional Times
The end of the year always goes by REALLY fast. Before you know it, the New Year will be here and your social feeds will be full of people vowing to do better. New year, new you and all that. You know the drill.
I don’t make resolutions. But I LOVE transitions.
Life is full of transitional times. Transitional times are those times when one thing is drawing to a close and you are waiting for the next thing to begin. And that’s what celebrating New Years’ is all about: a transition from one year to the next.
Transitions are a valuable time to properly honor the time period coming to an end so that you can freely start something new.
If you take the time to end the old year mindfully and to prepare for the promise of the new one, then when January 1st rolls around you can focus on stepping forward mindfully into a new beginning and building your purposeful life. AND you will be tapped into all of that cultural energy of fresh starts and motivation that seems to be everywhere at the beginning of January.
“Ends are not bad things, they just mean that something else is about to begin. And there are many things that don’t really end, anyway, they just begin again in a new way. Ends are not bad and many ends aren’t really an ending; some things are never-ending.” – C. JoyBell C.
An 8 Week Plan to Make the Most of the New Year
So, it’s almost Thanksgiving. The holiday season is getting ready to kick into full swing and you’ve got a million and a half things on your to-do list. Maybe you’re starting to feel a little panicky about how quickly the last few weeks of the year always seem to slip by. I don’t know about you, but December always feels like a complete blur to me.
Set yourself up to start the new year with your best foot forward!
Take a little bit of time to sit down and acknowledge the year that has passed, celebrate your accomplishments, and release the past. You don’t have to fall into next year not knowing which way is up. Instead, reflect on what has been working for you and what you want to bring forward into the future (and what you would prefer to leave behind).
I know that you may laugh at me when I tell you to find time for something else. But you don’t need a lot of extra time! These action items are designed to be completed within 1 hour. And the benefits you’ll reap are well worth that little bit of time.
Out With the Old, In With the New: Series Overview
This series will take you through December and almost to the end of January. I’m not gonna drop you off on Jan 1 and say “Good luck!” We are going to build up some positive momentum in the new year.
Here’s the schedule:
- Week 1: How To Do a Year-End Reflection [Make Peace with 2020]
- Week 2: How to Let Go of the Past and Move Forward Into the New Year
- Week 3: What You Allow is What Will Continue
- Week 4: In-Between Moments: Sitting in the Space Between Two Things
- Week 5: 7 Powerful Questions to Help You Create a Vision For Your Life
- Week 6: A 5-Step System for Breaking Goals Down Into Manageable Steps
- Week 7: How to Create a Morning Routine and Stick To It
- Week 8: 17 Small Daily Habits to Instantly Improve Your Quality of Life
Here’s the deal: you don’t have to stick exactly to this schedule. I deliberately spread it out so that it doesn’t add to your overwhelm AND so you have plenty of time to let things sit and process in-between weeks. This is meant to be reflective and meditative: a chance for you to be more deliberate about your annual transition from one year to the next
If you miss a week, do 2 things the next week. Do everything in one day if you want!
(If you go that route, I would strongly recommend at least breaking it up into two parts. If you want to do it all at once, I would suggest doing Weeks 1-3 in December, taking AT LEAST 1 day for Week 4, and then doing Weeks 5-8 in January.)
Share this post with your friends and take the journey together!
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10 Things to Do to Get Ready for the Holidays
7 Simple Ways to Enjoy the Small Things in Life