How 2018 is the Key to Your Best 2019

My good friend, Andy Garrett is a Clinical Psychologist, husband, father and wonderful Christian. In this guest blog, he discusses some wonderful ideas on how to have a great 2019. For more blogs, videos and information on his work you can go to ag-thrive.com.

How 2018 is the Key to Your Best 2019

1. Positive Experiences Inventory

We suggest that you start by taking inventory of all your successes, progress, experiences, and victories that you may have accomplished throughout the year. It can be easy to lose sight of how much you have accomplished over the course of the year – and this is a nice way to get a healthier perspective on how far you have come over the past year. Plus, this should be fun – like creating a “greatest hits” list for your 2018!

2. Lessons Learned

Take some time to think about the major lessons you learned throughout the year. This is a good time to recall the biggest challenges you may have faced – and put a positive twist on them by acknowledging what you (should have) learned from them. Each year provides you with ample opportunity to grow – and now is the time to reflect on what you learned in 2018!

3. Writing a Gratitude Letter to 2018

Okay – now that you have taken your inventory and identified your major lessons from the past year – now it’s time to say thank you – and trust that everything that you experienced in the past year – was necessary to lead you to the phenomenal year that you have ahead of you. You should identify particular people, places, experiences, etc., that you want to acknowledge for making the past year special and meaningful. This exercise is a nice way to engender feelings of hope and optimism for the year ahead.

4. Identify any feelings, people, experiences, etc. that you want to say goodbye to  

This is the final part of moving on from 2018! On this particular exercise – we encourage you to take inventory of the people, places, experiences, feelings, beliefs, mindsets, habits, etc., that you do not want to carry with you into 2019. Now, if there are any unresolved issues from 2018 that need to be addressed – then we encourage you to develop a plan of action or strategy on how you want to achieve healthy closure on them. If you aren’t sure how to do this – or – you need support in doing so – this would be a great time to access any internal and external resources available to you – and do this with someone you trust and have confidence in.

If possible (and it is possible) – it’s important to try and accept and forgive the less desirables aspects of this past year – mostly as a way of practicing self-compassion, self-love, and choose growth and progress for the you that’s going to crush 2019!! Holding onto resentments, grudges, pain, sorrow, worry, etc., will most likely inhibit you from growing the year you want – and instead will keep you stuck in painful patterns.

We feel like this is a great way to close out the past year – and not necessarily a process that should take more than a few hours. The benefits from doing this are substantial – so, the ROI for your time is well worth it!!