Our new year is just days away. You might be thankful 2023 is coming to an end and hoping for a better 2024. What does it take to create the new year, rather than it unfold as an extension of the past? Creating the new year, from a blank slate, where many new possibilities can show up.
Consider the things that you have said to yourself. For example, ‘I don’t want that to happen again!’ Or you might have even said what the year is going to be like. If you look at it, you will see it is a response to something, not a creation.
If you want to have a breakthrough in what is possible for yourself and your organization, it will take creating the year not limited by the past.
What does it take to create the year? First it is important to close the door on 2023.
We call this completing the year.
You can do this by taking time to write down what you accomplished and didn’t accomplish in 2023 from your personal and professional life.
• What are you proud of accomplishing in 2023?
• What goals did you hit?
• Where did you provide leadership?
• Who do you need to thank for their support in 2023?
• What are the lessons you learned in 2023?
• What did you not accomplish in 2023 that you set out to accomplish?
• What did you not accomplish in 2023 that you want to accomplish in 2024?
If you want to have a breakthrough – something that is unexpected and results in a sudden advancement, you start with completing the year.
Once you have spent time with the questions to complete the year, this will provide you a blank slate to create 2024 without the limitations of the past.
Creating 2024
It is 12/31/2024. Put yourself there in your actual experience. The year has happened, and it was an amazing year. What are you committed to accomplish in the next twelve months?
Consider I am your fairy godmother, and I can grant you your wishes.
I have waived my magic wand and poof! It is a year from now and it has happened exactly as you said. It was an extraordinary year! The only requirement is you write a letter to me. Write the letter as though it is a year from now.
12 31,2024
Dear Bambi,
I took on creating a breakthrough in 2024 and it happened just as I created it.
What I accomplished was…
What it took to accomplish those goals was….
Who I had to be as a leader to accomplish them was…
What I was able to overcome (if anything) was…
Where I grew as a leader was…
What do my life and relationships look like now?
Put yourself there, in the actual experience, what things are you and others doing?
Once you get your letter written as if you are there, a year from now, find a partner you can trust and read your letter to them. Hearing it said out loud will make it more real to YOU.
This is a practice that I have my clients participate in annually, we save the letters to review a year later. I am always amazed to hear how many times they have forgotten about the exercise, and how much actually happened just as they created it.
Here’s to you creating an extraordinary year full of possibilities.
I wish you the very best in 2024!
Merry Christmas!
Bambi McCullough
CEO & Co-Founder of Chrysalis Partners, LLC.