Goals – strategy – change.  It’s quickly becoming the 12th hour when people begin to assess the current year that is almost past and project ahead to how they want their next year to shape up. It can be viewed as a roller coaster ride as you look back on the past year and beat yourself up over what you didn’t accomplish and then jump into planning what you want to accomplish for the upcoming year.

I’m not a proponent of skipping ahead but this is one time I’m giving you permission to read the last chapter first. I want you to look forward to the end of next year and paint a picture of what you want it to look like.  What will your accomplishments be? Will you have traveled? Will you have received a promotion? Only you can paint your scene because it is yours. There’s no cheating off your neighbor’s paper. If this is your end goal – it has to come from your dreams, your desires. You might want to set aside some planning time and give it some serious thought because you are projecting your outcome.

Now that you’ve painted your end scene, I want you to move backward through your book of the next year and make an outline. A time outline of what needs to happen and when, in order for your perfect picture to become a reality. Write each of these steps on your outline and add in as many details with dates as possible. This allows you to plan for the many steps that make up the whole.

For example, if you want to go on a trip in August, you probably want to start shopping for tickets in June.  If you want to launch a new product, you need to pick a launch date and then move backwards to determine what date the product needs to be finished and when the marketing materials need to be created. If you want to write a book, determine how many chapters need to be finished in each month to be completed by your chosen date.

Once you have gone through the details of each part of your completed year and laid them out on your timeline, you can see your sequential path to reach your year end goals.  This gives you tangible guided steps from the beginning which allow you to be excited with each accomplishment.

Now it’s time to pat yourself on the back, grab a cup of New Year’s cheer and relax. Your path for the new year is ready to be traveled.