2020 Vision

As the year concludes and a new one brims on the horizon- there’s something magical in the air.

It awakens my spirit and fills my heart with joy.

The sparkle of the lights, the love & gratitude being shared, gifts being exchanged or acts of kindness and goodwill towards strangers and friends alike.

It’s also a time that I take to reflect, recognize and resolve the past year. That is before I plot my world domination for the upcoming year. My intention here is simply to share my process in hopes it provides insights, tools and resources for you to the have the best year of your life!!

2020 Vision baby! It’s the end of a decade and we have 2020 vision for the future!

Let’s get started

There are 4 main components:

Gratitude
Reflection
Vision & Hard Why
Action Plan

Thanksgiving is great way to kick off the holiday season with Gratitude. I am truly blessed in my life and find gratitude in the small pleasures of life as well as the big. If you cannot appreciate the “small things” how will you ever appreciate the big? Let me explain it this way. If you would like to have $1 Million dollars, you must first fully appreciate and have gratitude for a penny. Why? The penny is the very basic unit of what $1MM is made up of. Without the penny you will never have the Million. Cool? Cool.

Step 1. Gratitude: “It is not happiness that brings gratitude, it is gratitude that brings happiness”

Review your gratitude journal and/or write out things you are grateful for.

*Note: Get yourself a special journal(s) – yes guys too. I call this my daily gratitude journal and usually have 2-4/yr. Every day, preferably in the mornings, hand write things you are grateful for. Doesn’t matter how “big” or “small”, if it’s happened or not, 1st world blessing or just happy to be alive for the day. What’s important is you visualize and really feeeelll the gratitude.

Pro tip: Write out your gratitude with your goals as if they have already happened.

Example: Goal – Italy for 1 month in the spring.

Gratitude entry: Italy was amazing! I tried so many amazing foods and great wine! I didn’t want to leave! The sunsets were incredible, and I even learned a few phrases! It was one of the coolest trips I’ve taken! I can still smell the crisp air of the mornings, coffee & Italian breakfast. I want to go back!

Step 2. Reflection: It’s time for questions… Ask yourself the tough questions and have the courage to answer honestly. If nothing changes, nothing changes…

Seclude yourself for a few hours with limited distractions. I encourage having music, liquids and snacks. (I usually rock my Pandora, have a bottle of wine, water & plate of fruits, cheeses, meats & crackers) Make sure you write/type out your responses. I personal can’t remember last week with detail let alone an entire year so I will bring any of my tracking, reports, accountability, calendars, journals, etc. to help me be accurate in this assessment

If next year is the same as this year, will I be happy/satisfied? Or depressed AF?

What do I get to change? What can I change? What can’t I change?

What was working well? What was challenging?

What were my failures? My successes?

Who was I? How did I show up? Did I like her? What didn’t I like? What did I love?

What was the best thing that happened?

What was the worst thing that happened?

Who do I feel stronger with, inspired by, motivated with?

Who drains my energy?

What patterns/habits/behaviors/beliefs do I want to let go of? Hold onto?

Was I all-in, full throttle, give it everything I had? Or hold back?

I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t a little emotional for me. I am filled with gratitude for the experiences, people and places I’ve encountered. I’m let down by the goals I didn’t reach, proud of the ones I did. I’m saddened by the relationships that ended and the people I’ve hurt yet cherish the old and new relationships I’ve created. I’m enlightened by both my struggles and triumphs. And usually frustrated as Fuck that I’m not where I wanted to be by now – which just fuels my fire.

*Note: Most people, even the extremely successful, want the next year to be better than the previous year. Try to be unbiased & non-judgmental – the point is not to beat yourself up and feel like a complete failure but to OBSERVE what happened over the last year. On the contrary, if you had a record year – be ok with celebrating! Then get your ass back to work ASAP. This is a dangerous place to be. I see it all the time, people have success then let off the gas (guilty myself), stop doing the things that made them successful and have a terrible year following a record year.

Pro tip: Acknowledge and delegate weaknesses – Build and work your strengths. Select 1-3 items that you want to change/work on and 1-3 that worked well. Of those, what was the ONE thing that was most impactful and focus on that. This will ultimately transfer into other areas of your life.

Step 3: Vision & Hard Why: If you can dream it, you can achieve it.

The next part is my favorite! Let your imagination run wild! Think of all the dreams you have. Nothing is off limits- nothing is too big or too small! Short term, long term goals. Anything you desire! Write it all down as fast as you can! Look at magazines, Pinterest, anywhere you draw inspiration.

Create your Vision Board – use cut-outs, prints, photos, etc to create your Vision board. Put what YOU want, not what you think you should want.

Find your “Hard Why” – people are motivated by pleasure or pain. Your Vision has your pleasure points – things you’re excited about, things you would love to experience, your dream life. Your Hard Why- are the pain points – things you never want to experience or endure. Ever or again. The things we “run” from. For example, your vision might be “Financial Freedom” so you can travel the world, experience life, afford a mega-mansion, the lux car, set your bills to auto-pay, pass on a legacy. Your hard why for Financial Freedom might be you never want to have bill collectors call you again, you never want to go hungry, you can’t imagine ever being homeless, no one will be able to take care of your parents/kids if sick. The things that make you feel uneasy and cringy.

Both should bring tears to your eyes. If you are not having some sort of emotional response to your vision or hard why, keep digging. This might take some time and can/will likely change as your vision expands, goals are met and life evolves.

*Note: It’s important to acknowledge the pain points as motivators but not to focus on them. Where our focus goes, energy flows. If you’re constantly focused on what you don’t want to happen, that is exactly what will happen! So focus on the Vision! The pleasure points! Have fun and know that they are already on their way to you!

Pro tip: Have an actual visual, tangible, hand-crafted board – yes, like arts and crafts and your 5th grade science project. Place somewhere you will see multiple times a day (I recommend the bathroom).

Step 4: Action Plan “A Vision without Action is a Daydream. Action without Vision is a Nightmare” -Japanese Proverb.

This is where the rubber meets the road as they say. This is where champions are made and winners incubate – in the daily grind.

Reverse engineer what it will take for you to achieve your goals. I highly recommend working with a mentor/coach within your chosen profession/goal for this.

Chose 1-3 goal(s) max for each major area of your life: The 5 “F’s” are a good reference: Faith, Family, Financial, Fun, Fitness.
Evaluate what would make the year extraordinary? What has to happen?
Outline your KPI’s Key Performance Indicators: actions/steps/tasks which need to happen to reach these goals- Breakdown into Quarterly, Monthly, Weekly and finally Daily steps/actions
Execute the plan Every. Single. Day.

Daily review your scorecard for the day and pre-plan your next day in detail. At the end of the week score yourself and pre-plan for the upcoming week. This reduces stress and time wasters of wondering “what should I be doing”. Know that it will take time for your efforts to show results, so don’t quit until you meet your goal. Work your plan for the next 30 days and repeat.

Pro tip: Read your vision and action plan TWICE A DAY- OUT-LOUD with PASSION and Conviction.

My wish is for you to have the best year of your life this year and every year!

Now let's go kick some ass and change the world!

-xoxo

The Money Duchess