Dream, Plan, Achieve: My Blueprint for a Successful New Year

Resolutions are used for personal development and goal setting and are firm decisions or intentions to do or achieve something specific, usually over the course of a set period, usually written as a New Year’s set of goals. They are often direct resolutions for making positive changes in one’s behavior, habits, or lifestyle. They are typically set at the beginning of a new year, symbolizing a fresh start and a commitment to self-improvement.

This blog is about taking steps to make your hopes, plans, and dreams become a reality. By developing a blueprint and preparing to write New Year Resolutions.

Dream until it becomes reality.

“A dream written down with a date becomes a GOAL. A goal broken down into steps becomes a PLAN. A plan backed by ACTION makes your dreams come true.” 

– Greg Reid

My goal for December is to help you make a plan for the New Year, write resolutions, and prepare for 2024. To help you go on a journey of self-improvement, working toward reaching your fullest potential. To help you find your hopes, plans, and dreams.

Why set goals?

  • Is there some area of your life that you want to improve? Even in areas where you are on top of your game, there is always room for improvement.
  • Do you lack direction, have unhealthy habits, or just lack focus?
  • Are you a procrastinator?
  • Do you need to manage your stress better?
  • Do you need to take more control of your time management?
  • Do you want to reach your fullest potential?
  • Are there relationships you want to nurture?

I will create blogs that lead you to other resources on each topic. There are many resources to help motivate and educate yourself on doing a better job. For example, I love TED talks, videos, and blogs. Sources could include experts in their fields of self-improvement, setting goals, and achieving those goals. I strongly encourage you to follow the links in the blogs. Saturate yourself with how to dream big and set goals you can achieve. Follow me on this journey.

Once you have your goals set, as we move into January, we will switch gears and cover topics of momentum, persistence, consistency, and intentional living.

What is your dream?

It is time to prepare for the new year 2024 and answer this question. First, let’s look at a major roadblock on your new journey.

I can or I can’t

The difference is:

I can, or I can’t. These two simple statements can make a difference in how you approach each day. Check out this Ted Talk by Charles Parker; What should I do with my life?  What is the first statement you go to? I can do this, or I can’t do this.

STOP using, I can’t. Ignore your inner doubt.

Believe in Yourself!

How to achieve your dreams

How to actually achieve your goals, according to Eb Gargano; Productive Blogging. How to actually achieve your goals: The Real Secret to turning your dreams into reality.

Setting Goals

What is your goal? A Goal is a dream with a plan, transform your dreams.

Write your goals out on paper. This helps you to visualize as well as revisit as often as needed. Out of sight - out of mind!

I use many tools to help me gain a big picture of what my next year will look like. What do I want to accomplish? My journals are divided into Mind/Body/Soul, so that I set goals for my entire essence. I use spreadsheets to track my goals, and a daily list to make sure I keep on track – just a little notebook. My Google calendar is my best friend. As I schedule my life, I make a note on the calendar. For example, writing blogs. I have a task noted on my calendar as a prompt. I will not offer 3 steps to success, or 5 ways to reach your dreams, because we all approach life differently; you need to develop your own system. I will only offer guidance to resources, and some of the tools I have found along the way.

I truly believe that we each need to find what works best for us. In the next blog, I will start discussing how to write your resolutions.

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”  – Eleanor Roosevelt

Recommended Reading

Start with the Vision, by Robert R. Shallenberg

11 Secrets Successful People Know about Goal Setting: A Science-Based Guide That Turns Goals into Reality, by Kevin Kruse.

How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen, by David Brooks.  This is a great book if you are setting goals for improving relationships in your life.

#intentionalliving, #goals, #happiness, #lifesatisfaction, #lifejourney, #selfreflection, #fulfillment, #settinggoals, #dreambig

Finding Your Path to Life Satisfaction & Well-being

Navigating the Maze

Our life is a journey. It is essential to have a plan to guide you. A key to fulfilling your life and finding quality is to explore yourself. Embrace self-reflection; it takes time to understand yourself, your values, and your passions. Always ask questions and seek the answers. What is profoundly important in your life? It is important to take time to reflect on your strengths and your weaknesses. Part of the journey is looking back on experiences that have shaped who you are today. Many of your experiences are based on your upbringing, family culture, location, values, and beliefs. An understanding of who you are today is needed to start planning for the you – you want to be tomorrow.

“If you don’t have a goal in mind, you can’t expect to achieve it.”

Frank Sonnenberg, The Path to a Meaningful Life

Hopes, Plans, & Dreams. What path are you going to take to reach your goals?

This is an introspective journey. It helps to develop a foundation or framework to help you understand what truly matters in your life. Clarifying values is vital; what do you hold dear in your life? What parts of your life reflect the authentic you?

You will need to clarify your values in life and what gives your life meaning. We want to set authentic goals as we move forward. This blog will be about this path to life satisfaction and well-being. Our storyline will be “Who am I today? And who do I want to be tomorrow?”

As we move into December, we will start laying the groundwork for setting goals for the new year. Your New Year’s Resolutions. Beginning in January, we will look at tools to help you set priorities and understand all the building blocks that have formed who you are today. We will learn about the toolboxes of skills, knowledge, and abilities that you have to help you with this journey. Some of the toolboxes are education, social skills, natural abilities, learned abilities, psychological and emotional skills, and career.

January will be about self-exploration and examination, working to develop a solid plan of action for the year. A year is often too big to wrap our heads around, so we will learn to break down the steps necessary to reach our goals. The philosophy will be continuous improvement – incrementally, small steps.

Your goals should align with your hopes, plans, and dreams. They should reflect what you want to achieve in different areas of your life. The goals could be about your career, relationships, personal development, or hobbies.

Through intentional living, we want to build healthy habits. Physical and mental well-being are essential to your life satisfaction. Creating practices that nourish your body and mind through regular exercise and a balanced diet is essential. Other sources of life satisfaction include adequate sleep and social relationships. Together, these things bring satisfaction to your life.

Conclusion

This journey is about challenges, but we will see these challenges as opportunities for growth. Finding your path to life satisfaction is an ongoing process of self-discovery, growth, and intentional living. It’s about aligning your life with your values, setting meaningful goals, navigating challenges, and building resilience. Life is like a roller coaster. Sometimes, you are flying high, but life is a maze of unknowns, and sometimes we hit lows. Resilience and consistency will help you navigate the difficulties. A strong sense of clarity, direction, and defining what gives your life meaning will build personal strength. Follow along, and we will create a framework for your life plan. Embrace the journey.

Life is a journey wordcloud

Recommended Reading

Amazon.com: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: 30th Anniversary Edition (The Covey Habits Series) eBook : Covey, Stephen R., Collins, Jim, Covey, Sean

This Feeling Matters More Than Happiness | Psychology Today

How To Be More Satisfied With Your Life – 5 Steps Proven By Research | Time

#intentionalliving, #goals, #happiness, #lifesatisfaction, #lifejourney, #selfreflection, #fulfillment, #settinggoals

Embracing Clarity

Seeking Purpose and Direction in Life

Seeking Purpose and Direction in Life

In our busy lives, it is easy to get lost in the fog of ambiguity and uncertainty. The lack of a clear purpose, vision, and direction can confuse us, making it difficult to make decisions, set goals, and follow our dreams with confidence. But in this uncertainty, clarity can be the guiding light to finding purpose and direction. Clarity can pave the way to a more productive and fulfilling life. In this blog, we explore how embracing clarity can help you move away from ambiguity and uncertainty, opening the way to a more purposeful and productive life.

What does clarity mean?

Clarity means to have a clear understanding or view of something. This includes the ability to see things distinctly and without doubt. It can mean that the person has a clear mental image, understanding, or insight.

