Plan ahead to navigate 2020 & feel your best

Prepping for spring will make 2020 your best year ever.

Get ready for an aligned spring that leads you into an inspired—and fired-up —rest of 2020! You take the reins and design your own blueprint of what you know works and what it takes. Then put it into action to make it happen for you! Let’s go!

For this intention-setting exercise, grab your journal or simply a piece of paper and your pen.

First, you need to review and reflect on where you’ve been and what you’ve done to date this year.

REVIEW & REFLECT

To help organize your reflections, you can make two columns, separating the lists into two aspects of your life, such as professional and personal, or maybe family and personal.

Here are some prompts to get you started:

Look back over the past year or this past season. What would you consider to be your highlights? Give this some thought. What stood out as the most positive and exciting events and accomplishments? What were the shining stars for you?

As you reflect on this year or this last quarter, give some thought to the comments, feedback and input you received. What was tough to take? What made you smile?

What accomplishments are you most proud of? What successes were the most meaningful? Especially the ones you worked so hard for.

How did you define success? How will you define it going forward?

ASSESS

Now, thinking over the few months, what lessons did you learn? Categorize these lessons into the lessons that helped you to grow and the lessons that helped you to shine—and then list “why” for each.

What feedback or input helped you to grow and shape you in the best ways?
What worked well?
What didn’t work so well? What would you do differently?

PLAN

This is where you get to create and mold the rest of your year! It is all about the feeling. This is what motivates us.

How do you want to feel moving forward? What does this state of
mind look like, feel like? Picture it and write it out as if it is happening today. Maybe it’s a word, a phrase or a whole paragraph. Draw a picture. Or clip out an image. Images and feelings go hand in hand.

What actions and steps do you have to take to get you to this feeling?

How would working with a friend or partner help challenge you and create accountability?

Will you have to learn anything new or adopt new habits or behaviors? What are they?

Ask yourself, are you doing these things now? Are you in alignment with how you wanted to feel after you entered 2020? If not, what do you have to add or take away to be in alignment?

After you have identified how you want to feel and what you need to do in order to get there, you get to map it out. This means plan ahead.

Plan out on a quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily basis the steps, actions, habits and behaviors you need to take to help you create the rest of 2020 you want. Start general, quarterly, and move to the most specific, daily.

This is a crucial step that will require more time and thought. Take your time and think through how you will incorporate your action steps to get you closer to your goals.

Keep in mind the other commitments in your schedule to ensure all your priorities remain aligned.

PRO TIP: have a plan B for when “life gets in the way” because things will come up and derail some of your plans. Plan B is key to have for the times when your action step didn’t go as planned. It is a fallback position that will keep you moving forward.

MOVE FORWARD

This is where it all comes together. This is the action phase. Here you go!

Follow the plan you put in place. Set monthly reminders to check in with yourself to ensure you are still on track with your plan. This will keep you feeling in alignment with your goals and the new habits you desire for yourself in your life.

Time to move

In spring the days are longer, the temperature starts to rise. It is a time of inspiration. A time when we can ramp up our goals for the year. Spring forward, just like we set our clocks.

Have a deeper check-in once a quarter. Step back and look at the big picture of your life. Remember, we are motivated by feelings. Find the feeling you wanted at the very beginning of this exercise. It is always there.

Here’s to staying aligned with your goals all year long!

More Inspiration: Check out this great article on building self-confidence.

Author: Doris Ward  is a nationally recognized fitness professional, workshop facilitator, and an award-winning personal trainer. As a coach and yoga instructor, she leads workshops on goal setting and body image and offers yoga classes for chronic pain management and for those recovering from trauma. She has completed training in Mindfulness, Yoga for Trauma, Coaching, Body Positivity, Peer Support Group Facilitation, and Mental Health First Aid. She has been certified as a Yoga Instructor, Pilates Instructor, Personal Trainer, Schwinn Cycling Instructor, and Group Fitness Instructor. Doris is a regular contributor of OptiMYz magazine.

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