We all come into the New Year with a fresh start from the holidays and the hope to check off a host of resolutions that will make the coming year a success in some small or large way. While these goals are well intentioned, we often set ourselves up for disappointment in the way we frame them. They are a) not focused on key priorities, b) poorly defined or c) lack actionable steps to make them happen. But, this doesn’t need to be the case.
A few years ago, my coach, Brooke Vuckovic, coined and taught me about using NKC’s: No Kidding Commitments. These are not just rough intentions or resolutions that I hope to get to but a set of Iron Clad commitments which I make to myself (and her) that will be completed by the end of the year. I have slightly modified her approach and added a reflection step.
There are four parts to my process: 1) reflection on the year before, 2) a theme to guide the new year, 3) four to five No Kidding Commitments and 4) a set of actions for each commitment to ensure they happen.
Reflection: Before I can move forward with the new year, I want to reflect on the previous year and use this as a guide/baseline for the upcoming one. I use Reboot’s Reboot Your Year course/process which is simple and straight forward. You get an email with a quote and Koan (paradox/poem) to reflect on and a prompt to journal on for five consecutive days. They include reflection on:
1) key events that shaped your year
2) the personal growth resulting from these events
3) things to let go of that no longer serve you
4) envisioning what would make a successful year
5) a letter of advice to yourself
This is one of the simplest & most effective reflection approaches I’ve come across.
Theme: Next, I create a unifying theme for the year to simply and focus my attention. I choose a word and define what that word means in the context of the coming year. Since 2019 held a significant amount of change for me and the barrage of ominous news seems unending, I chose the word “FLOW” as my core theme. Athletes know this as being “in the Zone”. Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi defines it as being in “an activity, fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.” I’ve defined it contextually for this year as being present (mentally), energized (physically) and open-hearted (emotionally) in all endeavours.
Commitments: After I choose my theme, Brooke has me lay out my No Kidding Commitments for the year. These are the uber-important achievements that will create the greatest impact and deliver the greatest amount of contentment in the next 12 months in the major segments of my life (career, family, service/impact, health, spiritual, finances/home, relationships). Each includes a statement starting with “I will…” and has a clear success state, such as, “I will sell my house and move downtown,” or “I will staff up the LA office and refocus my efforts nationally,” or “I will relaunch my blog, develop my voice and post at least 3x/week”. The issue with traditional resolutions is that they are sloppy agreements without a logical result. It’s hard to make progress against something like “I will be more healthy this year.” By setting tangible metrics for your NKCs, it’s easier to track progress and commit to results.
Actions: Once I set my NKCs, I will then put actions against them so that I have line of sight towards realizing each one. I create a project in Things (my task management app) for each NKC and list out the actions to take. For example, To relaunch my blog, I had roughly 10 tasks ranging from securing the domain name to hiring a design firm to setting up the Mailchimp service. I review these to-do’s every week, assess how I am making progress, and determine if there are any changes to the action plan needed.
Through this process, I’ve found I am much clearer on my priorities, accomplish what I set out to achieve and am more content throughout the year.
I’d be curious to hear what any of you do as part of your New Year reflection, resolution and planning process.
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