I hope you are all entering the new year filled with hope for the fabulous wonders that 2017 may bring.
I am entering the year with slight trepidation. I have honestly had such a wonderful year in 2016, it feels like it's hard to beat. What if 2017 doesn't live up to it and is a huge disappointment? How can anything be better than 2016!
I know I need to shift this thinking to one of expectation of a fantastic year ahead. To get my mind in the right place I am doing the Leonie Dawson Shining Life Workbooks again. I loved them so much last year and they have really helped me to achieve a lot of my goals in 2016. I didn't achieve every goal, but I did achieve lots and I am so pleased about that, some were big (run a Gentle Parenting Retreat) and some were small (do a puzzle) and I know that writing them down, reviewing them and scheduling really helped me to achieve them.
I was so excited to get my workbooks in the post a few days ago that I made a little video about them:
(That's my little boy chattering away in the background! I feel bad watching back that I don't acknowledge him, I was just concentrating so hard on what I was saying for the video!!!)
A few years ago the way I set goals for the year ahead was so different from how I do it now. I wrote down ways in which I wanted my life to change but put no thought to planning how I would make them a reality. The goals were not specific or measurable so not only did I not really know what the goal was, but I had no way of tracking how well I was doing or how near or far away I was from achieving my goal.
I wasn't convinced by the workbooks when my friend Vicki introduced them to me a few years ago but she persuaded me to get on board and I am so glad that I did because they have totally transformed how I set goals and plan the year ahead.
What I didn't really explain in the video is how these books are so effective, particularly the life book.
To begin with reviewing the previous year is so important, it allows you to realise and think about what went well and what didn't so you can accept it and move onto the next year free from guilt and free from trying to drag unfinished business into the new year.
In the next part of the book you begin to think about what you want from the year ahead, how you want to feel, what you want to achieve. It allows you to really dig deep and think about how you want the year ahead to look.
Of course last year had it's ups and downs, there were parts that were really really hard, but knowing how much I achieved makes me feel so joyful and positive about the year ahead. We can achieve so much, us mothers, and it's so important that we make time for our own goals, our own dreams. It can be so easy to let that little light inside of us dim as we stoke the fires in our children, but we need that spark inside to glow and grow not just for our own well being and sanity but for the sake of those around us as well; because when we are the best versions of ourselves we can nurture others better as well.
I would really encourage you do set some goals for the year ahead, break them down into steps then schedule them into your week so they become achievable. Maybe you like the look of the Shining life workbooks, if you do, then please click my affiliate link below. (Leonie Dawson gives all her affiliates a little bit of money for every sale made through the link.)
I wish you all a wonderful year ahead and hope you achieve everything you set your mind to.
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