new year

New Years resolutions for the future 1

 in General life improvement  tagged new year / resolutions

One of the gifts I was given this Christmas was a DVD of a band and part of the special features was a film about them returning to where they first started out to do some secret gigs. As they were travelling to these locations they were being asked how they felt about going back to do these and one of them said “Part of me thinks, what are we doing back here? We’ve already done this.”

As we approach the start of 2011, it is the time of year when people are considering change and New Year resolutions. It is not that uncommon for these resolutions to be about getting back to something that you have achieved in the past – so it may be that you want to get back into the jeans that you could wear 5 years ago, or maybe its about getting back the feeling that you used to have about a particular event or person.

I often find that when people imagine themselves achieving such resolutions or goals that they are imagining themselves at a time back when they last did it – so for example, if the new years resolution is to get back into the jeans they could wear 5 years ago, they imagine themselves 5 years ago getting into the jeans, rather then in the present or the near future.

I’ve written previous posts about how your brain is a bit like a taxi driver – it’s easier for you to get to where you want if you are clear in what you want your destination to be (See this post for more details)

If when you imagine yourself doing something you are imagining a you from the past, you run the risk of part of you going “We’ve already done this.” Make it easier on yourself, by all means have a goal of getting into a particular pair of jeans – make sure that when you imagine doing that, that you imagine a present or future you (not one in the past).

I invite you to play with the following for any new year’s resolution or goals that you are currently working with:

1. Imagine what it will be like when you achieve this new years resolution/ goal

2. Notice what age you are imagining yourself to be – if this is a you in the past, remember that this is your imagination so change it to imagine something else instead.
Likewise if you realise that you are imagining achieving this a lot further into the future than you would like, have a play at imagining it happening sooner.

Have a fantastic week and I’ll take this opportunity to wish you a Happy New Year.

Love

Jen

This was originally posted on www.YourChangingDirection.com

Your Best Year Yet 1

 in books / Resource  tagged best year yet / book / coach / coaching / Jinny S. Ditzler / new year / resource

Over the next few days you will find that there will be a series of posts about resources you may be interested in, perhaps even belated Christmas presets to yourself 🙂

Today we begin with Your Best Year Yet by Jinny S. Ditzler.

Coaches often deal with goals so you may already have personally carried out your own goal setting exercises for the New Year. This book is one I was introduced to several years ago and one I have used myself practically every year since.

Your Best Year Yet is a book that is split into 3 parts:

  1. An introduction to the principals behind “Your Best Year Yet” and sharing experiences of those who have already played,
  2. Part two comprises of 10 chapters, with each chapter devoted to a particular question,
  3. The space in the book for you to answer your questions and complete your very own best year yet “workshop”.

How you use this book is is up to you, if you wanted you could jump straight to part 3 referring back only to part 2 for any clarity you need on any of the questions. You may want to read parts one and two in preparation for using the program yourself.

The workshop section comprises of 10 questions that look back over the last year, guides you through identifying what you want and then walks you through setting your own guidelines and focus. In my opinion, it’s beauty is in its simplicity. Its layout means that no matter if you are familiar with goal setting creating your own personal plan for the year ahead is very easy.

You can take as long as you like to complete this book but I would estimate that the final section would need 2-3 hours to answer fully.

[Amazon.co.uk] Your Best Year Yet: Make the Next 12 Months Your Best Ever!

[Amazon.com] Your Best Year Yet: Make the Next 12 Months Your Best Ever!