Gifts have been unwrapped, the Christmas meal has been enjoyed, that chocolate selection box is almost finished – yep, sadly the festive season is over folks! I hope you’ve all had a beautiful festive season and ready to greet the new year with open arms.
The lull between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day is when I really get my teeth into mindfully thinking about what I want from the new year, how I want to improve and grow. This normally involves sitting down with my new planner (I got a beautiful kikki.K one this year) and a pile of pretty notebooks, coloured pens and a huge mug of tea. I love getting organised and the initial stages of designing a year of doing what I love and reaching my dreams.
I have lots that I want to achieve over the next 365 days, and using The Desire Map has really helped me to channel my intentions, who I want to be and what I want to achieve in 2017. Over the past few days, I’ve been working on manifesting my dreams over the next year using some key pointers, which I’m sharing with you today.
The Power of Reflection
One of the best places to start when shaping your new year is to have some quiet time to reflect on the one that has just passed. What were your biggest successes in 2016? What pushed you through to help you achieve these accomplishments? Also, it’s also useful to pull out the negatives too. What were the least shining moments of last year and why? I know it’s no fun focusing on the bad, but it’s incredibly helpful to pinpoint what went wrong to learn and grow from it.
Learning is the Very Heart of Growth
Educating yourself is at the very heart of personal development and growth. Having a good think about what you would like to learn this year is another brilliant starting point for manifesting those goals. It will encourage you to prioritise your dreams, explore new ventures, reach out and progress.
Pinpointing What You Want to Achieve
Of course, you can’t manifest any dreams if you don’t make any – so, what would you like to achieve in 2017? Where are you mostly going to invest your time and energy? I like to set a word or theme for the year, which helps me to focus when thinking about how I want my year to pan out.
Create a Visualisation Board
I like to have a visualisation board, basically a noticeboard, with magazine cut outs, postcards, and photos that have a theme or motivation behind them to help me achieve my dreams. Throughout the year, I change things around or add new things to my board depending on what I am working towards at the time. Hanging a visualisation board in your office or bedroom is a great way to stay on track to help you manifest your dreams.
Let Go of the ‘How’
Sometimes we over think things and even though I’m a planner, sometimes for things to manifest we have to just go with the flow and let them happen. Rather than focusing on how you’re going to get there focus on the overall aim; free up some space in your life to allow your dreams to manifest and be flexible as to how they arise.
You are so good with planning and organisation Jemma! I admit this is my weakness and something I need to work on so I will definitely be referring to this post later on..
I totally agree that the first step is reflection and to be kind to yourself about anything that has happened in 2016 or anything that might not have gone to plan! Happy New Year!
Em
Great post, I have so many plans both personally and for my blog this year, I have a very busy year planned for my blog but equally going to be spending a lot more time with my family and making 2017 a much better year than 2016
Taking time to reflect and set clear plans of what you want to achieve is such an important thing to do – I’m still considering my goals and what I want to do in 2017 myself. A visualisation board is a really awesome idea too!
I’m trying to get more organized with my blogs. Especially my photos they are really cluttering my desktop at the moment x
Ooh I like the thought of getting rid of the how! So often, we talk ourselves out of trying by convincing ourselves that something is not achievable. Wishing you a very healthy and happy 2017 x
I’ve created my own visualisation board too. I think that its a great way of really keeping your minds eye on exactly what you want to achieve. xxx
I got a lot of notebooks and pens too!! Gonna be writing down tons of goals as well (: a vision board is a great idea
I am really excited to create a visualisation board this year, I am feeling so much more motivated and excited for a new year than I usually do, such an great inspiring post! xx
I feel like January motivation and momentum is perfect for the 20+ days you need to establish new habits. I like your ideas! It’s a good time to reflect, learn and change.
I am loving your list Jemma it’s similar to mine, I believe in reflecting on the ended year both good and bad and grow from there. I have three major goals this year and I am setting my plans into motion
Great tips, I’ve made a visualisation board before so might make another for this year x
Very nice post and I enjoyed reading this. Hopefully 2017 will keep getting bigger and better. xx
Creating a visual board is such a great idea and I definitely want to make one this year! I started a while ago by cutting things out so it’s about time I put it all together!
I find it difficult to plan posts although I have seen some great planners out and about. I have set out some goals so need to try and follow them now, fingers crossed.
i love the sound of the visual board. ive got a cork board and need to start doing this. it’ll keep me motivated every time i look at it
Reflection is so very important although difficult to learn to do but I am finding myself doing it each evening just for ten minuets
Great post! These are some fab tips 🙂 It’s lovely to make plans but the best things can’t be planned so agree on that.
Thanks for this post. I haven’t really thought back over 2016 and what really worked for me but that is actually a great place to start!
I love the idea of creating a visualisation board, what a great idea. I’m going to do it.
some very helpful advice here, I have planned my goals quite well for the year ahead fingers crossed
I think stopping and reflecting back is really important and as a family we tend to do it every 3 or 4 months. We get very caught up in the chaos of family life so by taking a step back we can try and tweak things that maybe aren’t working very well especially as things tend to change frequently with young kids
Love the idea of the visualisation board, we’ve been thinking a lot abut our goals over crambo-limbo x
Self reflection takes the cake away! Its so important to focus on yourself first!