How To Make The Rest Of The Year, The Best Of The Year
As we transition into another season, and the last quarter of the year it’s natural to start thinking how quickly it as all gone by.
If you have followed Coffee Moon for a while, you will know I’m a huge advocate for making changes in your life when you decide and not when society says so i.e. New Year’s Eve. I also encourage tying up loose ends pre–January to ensure a smoother, more successful chance of staying consistent with new goals for the new year. In addition to this, the final quarter of the year is when we tend to look back at what has been achieved so far, what we wished we had worked on more, and what needs to be let go of.
If when you reflect over the past few months you come to the conclusion this year hasn’t lived up to your expectations, don’t panic, there’s still time to make the rest of the year the best of the year, and here’s how:
Reflect
Take a moment to think over what has gone well for you so far this year, and equally what hasn’t. Filter through both your successes and failures, what worked and what needed more work. Write it down.
Declutter
Depending on how much clutter you have conjured up in the year so far make a move on tidying up, that way you’re not overwhelmed or holding on to old junk. This could mean, throwing old bits of paper, receipts, deleted old emails, spam etc. Yes, you will probably need to tidy again later in the year but at least it would require much energy to do so.
Create a ‘let go’ list
Make a list of what needs to be released from your headspace of the year so far. What did you think would work that hasn’t? Another short-lived romance? Your business not doing as well? Broken friendships? Not prioritising your health? These things may have not gone to plan, however, such is life, and the last thing you want is to bring negative feelings into a fresh year. It’s in the past so leave it there. Write down what the situation was, how you felt, and at the end write ‘I have learnt from this, thank you’. Once you have finished, throw the paper away or burn it.
Create a bucket list
Start a bucket list of 100 things you would like to achieve in your life time. It can be anything from wanting to travel to Fiji, writing a book, owning a house, flying a plane, gaining a million subscribers on Youtube, working in the humanitarian space, anything you would like to have achieved or experienced in your lifetime.
Review your goals
Look over the goals you set yourself for this year and tick the ones you have achieved. It’s so easy to forget how far you’ve come until you look back. If you haven’t achieved any of your goals so far, choose ONE that you would want to put all your focus into before the year is out. Remember, a lot can happen in five minutes let alone three months. As long as you remain motivated and ignore anything that distracts you from what you want to achieve, that’s more than enough time to make it happen.
Practice new habits now
Once you have decided what the theme of next year will be, start putting things in place now. You can still make the most of this year by pre-empting the next. Let’s use the theme ‘discipline’ as an example. Don’t wait until January 1st to start working out where you need to more disciplined or how you can lean to become it, start now. Read books on how to build new habits now, gradually start waking up earlier now, start eating healthier now, sporadically book a few fitness classes before you decide on how you will build your new routine, now. Just start, right now.
Don’t end the year early
Preparation is key. However, the year isn’t over yet, and juts because you may not achieved everything you had hoped, it doesn’t mean you have failed. At the same time, I won’t sugar-coat it, it does mean you need to take accountability and ask yourself what was in your way and what stopped you from going for it. The point is not to make you feel bad about it, but so you know what you need to do (or not do) going forward. It’s easy to pass the buck, and some obstacles really are out of our control, shit happens, but the only person responsible for changing your life is you. Look for what more you could have done, what you could have sacrificed, then make a promise to yourself that you will do it different this time.
There is still a lot of time to make the rest of the year the best of the year, and even if you haven’t got what you wanted out of it, it doesn’t matter, try again, that’s the best things about life, another day is another chance.
Bonus tip
Choose a theme for the year coming up
This year I decided to pick one word that would sum up the whole year before it had even happened. That word was ‘discipline’, and to my own credit, I think I’ve done quite well. I’ve managed to workout 5-6 times a week whether that was at home, in the gym, or hitting 10,000 steps, publish a blog weekly, and read every day consistently which is a huge comparison to the flip flopping I was doing the year before.
Decide on your ‘theme of the year’ then base your decisions around that theme. You’d be surprised by how much you can achieve when you only have ONE focus.
