photo by racorn

On the first day of 2019 my husband Tim and I made our 40th annual personal best year yet plans . . . and we’re unrecognizable from the people we were way back when we started.

The plan-making builds year on year. We don’t ever complete every bit of our individual plans, but most of them. These successes and transformations accumulate year on year so we’ve learned a lot, transformed moldy old limiting beliefs once and for all, and achieved many of the annual goals that matter most to us.

Every year there are lessons to be learned, negative paradigms to shift, and new aspirations to pursue. Yet that doesn’t mean, as you can see from above, that we’ve made no progress. It’s just that we’re human ~ just like you ~ and there are always new dreams to pursue and obstacles to dissolve.

Several days ago I was doing a podcast with the brilliant and inspired John O’Leary, who is passing on the best year yet system to his network. He did several short video clips of my sharing about my journey, and I wanted to pass on a few of them to you.

Transformation. The 10-questions you answer as you make a plan naturally make you dig into your essence of wisdom, clarity, and goodness. You blow right by the ego, personality, doubts and fears to what you need to learn, your biggest limiting belief, and your top 10 goals for the roles you play in life.

What happens when you answer the questions. Well, for one thing you don’t need me to tell you what you already know. You’re reaching into your own inherent wisdom to make a meaningful plan for the next 12 months. Your answers are always the best for you. When you answer the questions, you’re separating the wheat from the chaff ~ making a strategy that is yours, honing down on what matters most at this point in your life.

How to achieve your new plan. Haven’t we all frittered away our days, avoiding the things that matter most and doing things that don’t really matter? Once I have my annual plan, I make a Monthly Plan and then a weekly plan to progress the monthly goals. For the five workdays I schedule at least one weekly goal a day ~ and I make an appointment with myself for when I’ll do it. Eat the elephant bite by bite!

Make your plan visible. Although making the plan is a transformational experience and will make a difference to your year, don’t simply hide it in a drawer. Post it by your desk, print out the annual plan, monthly plan, and weekly plan ~ and make a stack with the weekly plan on top. If you use the online software to make and track your plan, you’ll receive a free app on your phone, where you can see your annual plan and score progress on your monthly plans. A reminder of what matters, wherever you go.

It’s not about you. Now how can I say that, given I’ve said it’s about your transformation and connecting with your inner wisdom. What I’ve discovered is that we all want our lives to matterand to have it mean something that we lived this life. As you make your plan and when you look at the completed one-page plan, shift your context for the year to making a difference to others ~ and to you.

Although I’m the founder of Best Year Yet®, I no longer work for the company. The business is now being run by a vibrant young team who are far smarter, more energetic, and effective than I ever was as a business leader.

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You have several ways to make your personal strategic plan for the coming year:

• Go to bestyearyet.com and on the home page, click on the Subscribe Now button to find out how to make your plan online and track it with monthly and weekly goals ~ and more.

• Read my book Your Best Year Yet! ~ available on Amazon in paperback or ebook format. In each publication there is a workbook in the back of the book.

• You can also get a free Ebook about how to get ready to have your best year yet. Click here: Three Hours to Change Your Life.

• Sign up for my author community where you’ll get a short email every time another of my articles is published. Send your email to me at [email protected] ~ with Author Community in the subject line.

Author(s)

  • Jinny S. Ditzler

    Jinny is the founder of Best Year Yet® and the author of Your Best Year Yet! The system has over 1 million happy individual and organizational users around the world.

    Jinny's purpose is to support people to use their gifts to have dreams come true and to know that they matter. She is one of the first founders of the modern coaching movement, and a regular contributor to Thrive Global and LinkedIn, having written eight years for The Huffington Post. She’s the first to say none of this could have happened without her family, the clients, and the global team, all of whom contributed valuable knowledge, skill and talent to bring the program to its worldwide status. Jinny started coaching business leaders and executives 37 years ago, and in the early 1990’s her work evolved to include top business teams and organization-wide programs, designed to transform the way people work together to achieve better results and build happier companies. The Best Year Yet Partners have worked with such organizations as Zurich Insurance Group, NatWest Bank, Bank of the West USA, Heineken, Pepsico and such nonprofits as The Hunger Project, Wounded Warriors, and the Humane Society ~ as well as smaller businesses, schools, and charities around the world. Jinny is currently writing a new book and coaching leaders. Her blessings are a happy marriage of 37 years, two remarkable sons, two perfect daughters-in-law, and four beautiful granddaughters.