My Unorthodox View On New Year's Resolutions

Hey, it's Marie here with another Q & A Tuesday! (Happy New Year! Happy New Year! Happy New Year! Happy New Year!) Happy New Year! I bet you're totally sick of hearing that, right? Okay well, that's great because that's what this Q & A Tuesday is all about! Oh no, you're not sick of hearing it yet? (Happy New Year! Happy New Year!) Okay, I'm done. I promise.

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Q: Let's look at our first question and it's actually from Jessalicious. This is what she writes: "How do you plan for the New Year ahead? I always struggle with planning, it overwhelms me and I'm not sure how to do it in a way that's fun and inspiring while getting me on the right track to accomplish what I want to do in the next year."

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A: So we actually had a lot of questions very much like this. You know, "How do I plan for the New Year", and I'm going to tell you right now. So the first thing that I do and I actually started this in December, and it's awesome is clearing away all the crap and creating a lot of whitespace. So what does that mean? I literally go through every single corner of my house, of my apartment, of my work area, of my closet, of my drawers, and just get rid of the junk!

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I live in New York City, you probably heard a little "beep, beep" and even if you didn't there was a little "beep, beep" sound. Anyway, living in New York I don't have that much space to begin with but even the space that we do have, somehow it gets cluttered. And I can't think straight with that much static. It's impossible for me to really discover what I want to create in the future. Like you know, create all kinds of good projects and plans if there's crap around me.

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So the first step for me is always clearing things out and I would highly, highly recommend that for you whether you take a day or you do it over the course of a couple of weeks. You'll be very targeted and go to like your hot zones, and spend a few hours you know, put on some cool jams, dance around, clear things out. Awesome first step!

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The next thing that I do to really take advantage of the New Year is once I have this whitespace then it's about really asking myself, "What do I want to put out into the world in this next year? What are the projects that I want to do?" And, you're actually seeing one of them, right now. I've had this intuitive little desire to do more with videos. So back last year I started kind of putting the plans in place to make this happen right now.

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So ask yourself, what are the projects that you want to create? Either they're things that you want to write, things that you want to put out in your business, new product and services that you want to launch. Maybe there's personal things that you want to make sure that get "baked" into this New Year. Maybe you want to go to Fuji, maybe you want to just take four weeks' vacation over the course of 12 months. I don't know but just let your imagination run wild and get everything down on paper.

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Q: And now, for our next question. This is from Anita and Anita's question is awesome. It's a perfect layout! She says: "Hello Marie. I don't have a very creative or inspiring New Year's question, but she actually does, do you ever make any New Year resolutions?" 

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Thought that was a really juicy question, most people probably because I'm in the personal development and business growth space think that I have like a sh*t bunch of New Year's resolutions. Here's my answer: A: No resolutions. My whole philosophy around New Year resolutions is "resolutions, smelusions." I think they suck! I try not to make myself feel like a loser like as much as possible. And in the past, doing resolutions always make me feel like a loser because, by the time January 15 or 20th rolled around, I was totally off the wagon. I felt like crap. I was like, "God, I can't stick with anything. I'm terrible."

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So I said, "Screw it! I'm just going to give it up!" So here's what I do instead, once I've made that big juicy list of all the things that I want to create that we were talking about just a few minutes ago. I go through and I filter with these two questions; first, what on this list is going to be the most spiritually profitable? So what's going to bring me the most joy? What of these projects are the ones that I'm most excited about? And then, I look through a second lens and that is what is going to be most financially profitable?

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Because I'm a businesswoman and I love making me the Benjamins, I take a look at all the  projects on the list and go, "Well, what's actually going to put money in the bank?" And as long as it's spiritually profitable and financially profitable, then I do the important next step which is this, schedule it! If you don't schedule it, it's not real and I think that's why many New Year resolutions kind of fall short because you're making this empty promise to yourself of how you're going to be and what you're going to do.

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It just stays and kind of you know, cloudy zone up here. But if you're really committed to something, the moment you schedule it and get it into your calendar, it becomes real! So a really simple way to approach what you want to get done in the New Year! You'll feel less like a loser and you'll be more likely to actually get things done if you use those two filters; spiritually profitable and financially profitable. You'll not only love what you're going to be doing but it'll put money in the bank, too.

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So, that's what I've got for ya for this Q & A Tuesday! Hope you enjoyed it and if you did enjoy it; please like it, leave me a comment, share it with your friends, and don't forget to subscribe at marieforleo.com. So we can stay connected! So yeah that's all I got and I'll talk to you next time!