Celebrate Your Wins and Start Making New Plans: It's DEBcember!

When do you set new goals and make new plans? Every week? Every month? Every year? All of the above? I do, too!

While many wait for January for their fresh start, I like to begin the new year in DEBcember! Approaching the next calendar year with a running start is the perfect way to set yourself up for success.  

While everyone is winding down 2021, you can start achieving your 2022 goals before January 1st!

Celebrate Wins

Before new year planning can begin, take an inventory of the last 12 months ... and celebrate all of your accomplishments.

How did you do on the goals you set last year?

What was your biggest win each month? Each season?   

Also, consider the challenges you faced and how you dealt with them. 

Don't forget your personal achievements. Did you survive teaching your kids through Zoom school? Did you learn a new language, start a new hobby, or start a new writing project? Did you lose 20 lbs, even though you were aiming for 30? 

ALL WINS COUNT!

Note: If you had trouble remembering your wins, making the decision to track them in the new year is a great goal! At the end of each day - or week - write down one to three wins. Keep a dedicated notebook or computer document, so all of your wins are in one place ... and ready for you to look at when you need a boost!

Make Plans for 2022

Now, start planning for 2022. This time next year, what do you want to celebrate? Writing a new book? Getting an agent? Being published in a national magazine or three?

Write down your monster list of goals for 2022. These can be big goals, small goals, dream goals, easy goals, tasks, activities, projects. Include personal and professional goals. And also review - or rewrite - your mission and motto to make sure your action items and aspirations are in line with your big picture vision for your future.

Now, divide and conquer. Categorize all of your like goals and get organized. Look at your schedule and assign time each week (whatever is feasible with your busy schedule) to work toward your goals. Slow and steady gets things done. 

Final Thoughts

We have had so many changes over the last two years. Isn’t it time everyone gets a break? Get a running start to the new year. And, remember, you can do it!

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For more inspiration and motivation, follow @TheDEBMethod on Twitter and Linkedin for your #Start2022Now Goal of the day!

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What's your greatest win from 2021? What's your big goal for 2022? Please share in the comments.

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Debra Eckerling is the award-winning author of Your Goal Guide: A Roadmap for Setting, Planning and Achieving Your Goals and founder of the D*E*B METHOD, which is her system for goal-setting simplified. A writer, editor, and project catalyst, Deb works with entrepreneurs, executives, and creatives to set goals and manage their projects through one-on-one coaching, workshops, and online support. She is also the author of Write On Blogging and Purple Pencil Adventures; founder of Write On Online; Vice President of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Women's National Book Association; host of the #GoalChat Twitter Chat, #GoalChatLive on Facebook and LinkedIn, and The DEB Show podcast. She speaks on the subjects of writing, networking, goal-setting, and social media.

#FebruaryReset: Ten Tips to Restart Your Year

The beginning of the year is always an exciting time. New Year + New Goals = New Years Resolutions. 

Yet, oddly, as ramped up as people are on January 1st, many abandon their goals by February 1st. When they make little or even no progress in the first month, they figure, "That's okay. I'll try again next year."

News flash: You don't need to wait until the New Year to reboot your goals. Every day, week, and month is the opportunity for a new start. 

  

Here are 10 things you can do for your #FebruaryReset:

1. Read your goals from January 1st. Refresh your memory of what you set out to achieve. 

2. Rewrite your goals for the year. What stopped you from getting started? Was there an impossible something on your list? Something you forgot to include? You can take items off that original list, and add new things. Just make sure you have a mix of easy wins and stretch goals to keep things interesting.  

3. Set personal goals. Most people concentrate only on professional goals. Whenever you achieve a personal goal, you are more productive and happy, which enhances your professional life. The opposite is also true. Personal and professional goals elevate each other, so pay attention to both. 

3. Post your goals in a place where you will see them every day. Out of sight is out of mind, so  ... keep your eye on what you are working toward. It helps!

4. Clean up your workspace. File papers, shred envelopes. Make your work environment as user friendly and inviting as possible. 

5. Clean out your closet. Or a room in your house ... or your garage. Clearing out actual clutter will help clear your mind.

6. Review your social media profiles. Make sure your picture is current and your experience, motto, and mission are up to date. 

