Bob Dylan said that a person is a success if they get up in the morning and get to bed at night, and in-between do what they want to do.

Your success is not defined by your status, income, or so many other things we all so often think of when we hear that word.

Rather, success is having the opportunity to give your time and energy to the things of life which matter.

My hope for your upcoming year is that it would be a successful one.

May you get out of bed on January 1 and get to bed on December 31, and in-between do what you want to do.

What’s at Stake for 2019?

Without clarity on your goals for this upcoming year, you are on track to repeat last year.

Even if you had an awesome 2018, the best thing you can do is to continue to build upon it. If you’re coasting then you are either going downhill or you are using up the last of your previous momentum.

However, clarity on your goals can be tricky...

The Problem With Resolutions

That clever list of New Year’s Resolutions is worth about as much as the paper it’s written on. Resolutions, in and of themselves, won’t get you very far.

The problem with resolutions is that they often serve as a False First Step. By writing down your list of resolutions, it can feel as if you’ve completed them as well. Because the “hunger” for change so often gets appeased merely through creating the list of resolutions, many people stop there.

It is better to have one goal that you take action on than it is to have a dozen resolutions that you ignore after a few days.

And so, yes, it’s important to have your list of goals and resolutions for the year. But, dear reader, that is only the beginning.

Plan Your Year is a simple workbook that will help you, ahem, get prepared for 2019.

1. Get a clear list of your goals and desired outcomes for the upcoming year.
2. Set a theme for your year.
3. Get prepared for what is coming and what can be known — events, financial commitments, etc.
4. Look at the goals and desired outcomes you have, and the known events, for every area of your life.
5. Take steps toward establishing new and healthy routines.
6. Find out if there are things you need to cut out from your day-to-day life to make room for things that are more important.
7. Find out where you can reclaim margin and breathing room in your life.

This year, you deserve to be free to focus on the areas of life that matter most to you.

This workbook will help you identify those areas of life that matter, focus on them, and prepare for success.

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Something I teach about in my flagship product, The Focus Course, is that when you’re over toward the left on the “un-focused” side of things, you don't feel in control. It's stressful. You don't feel like there is any breathing room. And you're so frequently responding to the urgent issues of others that you lack any clear plan forward.

However, when you are on the “focused” side, you are very much in control. You have clear goals and you have the time and energy you need to meet those goals. You are far less stressed and anxious than your reactive counterpart. You're thriving.

• How many New Year's Resolutions have you started and then stopped?
• How many times have you set goals for your year, only to forget what they were?
• Do you have far more ideas than time?

Consider how liberating it will this year to have clarity about your goals along with the breathing room you need to focus on them.

Start Planning Your Year