Month: December 2016 Page 1 of 2

Life can be so busy, demanding and hectic at this time of year. As a result, it’s very easy to overlook taking some time to pause and reflect on the past year and review our progress and growth.

The end of the year also provides a great opportunity to celebrate your successes and achievements and all there is to be grateful for. Spending time in this area helps to provide some good positive energy to carry into the New Year. Reflecting and also planning what you would like to achieve and experience in the New Year is a great discipline to follow.

Prior to the start of the New Year I recommend that you spend some quiet time to think about:-

• What has been great about the year
• Lessons you have learned
• Get clarity on what any challenges have taught you
• What you are grateful for in life

To prepare and plan for 2017, I suggest that you take a notebook and set aside a few hours to work through a series of questions and jot down your responses. You don’t have to answer the questions in one session. As an alternative, you may wish to divide the process into bite sized chunks over a week. Choose which method fits best with your schedule and other priorities.

I recommend that you take out your notebook and review your progress throughout the forthcoming year (normally at the end of each quarter). Personally, I find the following questions to be useful when reviewing the year and planning for the forthcoming one.

Review of the past year:

• What has been great about this year and what are my top 5 highlights?
• What have been the smartest decisions that I have made?
• How have I grown and developed?
• What gave me the greatest happiness?
• What do I want to celebrate about this year?
• What lessons have I learned and what have my challenges taught me?
• What do I need to let go of from the past year?
• What am I grateful for in my life?

Planning for the forthcoming year:

• What would I like to celebrate at the end of next year?
• What are my main personal and professional goals in the forthcoming year?
• What are my financial goals for the forthcoming year?
• What steps do I need to take to improve/maintain my health and fitness?
• What can I do to improve my relationships?
• What would I like to add, change or eliminate from my daily routine?
• What plans do I have to grow, develop and learn?
• What steps can I take to increase my happiness?
• How can I increase the amount of fun that I have?

I hope that 2017 is a First Class one for you and is full of good health, happiness and abundance. Have fun reflecting on the past year and planning an outstanding new one!

Enjoy the New Year celebrations and see you in January 2017!

This week’s quotation:

“If we did all the things we are capable of doing we would truly astound ourselves.” Thomas Edison.

To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk

It’s coming to that time of year where some of us will sit down and devise resolutions for the New Year. Many people resolve to get healthier, exercise more or lose weight etc. I was wondering how quickly some people quit on their intentions and how many stick to their resolutions.

I have done some research on the topic of resolutions and this is some of what I discovered:

• A ComRes poll for Bupa in November 2015 suggested 32% of Britons planned to make a New Year resolution.
• A 2015 You Gov poll claimed 35% planned to lose weight, 33% wanted to get fitter and 31% wanted to eat more healthily. Others included seeing more of friends and family (14%) or getting a better work-life balance (12%).
• In the ComRes poll 41% admitted to breaking their last resolution, 63% of respondents admitted to having broken one in the past and the majority of these (66%) admitted to doing so within just one month.
• According to the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association, 12% of new gym memberships start in January and a high proportion of gym income is from members who sign up to lengthy contracts and then attend irregularly, although the exact amount is unclear.
• Regular gym goers are in the minority with only one in 10 people in England going at least once a month, according to Sport England.

People failing to follow through on their intentions can be put down to a variety of factors. It could be lack of self-discipline, putting others needs before their own, procrastination, not getting clear on the motivation for the goal and not planning how they will celebrate/reward themselves when the goal is successfully achieved.

Another reason that people don’t stick to their resolutions is that they have too many. Sometimes less is more! For instance becoming healthier can require many behavioural changes rather than the occasional trip to the gym.

A step by step approach to changing your lifestyle will prove to be more effective. Choosing to master one behavioural change at a time and then moving onto another, rather than seeking to make a whole lot of changes at once is likely to be more effective. This theory ties in with the view that it takes 21 days to break a habit and between 25 and 28 days to create a new one.