Clarity is the key to letting go of doubt. The goal is to understand your core values through self-reflection. Take some time to reflect on your core values, desires, and aspirations. Check out these journaling prompts for Self-Discovery. What truly matters to you? What are your long-term goals? Once you understand your values, you can build a foundation for clarifying your sense of purpose.

Clarity increases in a focused state. Identify the distractions that are pulling you away from your goal and eliminate them. Eliminating distractions could mean decluttering your physical space or limiting your digital distractions. By creating a clear and focused environment, you can enhance your clarity of purpose.

Clarity is essential for success and personal growth. It is up to you to go from dreaming to making your dreams come true. Clarity is a powerful force for imagining the future you want. It can be a gateway to productivity. With a clear sense of purpose, the decision will become more straightforward. Clarity allows you to align your choices with your goals, making it easier to weed out options that don’t contribute to your vision.

When you have clarity of purpose and direction, it empowers you to focus on personal and professional growth. It motivates you to seek opportunities for learning, skill development, and self-improvement.

How do you create clarity?

Ask and answer some of the deep, probing questions about life. Get to know yourself.

  • What are my actions?
  • Do they reflect my core values?
  • What is my purpose?
  • What is most important right now?
  • What is most important for my future?
  • Who do I want to be?

Develop a mission or vision statement for your life. Become aware of your values and beliefs.

Photo by Nila Maria on Unsplash

On a clear day, you can see tomorrow!

On a clear day, you can see Forever Lyrics by The Peddlers.

Rise and look around you
And you’ll see who you are
On a clear day
How it will astound you
That the glow of your being
Outshines every star
You’ll feel part of every mountain,
Sea and shore
You can hear
From far and near
A word you’ve never, never heard before…
And on a clear day… On a clear day…
You can see forever…

I find clarity when walking my dog. It seems as if my mind lets go of work and daily life. A time that I can be completely present. By not focusing on concerns or ideas. My term is popcorn. It seems ideas and plans just start flowing as soon as I let go.

Hours slide by like minutes. The accumulated clutter of day-to-day existence — the lapses of conscience, the unpaid bills, the bungled opportunities, the dust under the couch, the inescapable prison of your genes — all of it is temporarily forgotten, crowded from your thoughts by an overpowering clarity of purpose and by the seriousness of the task at hand.

Jon Krakauer

Conclusion

We each seek quality and life satisfaction. We are indeed a work in progress. In the journey of life, finding clarity of purpose and direction is like discovering a treasure map. It guides you and keeps you on track. Embrace the process of self-discovery.

Cyrus Aram, in a TED talk, discusses ambiguity and how to manage it, which touches on self-discovery, identifying where you are at, and setting goals. Having hope will help you move through the ambiguity. Uncertainty Tolerated: The Surprising Clarity when Managing Ambiguity, Cyrus Aram.

Cyrus Aram: Uncertainty Tolerated: The Surprising Clarity when Managing Ambiguity | TED Talk

Recommended Reading

Focus, The Hidden Driver of Excellence, by Goleman, Daniel

Stolen Focus, Why You Can’t Pay Attention and How to Think Deeply Again, by Hari, Johann

Deep Work, Rules for a Focused Success in a Distracted World, by Newport, Cal

#purpose, #selfdiscovery, #clarity, #purpose, #settinggoals, #definingyourself, #corevalues, #selfreflection, #personalgrowth, #skilldevelopment, #selfimprovement

The Journey of Personal Transformation

What is Personal Transformation?

Personal transformation is a dynamic, individual process of expanding awareness so that you can become aware of the current you and start defining the new self-view. Then, choose to integrate these views into a revised self-definition.

An article in Psychology Today, posted on August 31, 2021, by Nina Ahuja BScHons, MD, FRCSC, CHE, states that personal transformation is a continual process. A positive outlook, a growth mindset, and introspection are all essential in helping you become a more robust and better version of yourself as you transform.

So, personal transformation is about improving yourself.

What do we need to do to reach our highest potential?

We need to take responsibility for our decisions and actions. The outcome will be personal satisfaction and a better quality of life.

"Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." George Bernard Shaw

The Road to Transformation

  • Embrace change
    • Accepting and welcoming new situations, ideas, or ways of thinking without fear, resistance, or hesitation. It involves being open-minded. Expanding out of your comfort zone by exploring possibilities and opportunities.
  • Embrace resilience
    • Which is the ability to bounce back from setbacks, learn from failures, and adapt to new situations. Resilience empowers us to face challenges head-on, turning threats and challenges into opportunities.
  • Develop a Positive Mental Attitude
    • Self-dialogue is the discussion we have with ourselves. Develop positive self-talk. Become your own cheerleader. Have a pep rally on what is good about your life.
Beautifully colored butterfly - to symbolize our personal transformation.

Photo by Alfred Schrock on Unsplash

Articles & Blogs

Personal Transformation Is a Continual Process | Psychology Today

How to Become Self-Empowered, by Lisa Marie Bobby, Ph.D., LMFT, BCC

“Everything you want is just outside of your comfort zone.”

-Robert Allen

Conclusion

Transformation is a continuous process. It is not a quick fix; you must leave your comfort zone to grow. Who will you be tomorrow? What will the new version of you look like? Empowering personal transformation is not just a goal; it is a lifelong commitment to self-discovery, growth, and fulfillment. Take a journey of setting goals, building positive habits, and seeking support.

Through these actions, you will empower yourself to transform into who you want to be and design the life you want. Seeking to become the best version of yourself. Making a conscious decision to take charge of your destiny. Embracing change is a mindset that helps you navigate life’s transitions.

Give yourself permission to be in charge. Take Responsibility!

Recommended Reading

Flourish, by Martin E.P. Seligman

Mindset: How we can learn to fulfill our potential, by Dweck, Carol S., Ph.D.

Resolutions: Life Planning Tools, by Pilcher, Linda

#selfdiscovery, #Inspiring, #accountability, #selfgrowth, #selfrealization, #purpose, #destiny, #dreams, #goals, #improvement, #resilience

We Define Ourselves by the Choices We Make

We Define Ourselves by the Choices We Make

Every decision you make defines who you are. It takes work to become who you really want to be. If you live by default, without a plan, without understanding how your actions affect your future; you may end up somewhere you never wanted to be.

So how do we make better choices?

  • Awareness
  • Habits
  • Continuous Improvement Incrementally
  • Take Control – Zero Excuses!

Awareness

Awareness is vital. Becoming aware of our actions, the way we perform them, and the underlying motivations behind them. Subconscious habits dictate much of how we move through our day. In part, this is necessary, so that we can focus on more complex issues.

Awareness of habits, choices that we’re making, and the outcomes we want.

Habits

A lot of what we do in our lives is guided by habits that we have built over our lifetime. Many of these habits are unconscious, so we are performing tasks at this subconscious level without even really thinking about it. Have you ever driven to work, and then realized you do not remember the drive? The driving is on autopilot.

Habits are good for us because they help us get through our lives without putting huge amounts of mental and physical energy into completing every task.

However, there is a drawback to this because those habits are so strongly built into who we are. They dictate a lot about how we work our way through each day. Some habits are excellent for us and yet others, not so much. Changing your habits takes effort and time.

Continuous Improvement Incremental

Continuous Improvement Incrementally is enhancing and refining something gradually and steadily. Acknowledging there is always room for improvement, even if something is functioning well. It could enhance your skills, knowledge, or habits. Incrementally means taking small steps toward improvement. In self-development, this could be any aspect of your life where you feel you need to grow and improve.

By making changes incrementally, they are easier to implement, assess, and adapt to. Making changes over time can lead to significant positive outcomes.

Kaizen Philosophy: Continuous improvement incrementally aligns with the Kaizen philosophy, a Japanese term meaning “change for the better.” Kaizen emphasizes making small, continuous changes to improve efficiency and quality.

Personal Kaizen is the philosophy of life to change without being overwhelmed.

