Happy New Year!  It’s that time of year when it seems like everyone is setting goals and resolutions – our vision of the new year.  This year, we just don’t know.  There is still loads of uncertainty going into 2022, but we go on anyway.

Of course, the reality is that at this point of any year we have no idea what’s coming!  Our vision is limited.  It’s only in the last couple of years that we’ve been made very aware that we don’t know what’s coming, certainly in a way we haven’t been in the past.  So really, this year is beginning like every other year we’ve seen the start of.  It just seems more unavoidable this year.  Maybe it’s unavoidable, but it’s also status quo.

Now that we’ve established that this year is just like every year, we can get moving setting some goals.  Even though this year is like others before, we do feel more uncertain and actively setting some goals and writing them down may be more important this year than any other year.  After all, even though it’s the same as every other year, it still feels different.  And we could all use a little bit of support to make it through the unknown. 

But let’s not be hasty.  While we know that setting some goals will help us to keep focused throughout the year, we also know that most people don’t even get through January before those goals have been forgotten or overcome by events.  So, we can get to our goals but let’s get there smartly. 

Let’s start moving forward by looking back.  Start by asking yourself about the good that has come from our previous year.  Actively recognize your previous successes – all of them!  Might as well start on a positive note.

Now, for those goals.  You might have heard the oft reported  study that people who write down their goals are significantly more likely to achieve them (like so much internet data, the “Harvard study” that reports only 3% of people actually achieve their goals is apparently an urban myth, but actual research has also shown this!).  Writing goals down can be broadly defined – the point is to develop the goal and get it out of your head so you can refer to it (rather than either forgetting about it or allowing it to “morph” from a goal to just an idea you had).

Let’s set ourselves up for success.  Rather than just throwing some goals on paper and then forgetting about them (whether they’re written or not), how about starting with an exercise to really help focus and define good, achievable, success-oriented goals.  Let’s bastardize the Vision Board (which captures your view of what you’d like to manifest) and the Mood Board (which is really a visual planner).  You don’t have to buy into the hype of either of these tools to use them – and smushing them together into a single entity is just more useful.  Because really all these do is help you to see:

• a representation of where you’d like to go (these might become your goals)
• how you might go about getting from here to there (these might become your process)
• and the outcomes along the way (these might become products or outputs along the way). 

The important thing is to capture your thinking and then to look at it critically, make sure you have captured your thinking accurately, made changes as needed and capturing those too. 

Of course, you can use any medium – you can make a visual representation as a collage, drawing, painting, make paper dolls – whatever.  But don’t be focused on how you get it out – you could also write it out.  Use what works for you – write a puppet show, compose a song, choreograph a dance!  It really doesn’t matter as long as it helps you refine what you think you’d like your goals to be. 

This week, take some time to think about what you’d like to do this year (don’t be too focused on when you start  or how long you will be working on it.  After all the “new year” is just a calendar convention, January is when we’ve come to consensus on when the year begins).  Give yourself some time and space to do this – have a cup of tea and a slice of quiet and think about it.  When you think you have an idea, start building your board (in whatever format you choose).  Be free.  Be creative.  Be flexible.  Get it captured in your format.  Don’t just think about it – we’re going to move on from here, so you need a place to start.  Remember, you’re thinking and capturing – not committing!  And if you’re willing, share it with us – let me know in the comments.