7. Do a digital cleanse. Go through your inbox and unsubscribe from email lists you never get a chance to read. Also, take the opportunity to remove unused programs and archive old files.

8. Introduce healthy habits. Find an exercise you enjoy, and schedule time to take part regularly. Find new healthy meal options. Cook more. Eat out less. And drink lots of water. 

9. Schedule goal-time, me-time, and downtime. Treat the time you spend working toward your goals, treating yourself, and chilling out as sacred as the time you spend working for other people. Whether it's an hour every other day or an hour a week, it doesn't matter. Put these invaluable appointments in your electronic calendar ... and keep them! 

10. Give yourself a break. You can't do everything all the time. Sometimes life gets in the way of pursuing your dreams... you can't punish yourself when you get off track. If you fall off the goal-wagon, just get up, dust yourself off, and start again.  

Need more inspiration and motivation? Every day in February, I am posting a new #FebruaryRestart Goal on @TheDEBMethod social media.

Best of luck on your goal journey. To your success.

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So, what is your best #FebruaryRestart tip? Please share your advice in the comments.

Debra Eckerling is the author of Your Goal Guide: A Roadmap for Setting, Planning and Achieving Your Goals. A writer, editor, and project catalyst, as well as founder of the D*E*B METHOD and Write On Online, Deb works with individuals and businesses to set goals and manage their projects through one-on-one coaching, workshops, and online support. She is also the author of Write On Blogging: 51 Tips to Create, Write & Promote Your Blog and Purple Pencil Adventures: Writing Prompts for Kids of All Ages, host of the #GoalChat Twitter Chat and #GoalChatLive on Facebook, and a speaker/moderator on the subjects of writing, networking, goal-setting, and social media.

On the writerly resolution

I'm not really a resolution type girl. I prefer goals. SMART goals - that is, specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. Goals can be worked towards - they aren't necessarily met or not met. Instead we use them as roadmaps and progress towards their achievement. If you have a goal to write 12 chapters and only write 6, you haven't failed, you've written 6 chapters. So, as we are now in January 2014, I thought it might be right to define a few writerly goals rather than resolutions that we can all work towards in our writing practice.  There is no non-achievement here.  Every step along the way is to be congratulated.  Here are my five goals for 2014. Maybe they'll resonate with you too.

• Write every day - no matter where; no matter what.  I don't like to confine myself to word counts - sometimes I have to stop and research. Sometimes I have to minister to the many people in my life that I love and who need me.  But if I touch base with my writing each day it moves forward and stays present in my head. I can then also do a lot of the work in my subconcious, through attention, and application in ways that don't happen if you let a day, or several days, go by without writing. 
• Write without restraint. Allow yourself to delve deep - sometimes to dark places where there is pain and desire. No one will read what you've written until you let them, so forget about your readers for a bit and go where you must to find your own truth (bet you don't hear that often...).
• Turn off the lizardy, self-critical voice in your head (she can come back later) when you write. The goal is not to write a masterpiece. That's too daunting and probably not SMART. The goal is just to front up and do the writing. The polishing comes later. So don't criticise yourself. Now is not the time.
• Look, listen, pay attention. The world is full of characters and material. The more you write, the more you'll notice and find stuff to write about.  Everything (and everyone) is interesting if you pay close enough attention, listen, look, use your five senses, and really take it in.
• Aim for completion. It doesn't have to be the whole project. Chunking a project into, for example, chapters, or poems, or pieces of finished work is not only more satisfying than endlessly working on something, but it gives you something you can submit somewhere, which really helps keep the writing juices flowing (a few accolades/publications/or positive critiques don't hurt either).

How about you?  Will you be setting secific goals for 2014?  Whatever you'll be spending 2014 doing, have a very happy new year!  

Magdalena Ball is the author of the novels Black Cow and Sleep Before Evening, the poetry books Repulsion Thrust and Quark Soup, a nonfiction book The Art of Assessment, and, in collaboration with Carolyn Howard-Johnson, Sublime Planet, Deeper Into the Pond, Blooming Red, Cherished Pulse, She Wore Emerald Then, and Imagining the Future. She also runs a radio show, The Compulsive Reader Talks. Find out more about Magdalena at www.magdalenaball.com.