Day 1: Go through the past 12 months in your mind, calendar, social media feeds, etc. and make note of the high points, wins, and successes. Put them into a list and bask in your awesomeness.

 

Day 2: Do the same kind of lookback but this time note the low points, failures, and mistakes. What do you need to do to be complete with them? What did you learn?

 

Day 3: Make 1 goal in each of the three areas in your life that you would like to give special attention to this year. Some area ideas: Family, Relationships, Health, Fitness, Money, Career, Spiritual, Service, Space (home, car, work/school space). Make one goal for each.

 

Day 4: For each goal consider 3 priorities or focus areas around that goal. For example, if one of your areas is Money and your goal is to be debt free by the end of the year, three focus areas might be: Organization, Saving, Earning.

 

Day 5: For each focus area, create 5 strategies. Continuing with the Money goal of being debt free by the end of the year, if one focus area is Organization, some strategies might be: 

 

1. Get all my financial passwords in one place.
2. Download a financial organization app like Mint.
3. Find out what my credit score is.
4. Get a file box and folders for saving paper financial records and correspondence.
5. Make a recurring appointment for myself to pay bills and review statements.

Day 6: For each focus area build out as many detailed action steps as you can think of so that on any given day when you’re feeling like, ‘OMG my life is so hard, I don’t know what to do’ you will have something you CAN do to move yourself toward the direction of your dreams! Continuing with the Money -> Organization -> Strategies example, some detailed action steps might be:

 

• Log into my bank and write down that login info.
• Log into my credit card and write down that login info
• Log into my student loan account and write down that login info.
• Spend 15 minutes setting up Mint.
• Find the websites of all 3 credit reporting companies.
• Print out my credit reports.
• Set up the file box and label the folders (pay stubs, IRS correspondence, bank statements, etc.).
• Organize the bills in my wallet.
• etc.

DAY 7: Get into Action.

 

P.S. If you're great at planning but rotten at execution, here are a couple of books that will help: