Traditionally, the time for reflecting on the past and what will come is New Year’s Eve. But is this necessarily the best time to do this?
As anyone who has worked with a Serenity Financial planner will know, there is one exercise which involves reflecting on your current average day, week and year, and then considering what your perfect day, week and year might be.
Many of us focus on the ideal days and weeks when doing this exercise, but take a moment now to think about what your perfect year might involve.
What we might choose as our ideal year changes over time. Where once a year travelling the world would have seemed idyllic, at other times in our lives, perhaps a couple of holidays a year might be balanced with time for career, family and personal pursuits. Or, it could be that you are at a time in your life when spending a year living somewhere remote and beautiful writing a novel might appeal more.
The changing nature of what our ideal life might be is why we advise clients to review their ideal day, week and year regularly. It’s incredibly important to take time to think about what is truly important to us, and this exercise offers a valuable compass for our day to day choices.
It is natural of course, to think about our ideal year, and the year we have just had, at the calendar turn of the year. When you stop to consider this, it may not be the best time. In January all the joys of Christmas have passed, work and winter beckon for many of us and it is often reported that early to mid-January are the times of the year when many of us our at our lowest ebb.
Early December, even though it is often busy, might be a better time. We can let the memories of the year that has just passed float around in our subconscious for a little while before we have time out of the day to day routine over Christmas to talk things through with people who are important to us.
If you can, take time in the next few weeks to look at the plans you had in the past and consider how your life has changed.
How have things changed towards meeting your ideal year? How would you like them to change going forward? What can you change right now to move towards them? And remember, don’t hold back on your goals. Often the only thing really holding you back, is your own self-doubt.
You can download the exercise that we use from the Kinder Institute to review your ideal year, by clicking here.
