The 3 Essential Questions I Ask Myself to Make Every Year the Best Year Yet
There are two main components to the turnover of a new year: the closing of one year and the opening of another.
I have a streamlined system that I use every single year to make sure that I close one year and open a new one with purpose.
Here are three essential questions I ask myself to make every transition to a new year intentional and thoughtful.
What went well this year?
I literally list out specific things that went well this year. For 2020, I realized my long-time dream of full-time travel, I invested in my most important friendships, I thought I couldn’t homeschool my kids but turns out I really like it, I’ve been kind to myself and flexible during quarantine, I’ve continued to invest in therapy and do internal work. When my book launch had to pivot during Covid-19, I did a good job taking responsibility for what I could and let go of the things I couldn’t change.
You get the idea! Take a minute to celebrate what went well (even in 2020!)
What didn’t go well this year?
I didn’t get enough one-on-one time with my friends (not totally my fault, but still!), or one-on-one time with each of my kids. We were all together in the house a lot, getting ready to hit the road, so there wasn’t too many opportunities to be with each kid individually. Even though we all live together in an Airstream now, I want to find ways to still get that one-on-one time. I also want to read more instead of ending my days watching Bravo. I don’t want to watch no Bravo, but I do want to read more.
How can I make sure that the things that didn’t go well don’t happen again?
I need to plan ahead how I can connect with friends when we’re full-time traveling. Maybe I can set a specific time after the kids are asleep to go call a friend in the truck while the kids and Brian hang in the Airstream? I need to plan ahead how I can get solo time with each kid even though we all share a home on the road. Maybe I can plan one day for each kid each month where they get to pick where we go, what we do, and what we eat. As for reading, I need to make it easy, whether that means finding a genre I really love or using a Kindle so I don’t have to keep everyone up with a reading light. I need to decide how I want to read so that it’s natural and easy for me to open a book. I want to make room in advance for the things that I know didn’t go as well as I wanted in 2020. When I schedule the things that are most important to me first, I make them a priority.
I know this seems simple, but with the craziness of the holidays, life can get in the way, and we can find ourselves months deep into a new year, still repeating the same bad habits we said we wanted to quit three years ago.
If you reflect on your past year, the good and the bad, you can commit to making concrete changes or continuing good habits throughout 2021.