▷ Personal Kaizen, the philosophy of life to change without being overwhelmed (psychology-spot.com)

Take Control, Take Responsibility, Zero Excuses

Take control of your choices. Stop all the excuses. Who are you today? And who do you want to be tomorrow? What changes need to take place? The healthier you might mean, better food choices, and more movement. Looking at your life, ask what wellbeing means. A more work-life balance might look like taking more time to be with your family; not living for the job.

Take responsibility. It is not someone else’s responsibility to make your decisions. Taking responsibility means your health, education, job, financial, and career choices. It also means choices about your behavior and how you spend your free time.

No excuses, we often are the limiting element in our lives. You either have a mindset of I can, or I can’t.

Art by John Hain from Pixabay

Everything is a Choice

Life is a series of choices and our decisions shape who we are. Acknowledging that every action allows individuals to consciously define their path.

We can correct our course

Life is complex. We need to work out a plan. We can float, day by day, unconsciously doing the same thing repeatedly, hoping for a different ending. Or we can take control of our destiny and become the person we really want to be.                               

Some of our choices can be like a brick wall in front of us — one so high we cannot climb over the wall. Yes, some people manage to have plans A, B, C, D, and Z if needed. They find a ladder and climb over the wall, take a sledgehammer, and break the wall, dig a hole underneath it, or just walk around the side of the wall. Meaning we can live in a self-imposed box or break out and take responsibility for our choices. No excuses.

How to define yourself before others do it for you | LinkedIn

We can choose to be healthy, to get up early, to get eight hours of sleep. If we choose not to do these things, we have defined our path.

“Our lives are fashioned by our choices. First, we make our choices. Then our choices make us.”

– Anne Frank.

Conclusion

We are all that we experience. Everything is a choice. Pay attention and be aware of what you’re doing throughout your day. Have a bigger plan. Visualize the bigger picture so that you can understand how today’s actions impact future outcomes.

Success is built on daily choices and activities, usually in small steps. Again, I will repeat that continuous improvement incrementally is a way to start making those changes.

Habits are our comfortable place and when we’re stressed, tired, or lazy, we fall back on those habits. Changing those habits takes time, it takes effort, and awareness. But you can change your habits. Some people make radical transformations in their life but that’s usually based on incremental changes.

I invite you to embrace a philosophy of taking responsibility for who you are today, and who you will be tomorrow, with zero excuses. As Nike’s tagline says, “Just Do It.” You have the power within you to change your life to the life you really want.

Recommended Reading

·         Kaizen: The Japanese Secret to Lasting Change—Small Steps to Big Goals, by Harvey, Sarah.

·         The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Covey, Stephen R.

#habits, #awreness, #continuousimprovement, #definingyourself, #habitbuilding, #kaizen, #whoami

Redefine Your Story: Why Start Now Paves the Way to New Beginnings

Why start now?

And where do you start?
Every journey has a designated starting point. Changing your life, setting goals, planning a vacation. Sometimes it’s hard to determine what the starting point is, and how do I get from A to B. Developing a plan of action is a good starting point. Looking at the bigger picture. What is it you want to accomplish? What steps are involved, and what is your timeline?

“The stories we tell ourselves about ourselves determine the quality of the selves we imagine we are.”

—Rami M. Shapiro

Everyone tells themselves a story about who they are and what they are worth. However, the stories you tell yourself are instrumental in setting the course and deciding how far you will go in life. DrRooplen.com, Personal Development Blog, gives you five tips to change the stories you tell yourself.

Stories are the way we make sense of our lives.

As humans, we like to listen to stories. Storytelling has been a way of passing down our history, and our culture’s information about our world. So, think of your plan of action as your story. What story do you want to tell? Do you want to accomplish some specific tasks or improve your physical health?

A good plan of action can be developed by asking questions. The 5W’s have always been my starting point.

Who
What
When
Where
Why

Examine your life. Become aware of what you are thinking, feeling, and doing. Humans have great potential to change our lifestyles, behaviors, and habits. It starts with becoming aware of where you are now – AND – where you want to go. Where you are today is your starting point, the beginning of your story; it is up to you to define the next chapter in your personal story.

Take out a piece of paper. I am encouraging you to use paper and pen, as you can carry them around with you, make changes, and create a picture for your starting point. The blog on this website will talk more about visualization and self-dialogue. Keep an eye out for more to come.

Now let me add another dimension to this post: continuous improvement, incrementally. People often get overwhelmed because they look at the big picture and think it is too much; overwhelming. If instead, you look at the big picture and start breaking it down into smaller components.

Step 1 – Learn a new skill – Define what you want to lean
Step 2 – Determine what your current skills are and what is the gap; what do you need to learn the new skill? It might be an online class, a YouTube tutorial video, or a book on the subject. Something that can help you learn this new skill. What is it?
Step 3 – Implementation. How will you make this plan become a reality?

Write a poem
Write a book
Get a new job
Go back to school
 What is it you want to add to your story?

Then you tackle the task incrementally, a little at a time. Especially when changing aspects of your story. It does not have to be rushed. Let’s say you are going to change your weight. Do not go on a radical stop eating a diet that makes you miserable; and will not work in the long run. Plan on changing your diet incrementally. One week, take something out of your diet that is unhealthy. One item at a time. Get used to the idea that you do not need that food item.

Yes, I have followed this practice and radically changed my lifestyle, nutritional intake, and exercise routines. One small step at a time. Sometimes it took me months to wean myself from something I loved that was bad for me.  

Closing Notes

How changing your story can change your life – Lori Gottlieb Ted Talk
How changing your story can change your life | Lori Gottlieb – YouTube

Join me in

A Movement Toward Improvement

Who am I?

Just a puppet on a string

To dance and sing

And make them laugh

A game called survive

Put her down

See how long she lives

Till she dies

A dream

Only to disappear

When they awaken

The mind of a single thought

One word of an infinite song

Who Am I?

Just a puppet on a string?

I wrote this poem when I was sixteen years old. My personal pilgrimage had just started. My guides were self-help books, ancient philosophers, and current psychologists; who taught me how to improve. Today, I am no longer that lost little girl; I am a woman who knows her strengths and weaknesses, knows what I want from life, and how to achieve my goals.

What Defines Me?                                                                                     

This question is personal and deep; it involves a lifetime of likes and dislikes, passions, visions, hopes, plans, and dreams. Is it my perspective of me that defines me or others’ perspectives of me? I vote for my perspective, yet that does not make it true. 

Yes, we are influenced by others.

What does your mother see when she looks into your eyes?

  • Your significant other
  • Your children
  • Your co-workers
  • Church community
  • Teachers
  • Your best friend

The chances are that each person sees a different you. The attributes they know. No one really knows us, but I also feel we do not fully know ourselves. We put on masks for different roles that hid parts of ourselves from others and sometimes ourselves. So we are going to take a journey seeking to define “Who am I.” 

On our journey, we are seeking what is true; what is real? We are looking for our authentic selves. The problem with this is we are the architecture of this self. The truth is that we are complex creatures. Part of our identity is created by where we are born, our family’s biological traits, culture and religion, and worldview. Then a part of our identity is defined by us – we have the ability to design who we become.

So let me answer a few questions about why I am blogging instead of keeping a personal journal.

I have kept a personal journal since I was 16. My pilgrimage on the search for self has been lifelong. At this time, I want to bring others who are seeking on this journey.

The main question will be, “Who am I? It would help if you answered these questions in-depth as you start your journey.

I will be writing about self-insight, self-growth, self-improvement, and reaching your highest level of human potential. I want to connect to people who want to grow in a direction that is progressive, people who want to be better humans.

My goal is to build a community of like-minded individuals who want a better life, a better world.

Who am I? I am an artist, writer, businesswoman, wife, mother, grandmother, sister, friend, neighbor. It is my responsibility to be the best at each role I hold.