Webinar: Mapping Out Your Next Year

By Leo Babauta

In this webinar, I gave a few things to reflect on from this past year, some big buckets to look at, suggested a loose plan to focus on for each month, and I answered some awesome questions.

I’ve broken this webinar recording into two parts:

  1. Part I – My Talk: Mapping Out Your Next Year. (See notes)
  2. Part II – Questions & Answers: I answered questions on where to begin, habit progression, ealing with distraction, social media advice, getting out of your head and living more from the heart, and more!

Part I: Leo’s Talk (with notes)

You can download this video here, or download just the audio. Or watch below.

Here are the notes from my talk (video is below the notes):

Mapping Out Your Next Year:

Now’s the time to take a big-picture look at your life — it’s cold, it’s the end of the year, take some time to reflect on how your year has gone and what you want to do in the next year.

Reflect:
* How has your year gone?
* What successes have you had?
* What habits have you formed?
* Which have you struggled with?
* Which would you like to sharpen?
* What big areas of your life need improvement?
* Where would you like to be a year from now, if everything went well?
* If things didn’t go as planned, what 3-4 things would you love to have changed in a year (minimal set)?

Big buckets to look at:

  1. Health & wellness – meditation, yoga, exercise, diet, sleep
  2. Connection – personal relationships, professional colleagues, getting better at interpersonal, being intentional about connection instead of quick messages
  3. Contribution – Your professional life, or any contributions you make to the community, your family, volunteering, etc.

Examine each of these buckets to see if there’s anything you’d like to improve. Start a list of things to improve.

For me, I’m going to focus on perhaps 2 per month, if they support each other:

  1. Jan: Meditate every day for 2018
  2. Jan: Tighten up diet
  3. Feb: Start a podcast & small group coaching program
  4. Feb: Sleep & wake earlier
  5. Mar: Deepen connection with my wife
  6. Mar: Yoga
  7. Apr: Deepen friendships & other family
  8. Apr: Yoga
  9. May: Strength training
  10. May: Retreat in Tulum, Mexico
  11. June: Strength training
  12. June: Write a book
  13. July: Deepen connection with my wife
  14. July: Write a book
  15. Aug: Deeper into mindfulness
  16. Aug: Tighten up diet again
  17. Sept: Deepen friendships & other family
  18. Sept: Yoga
  19. Oct: Push into uncertainty & discomfort
  20. Nov: Deeper into mindfulness
  21. Dec: Deepen friendships & other family
  22. Dec: Contemplate the next year, reflect on my year

As you can see, I repeated some items throughout the year, to give myself space to deepen my practice and work on these things for more than just one month.

How you arrange your plan will depend on where you are, what you have going on, and what you really want to work on.

Hold loosely to the plan — it’s not a strict step-by-step plan, but more an exercise in imagining where you might go, and creating an intention to practice and learn.

Put your intention out there, in our community or with people you care about. Let your intention be held by others. Let them hold your devotion in their hearts.

Links mentioned in Q&A:
http://seachange.zenhabits.net/module-quitting/
http://seachange.zenhabits.net/mastering-habit-skills/
http://seachange.zenhabits.net/beginners/
https://habitmasterycourse.com/

Part II: Questions and Answers

You can download this video here, or download just the audio. Or watch below.

Questions answered in this video: