Plan for the New Year

New Year’s Day is a major anchoring point for people. Society and how the passage of time is constructed deems January 1st as the first chapter of a New Year. For people, this is an easy and obvious date to set their sights on to make changes in their lives. New Year’s resolutions officially start on that first day. People wake up on January 1st and find themselves committed to goals, new habits, and changes they hope to sustain over the next 365 days and beyond. But like a birthday, the New Year is just significant because of how society treats it. You are no different on January 1st than you were on December 31st. You don’t change once the clock strikes midnight and the New Year begins. You change over time, time that you commit to using to evolve and achieve what you set out to do.

For many, this time of committing to a change starts on January 1st of the New Year. But starting your plan to change on January 1st is starting from behind. If you choose to use the New Year as an anchoring point for change, why don’t you spend the months of November and December planning for the New Year? With a plan in place, goals in mind, and intentions set, you can hit the ground running on January 1st with a full head of steam. You can start working towards your goals immediately as opposed to spending the first couple of weeks or days in January getting momentum started.

Planning for the New Year and the intentions you want is not difficult. The hard part is setting time aside now to welcome your thoughts and to reflect on what you have done the prior year. As you deliberately use your time to entertain introspective thoughts, your plans for the New Year will naturally fall into place. This period of reflection is used to assess your life and where you are today and then project forward to where you want to be in a year. Reflect on the past and plan for the future.

Every intention, desire, and goal you have starts with a plan to be achieved. If you value your time and want to have momentum immediately on January 1st, planning for the New Year ahead of time is the obvious and best usage of your time. Time spent today, tomorrow, and next week, will only make your pursuits over the coming year seem more real. As they seem more real in your mind, when January 1st starts you can immediately start making them into a reality with your actions.