So my suggestion is to adopt a different approach to New Year resolutions in 2017.How about viewing 2017 as a One year transformation? Your life can be transformed one month at a time. You can do this by having 12 different monthly resolutions. You can decide at the start of each month what you would like to focus on that month in an effort to upgrade your life.

I suggest that you only take on a new monthly resolution if you feel you have successfully mastered and integrated new behaviours and habits from previous months. Imagine how your life will be in 12 months if you successfully fulfil your commitment to this new way of following through on resolutions.

This week why not take some time out to reflect and consider if monthly resolutions will work for you. If so, decide what will be your first monthly resolution/area for focus in January.

This week’s quotation:

“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.” Jim Rohn

To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk

This is a very special blog as it’s the 150^th consecutive weekly blog I have written and published since number one was published in early 2014.

Interestingly, when I wrote the first one I wasn’t sure how long I would keep publishing them or if I would be able to keep up the discipline of writing each week. I’m glad that I have as I enjoy the process and it’s always rewarding when I get some feedback from people about how a particular blog has helped them.

I plan to celebrate the milestone with a glass or two of champagne! I consider that it’s essential that we celebrate our achievements and successes in life. This is an area that’s often overlooked by many people although they have no difficulty spending time thinking about set-backs and disappointments.

As part of the goal setting process with clients, I get them to visualise them successfully achieving the goal they desire and connect with the feelings they will have when they complete the goal. After getting clear on the motivation for wanting to accomplish the goal (this helps people persevere when the going gets tough) I ask clients to figure out how they will celebrate. This gives them an incentive to focus on and remember whilst they take action towards achieving their goal.

In my view, it’s essential that people spend sufficient time to reflect and celebrate how well they have done and to be proud of their achievements. Taking the time to celebrate every success, no matter how big or small helps to build confidence, keeps your attitude positive and makes it easier to keep pushing to reach those large-scale future goals. A celebration can give you closure on goals you’ve been working towards for a while and helps make every success feel more worthwhile and fulfilling.

There is a fair chance you may have set a number of personal goals in the past, some big, some small. These could include, losing weight, getting fitter, generating more income, starting a new hobby, developing a new skill, changing a habit, spending more time with the family etc. On occasions, when you are embarking on pursuing a new goal, it’s good to pause and take a few moments to list out some accomplishments big or small. This helps remind yourself of past success and of the infinite potential within you.

Your celebration doesn’t have to be a big deal. It can be something you do alone or something you share with others. It just has to make you feel good and help you enjoy the moment and your accomplishment. It doesn’t have to be expensive. When you hit a milestone on a large project or goal you can reward yourself with a walk, a cake, a piece of fruit or a bar of chocolate.

Here are a few other ideas for celebrating success:-

• Go out for a nice meal
• Watch a favourite TV show or film
• Arrange a trip to the cinema
• Play some sport
• Buy a bottle of your favourite drink
• Go to the gym
• Go for a long walk in the countryside or by a lake/sea
• Treat yourself to a day of rest and relaxation
• Thank everyone who supported you
• Buy yourself sometime new

It’s also good to honour some steps you may have taken over the past year to bring greater happiness and fulfilment to you and your family. You may have accomplished some positive things which are easy to forget in the busyness of life.

For instance, progress you’ve made to get fitter, think more positively and see the blessings in situations. You may have put some focus into removing negative people and energy from your life, become more assertive, set clearer boundaries in your relationships and put yourself first more often.

You may wish to celebrate if you have been clearer in your communication with others and focused more of your attention on what you want rather than what you don’t want to experience in life.

This week, why not take a few moments to celebrate some successes in your life. You can do this by listing 10 things that you have accomplished that you can be really proud of.

Is there an achievement that you need to celebrate? What will you do to mark this appropriately?

Do you need to plan how you will celebrate when you achieve a goal that you are currently working on?

This week’s quotation:

“The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.” Oprah Winfrey.

To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk