3 Must Haves for a Successful 2017–Nope, None Are a Vision Board

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Whether you are an entrepreneur, have a side hustle, a passion project–or simply want to develop one; we are all making plans for 2016 (or at least we should be).

One now staple of vision casting for the new year are vision boards. I love a vision board as much as the next person, as long as you bring them to life (see my post).

Over the past year, I have come to realize that there are some other tools that are equally as effective for motivation and tone-setting for the goals you want to accomplish in the New Year. So I wanted to share them with you.

Tribe Photo

There are people waiting on you to discover and live in your purpose. For me, knowing there are people waiting for my courses, events, or consultation plans gives me motivation to move forward. But I need the visual reminder–don’t you?

Find a picture of a crowd.

Print and frame it. Or if you can, enlarge it and hang. You can get one for less than $20 at Staples. Place it where you do your passion work. You can also save it to your phone as a background or screensaver. This way every time you access it, you are reminded of the people waiting for you to live in your purpose.

Word of the Year

I ran across this concept in my daily reading. You choose a word that denotes your focus for the year. It could be an action word that you want to find yourself DOING more in the new year or a noun that emphasizes a principle you want to embody. Here are some steps to help you choose your one word:

1. Determine who you would like to grow into in the coming year. This is deeper than healthier or wealthier. Dig deep. What issues of life or challenges have prevented you from living into your purpose and accomplishing goals?
2. List the characteristics and traits of living that quality 24/7. For instance, if you would like to grow into a leader, what characteristics or traits does a leader possess?
3. Narrow your list down to 5 words that you think best symbolize what you would like to live into in the next year. Look up the words in the dictionary and religious texts (for me that would be the Bible). Google quotes with your words in them.
4. Spend one day focusing on each of those five words (total of 5 days). Live your life through the lens of that word. See how that word looks and feels in your life? Were you able to do anything about or with that word? Did you learn anything about that word and yourself?
5. Choose one word to focus on for 2016. Don’t select a word that you easily grasp and can live into. Choose a word that challenges you. Choose a word that will require work and intentional living to fully grasp and see growth.

Theme Song

One of my favorite lines in the 80’s cult classic, “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka” is

Every superhero needs their own theme music

Athletes, creatives, artists, writers–lots of people have a genre of music or artist they listen to that puts them in a “zone.” Find that song that does it for you. Or create a playlist of songs. In the sidebar, is a link to my partial “Law of Attraction” playlist. These songs set an atmosphere of love, abundance and success.

Please share this post with your friends and leave a comment with your word of the year and theme songs! I may find new music to add to my playlist.