A Must-Read Before the New Year!!! Things You Must Do When Entering into A New Year or Season!!! Recipe For Having a Fulfilled 2024

Entering a new year or season can come with a lot of mixed feelings. Excitement might be the first emotion, which could come with the Christmas celebrations or whatever marks the beginning new season. The next might be a feeling of anxiety or despair as to what the next season holds. In this case a new year…

So here are the secret steps to going into new seasons feeling energised, excited, and ready to achieve fulfilment.

• Write down a gratitude list / List all the positives you’ve achieved in this year or the previous season of your life: This will make you thankful and even quite happy with yourself for all you’ve achieved. As a Christian, I prefer to do a gratitude list to give thanks to God for all He helped me achieve, especially the miracles that had little or no contribution from me.

• Write down your expectations: This is one thing that a lot of people neglect. Whilst we may know our desires for the next season, I am certain that it is all a mess in our heads till we write it down. It could be, a new house, a car, or even a new lifestyle. No matter how silly it seems write it down, make a list and you can be assured that you have begun the journey to a fulfilled season. Being a Christian, I write my expectations prayerfully, allowing God to guide my wants according to His will. It’s the only way I feel fulfilled… Being in His will.

• Write down your goals: This is one of the critical points of this process. Writing your short-term and long-term goals is the surest way to having a fulfilled new season, as it helps you measure your progress. Do you know what would help? Looking through your expectations! You’ll find that your expectations will feed into your long- and short-term goals. Some may be out of your hands, but you’ll find that most of your expectations require your input, or as I like to call it, ‘A step of faith’. You can write a long list of all your goals, then group them into your long or short-term goals afterwards.

• Organise your goals: From the goals you have listed, create order by organising them so they are achievable. The SMART technique is one good method for doing this. S– Specific M– measurable (you can track your Progress) A– achievable R– realistic/relevant to you, and T– time-bound. Here’s an example: Goal: To get a job as a customer service rep. S: I want to get a job as a customer service representative at The Written Faith. M: I should have studied and applied for the role in February. A: I have the relevant skills for the roles I am applying to, if not I must take courses to ensure I do. R: This will improve my earnings and skill set. T: I must be in the job by December.

• Make it visible throughout the new season. This is a critical step in achieving your goal You could easily write your expectations and goals and forget them by next week. It is therefore better to be strategic about remembering these goals. This is the reason why people create vision boards, which would be visible throughout the year. You could simply google how to create a vision board which involves using pictures to remember your set goals. You could also write out your short-term goals boldly and put them up where you can see them frequently. Every time you achieve a goal, you take it down and put up the next.

• Take it one step at a time: One thing that usually frustrates people the most is attempting to achieve many goals at once. When you try to do many things at once, you end up achieving nothing. Instead, set up a scale of preference according to your priority and achieve one goal at a time. If you’re a multi-tasker like me, then do a maximum of two at a time, that way you don’t get overwhelmed.

• Celebrate your wins: One major thing I’ve found that is very helpful in celebrating wins are to-do list. While organising your goals, you might opt to make a to-do list of the goals for the year. This will then determine your monthly list, from which you will create a weekly list, and finally the list for each day. Here is an example. If one of my goals is to be a published author at the end of the year, a goal on each monthly list could be to complete the various stages of the publishing process, which will lead to completion in December. Hence, the month of January might have a goal to finish writing the first draft of the book. One of my goals for the first week in January could be to complete 5 chapters of the book. Each day would then be focused on achieving my weekly goal. When I tick my daily goals, and eventually my weekly, monthly, and yearly ones, I will be sure to feel accomplished and, on my way, to becoming a published Author.

• Discipline and Consistency: This process may seem easy to some and for others, it might be a bit daunting. Either way, it requires a lot of discipline and consistency. Yes, there are times we may fail in our goals, but we need to learn to forgive ourselves, celebrate all our wins, and readjust and get on with them.

• Never give up: Period! Just don’t keep going, you’ve got this. You may not achieve all your goals… but you will achieve some. Be glad about those, and at the end of 2024, when you are writing your gratitude list, you will see how much you’ve grown as an individual.

I shall stop here… I did not expect it to be this long, but these are proven steps that will help you achieve a fulfilled 2024.

Make sure in all you do, that a time for REST is an integral part of all your planning. As a Christian, I would advise that you do your best and leave the rest to God. Let Proverbs 16 encourage you. Do all these prayerfully and I can guarantee you that the Lord will guide your steps, and you will be sure to have a fulfilling time.

Love,

Faith