build your beautiful self

Normally on New Years Day I spend time outdoors in nature grounding myself for the year to come. This year it was raining. I did my annual Journal transfer and planning instead.

I journal all year long and use it to capture notes, thoughts, ideas, brain dumps, what I want, events I want to remember, and anything else that is worthy of putting pen to paper. Tried to use apps on my phone to keep track of things but they usually end up just being a note capture place. Something about writing down important things in a notebook/journal really makes it stick.

I love looking back during this time when the world is taking a break to see how many wonderful things I have done, so many cool experiences I have shared with important people, and the patterns of stress and struggle I seem to repeat. I go through the journal page by page and flag with little post its the important things that I need to go back to, categorized by;
business, self, lessons, family.

This is a great practice to get into the habit of to track your progress and thought patterns.

I recommend you start on Jan 1 and set it up in this fashion:

1. Write an index couple of pages
   Also number the pages. This will allow you to easily find things in the journal that you wrote down that weren’t part of daily logging.
2. Recap your previous year.
   I do this month by month. If I didn’t do a great job recording things, I go to my phone photos to jog my memory. Very brief, high level recording month by month. This year I did something a little extra where I added in things I should consider and the items that I think are lessons I should review and learn from, month by month.
3. Write yourself a January letter
   Write the letter as if you are writing it to yourself. Start with a standard greeting “Dear Alissa.” Continue the letter as if it is one year later and dictate all the awesome things you want to accomplish in the coming year as if they have already happened. Sign the letter with love 💙💙
4. Write out your COMMITMENTS (goals) for the coming year.
   Look at the areas you would like to focus on. My categories are: Health, Finances, Family, Spirituality, Personal Development, Business. Each should have only a couple of items underneath. The idea is to make commitments that you are going to KEEP so adding too many will set yourself up for failure. If you knock them all out in the first couple months, add an additional Commitments page for the 2nd half of the year. You can always add more, but not accomplishing the initial list will be you letting yourself down.
5. Pick a word of the year and write out what that means and how you will know you are successfully embodying the word
   It is easy to pick a word that would theme out the year but it is a little more difficult to define what that looks like. example: word = organized, what does being organized mean? Tidy desk, clothes lined up by colors, new systems for your work…
6. Start the month of January
   Add the things you want to complete this month so you know what you are working toward. Write out any events that you have on your calendar (trips, classes, parties, school functions, meetings). Anything else you want to add like trackers, measurements, budgeting, etc.

As you go through your days I would recommend you start in the morning capturing any thoughts you have upon waking, jot notes that you would usually write on a post it in there, any conversations you have, cool things you did, task lists, daily gratefulness, ideas, or whatever you feel the need to write. At the end of the year, you will be happy you started!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! CHEERS TO 2023!!!!