If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I’m about to do today? ~ Steve Jobs
Too often we spend a good chunk of our lives doing things we don’t want to do because we think we don’t have a choice. I lived the early part of my life certain that was the case and as a result felt a deep sense of disappointment, covered by the peanut butter of “I’m fine ~ how about you?” But 37 years ago when I made my first Best Year Yet plan and started tackling these issues, this despondency began to dissolve. As Nelson Mandela once said,
The greatest glory in living lies not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.
So why do people like you make Best Year Yet plans? People write to me for help with issues they can’t face or when they’re feeling low about their chances of success. But no longer do I give them my good advice. Instead I suggest they create a best year yet plan and by doing so they’ll discover the answers for themselves. I could write volumes about how I’d answer this question, but this year I’ve decided to let others share their 2016 results because in their five stories you’ll find the reasons people like you make Best Year Yet plans.
Your one-page Best Year Yet plan has four parts: Guidelines, New Paradigm, Major Focus, and Top Ten Goals. Here are stories about success in each of these.
Guidelines
She started 2016 having reached her dream of owning and running her own business. But once there she became despondent and worried the business wouldn’t succeed. Nevertheless she made her plan and took it more seriously than ever before. In 2016 she connected with who she really is and became more confident in her capacity to make things happen. As she says, I took the physical steps toward my dreams and they happened.
- enjoying the vacation home she always wanted
- living closer to her family, and
- adding a spiritual connection and practice to her life
One of her Guidelines was Enable greatness and following it led her to building and mentoring a strong team, who are making the business work just the way she’d hoped.
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Having had the best year of his life in 2015, he began 2016 wondering how he’d possibly do better. To do so he dug deeper and connected with the sadness he felt about the recent deaths of his parents. Making his 2016 plan he discovered he wanted his focus to be not so much on accomplishment, but rather on investing in himself ~ my thinking, behavior, health, and spiritual life. Along the road he discovered a Jim Rohn quote that inspired him.
If you work hard on your job you’ll make a living, but if you work hard on yourself you’ll make a fortune.
2016 was a year of learning, one in which he came to the point where he wakes each day filled with joy. His credits his Guideline of Master the small continuous improvements for bringing him closer to where he wanted to be.
New Paradigm
As she made her 2016 Best Year Yet plan, she saw how over and over she let things stop her. Financially she was in survival, feeling hopeless, and worrying that she wouldn’t be what her clients wanted. Her 2015 gross income left her without enough money to pay her bills, but these realizations led her to create her New Paradigm: I am enough.
Throughout the year she let go of her fears, focused on herself and what she wanted to be happy in her business. When she shares about 2016, she glows. It was a year of abundance and balance ~ I’ve never felt better. Her gross income grew 3 fold, giving her sufficient funds to hire a team to take care of the client services of cooking, administration, and gardening, leaving her free to run the business and take care of herself.
Major Focus
In 2015 she retired and spent the year traveling the world. In the process of making her plan for 2016, she realized she wanted to reach out to the elders in the family who were no longer able to attend their family reunions. Her Major Focus became Connected and nurturing matriarch, the role in which she wanted to improve her performance in 2016.
To achieve this aspiration she traveled often, visiting each of her seven aunts and uncles two times. Her goal was to connect with and support them. One of the many blessings of her objective was visiting her Uncle John in late spring, seeing him for what turned out to be the last time as he died in August. Above all, she listened to their stories giving them pleasure in the process, and deepening her awareness of the legacy of her family. As she says, these gifts came as a result of pushing myself to go the extra mile.
Top Ten Goals
An executive responsible for marketing and communications for an international company felt frustrated that she didn’t know how to contribute more to the financial success of the company and to her family. Sales was not her thing. However, she was determined to solve this problem so among her Top Ten Goals for 2016 were two sales goals ~ one for personal sales she’d make for the company and another for the money she’d contribute to family expenses.
As the year progressed she realized she wanted to achieve these goals not just for me, but for others: my family, the business and its clients. She has moved from fear to enthusiasm about the sales process, brought in new clients, earned speaking fees, and created new programs to expand online sales. As she begins to think about 2017, she shares that she feels empowered to make an even greater difference in the financial success of the business and of our home.
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As you can see, their own wisdom was all they needed to tackle their issues and aspirations ~ and succeed. I hope that you are sufficiently inspired by these stories to creae your own best year yet for the coming year. Happy New Year to you and to those in your world!
With your magic wand firmly in your hand, ask yourself What would make 2017 my best year yet? I’d love to hear your answer. Scroll down to share your answer or make a comment — or write to me directly at jinny@bestyearyet.com.
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