It feels like just yesterday when we were welcoming the new year and looking ahead to 2022. Now with just two months left of the year, it’s a good time to pause, reflect, and look back on the past 10 months. It’s also a perfect time to check in with yourself to determine if you’re still growing and in alignment with your plans, goals, objectives, and purposes for 2022. It may seem that there isn’t enough time left to do all you wanted to do. Discover seven (7) ways to finish the year strong.
7 Ways to Finish the Year Strong
Fatigue has kicked in. Holiday plans are solidifying. Everyone is on autopilot and slowing down. We’ve reached that time in the year when people’s energy begins to taper off and, “I’ll see it in the new year” becomes everyone’s mantra. But like in a soccer match, that last-gasp goal in the final minutes changed everything. Here are seven ways to help you finish your year on a winning high:
- Shift your mindset. Sometimes we aren’t aware of our own negative thinking on things because those ways of thinking are so ingrained in us. A lot of what holds us back is how we think about ourselves and our circumstances. Do you have a negative attitude, self-belief or insecurities that have held you back? If you aren’t sure, schedule a session with a therapist to help you introspect on your thinking habits. This is a good way to begin preparing how you’ll go into the new year.
- Celebrate your wins. Stop. Look back. And celebrate. We spend so much time on the go and moving onto the next one, we don’t stop to celebrate wins, big and small, along the way. Review your year and pat yourself on the back for the things you managed to achieve.
- Redefine your goals. As the year has progressed, things have changed. Take some time to evaluate where you are, what you want to do and if these goals are still aligned with your path.
- Declutter. Carrying unnecessary weight and baggage is heavy. Clean out your closet, your contact list, unused apps, and items that you like the idea of having but just aren’t using. This will help you make room for the new.
- Accomplish one last big thing. Identify that one thing you’ve been meaning to start but you put off. And do it. Make the call. Write that business plan. Push ahead with the knowledge that doing it will give you that proud, relieved, and excited feeling.
- Begin setting your objectives for 2023. It’s never too early to start planning for the new year. If 2022 is anything to go by, the months go by quickly. Start thinking about the coming year and what you will need to do to help you achieve those personal and professional objectives.
- Help somebody. “It’s better to give than to receive.” This is a common saying that does as much for you, the giver, as it does for the receiver. Helping others is a reminder that there’s more to life than our issues. There’s a great satisfaction in knowing you have helped someone achieve something. And it also gives you a sense of purpose. Something we all seek.
Questions To Ask Yourself
By now you realise that the things you need to do to help you finish the year strong look the same as the things you planned to do over the course of the year. What you need is time, which at this point in the year, doesn’t seem to be on your side. But the good news is, the year isn’t over yet. You still have time. You look back on the year and ahead to what’s left of the year, ask yourself a few important questions:
- What has gone well?
- What small things kept you from achieving the big things?
- Is your health, family, finances as strong as you’d like them to be?
- What held you back? What kept you going?
- What are you most grateful for?
- What has been your biggest takeaway of 2022?
- What have you learned about yourself?
Looking Ahead to 2023 and Beyond
It’s fun to sit, dream and imagine what life would be like if you could do ABC. We have good intentions and set goals and plan when we want to achieve them. What we neglect doing is putting down the tools and steps you need to take to ensure you achieve those goals. That can seem like the hard part. But it really isn’t when you consider that goals are made up of several elements:
- Results. What do you want to achieve?
- Actions. What actions do you need to do to achieve your goals?
- Time. How much time do you have to accomplish your set goals?
- Motivation. When the going gets tough, what will keep you going? How will you motivate yourself to make sure you do all you set yourself out to do?
Write down your action plan in bite-sized portions and formulate steps you need to take, you set yourself up a win.
The best time to start anything was yesterday. The second-best time is today. That’s 8 weeks and 5 days until 31st December. This gives you just enough time to get one more thing started. Or finish off that task you’ve been struggling to tick off your list. If you do this, you will not only finish the year on a strong note, but you also set yourself up for a great start to the coming year.
Remember, “Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.” – Hal Borland
