On my social networks I often see posts featuring various versions of a year in review, especially around New Year.

I used to envy my friends who not only took time to reflect on their past experiences, but also clearly had some systems in place for capturing them throughout the year, enabling them to remember the meaningful events or achievements when the time comes for reflecting.

For me it always felt like something others do, and I don’t have time for. Still, every time I read such a post I felt a pang of envy. Because having an opportunity to seeing your life in retrospect gives the point of reference and provides with some foundation to build upon when thinking of where to go next. Yet, the prospect of sitting with myself reflecting on the whole year and figuring out directions for the next felt so overwhelming for me, I never did it.

The key elements missing in my previous attempts to set major goals were these four:

• framework: what steps to take and in what order;

• company: opportunity for brainstorming, gaining insights, sharing tips and inspiration;

• motivation: my own belief in the importance of setting intention for the year to come;

• focused attention: time and attention dedicated specifically for the task, when I’m not going to be disturbed.
  he workshops will be held virtually, so no effort needed for commuting or dressing up.
  Here’s the solution I came up with.

Framework. After spending a year gathering knowledge from various sources I was able to put together a comprehensive and science-backed approach that guides you from designing a global vision to narrowing it down to action steps. I have picked a set of tools that everyone can use to break down seemingly unattainable ambitions into bite-sized and realistic pieces. Yeah, that silverware set to eat the elephant bite-by-bite :)

Company. The small group setting seems to be perfect for the task. People, brought together by the same focus, but with different backgrounds, can create a very fertile environment for growing ideas and inspiration. I figured that four to six participants is the sweet spot to hit the objectives—not too many, so everyone can have personal time to discuss their agenda, but enough to gather brainpower and experience from the group.

Motivation. Well, I’ve known for quite a while that planning something brings you one step closer to achieving it. Knew, but due to not having points 1 and 2, knowledge wasn’t enough to overcome resistance. At this point I not only have the first two components, but also had a chance to see for myself how big of a difference that time spent in early January has actually made in my personal year. Later I have implemented the practice of setting intention into much smaller tasks, and it keeps paying off on a daily basis. So, my faith is now rock-solid :) 

Focused attention. Don’t know about you, but when I have something scheduled on my calendar and paid for, I have a lot easier time to make the necessary adjustments, so this block of time is spent with maximum benefit. Because committing to something is already setting an intention of a sort ;)

So, here’s the plan. In December I offer three workshops for us to get together and have great time putting all from the above into practice. 

• The workshops will be held virtually, so no effort needed for commuting or dressing up.

• We will spend 2 hours practicing breaking down your vision into reasonable goals to attain in 2025.

• Even though it isn’t realistic to work out all possible goals in detail for each participant, we will go through the motions using your wellness-related areas of life (yep, I’m a health coach and will stick to my domain) and get you armed and ready to decipher whatever is left.

• You will be leaving with the set of reliable tools, fresh ideas, inspiration and (who knows?) maybe even new friends.