18. Reflect and recommit
Whoa, middle of May already?! 2018 is whizzing by. This is the the end of this series of 18 Ways To Set Your 2018 On Fire, and an excellent time to check in on how your year is going. Here are a few handy review questions to get you thinking:
What are you most proud of in 2018?
What New Year's Resolutions did you set this year?
Which ones have you achieved? Why have you achieved them? How did you accomplish them?
Which ones are nicely on track? Why are they going so well? What is it that you are doing that is keeping them on track?
Which ones have, ahem, fallen by the wayside? Why is that, honestly?
What did you prioritise instead? Are you good with that choice?
Do you still want to achieve that thing? Is it still important to you?
Is there something else you would like to create for yourself in 2018?
We are very good at waiting until Monday to restart the healthy eating plan; waiting until the first of the month to reset our spending, and waiting for a new year to set big goals for our life. It doesn’t have to be that way. We can reset ourselves any time we choose. We can start on a brand new adventure, goal or splendid plan at 4.34pm on a random Wednesday in May if we choose to make it so. Every day is an opportunity to remake ourselves. To take a moment to look up from the hamster wheel of doing that is life and see in what overall direction we are headed. If all the tiny little decisions and choices we are making each day about how to prioritise our time, energy and attention are actually taking us in the direction that, on January 1, we fully intended to go.
Now — as we hunker down to winter — is the time to reassess. See what has worked. Give ourselves a pat on the back where appropriate and double-down on what we still want to move towards. Keeping up momentum as it gets colder and darker with that extra show of motivation to push through is vital. It is so much easier to commit to healthier eating, more exercise and so on when the sun is shining, fruit is falling off the trees in the garden and the nights are long.
So, what is the number one thing you want to accomplish by the end of the year? What would make 2018 stand out as the year you always look back on;that one in which you finally went to that amazing place on your bucket list, or started the study programme that transformed your professional opportunities, set up your side-hustle business, ran that off-road marathon, lost 15kg and kept it off?
Small tiny actions lead to huge long-term accomplishments. It’s a general principle of how the human brain works that we tend to wildly overestimate what we can accomplish in a day (those “To Do” lists that seem so doable at 8am but are almost unchanged at 4pm), and conversely also tend to habitually underestimate what we can accomplish in the long term. We can make so many more things that we think are too big or too time-consuming to start, actually happen, if we just start small, but start.
The year is yet young. Reflect and recommit.
More columns in this series
- See How to set your 2018 on fire: Part 1
- Part 2: I will face forward
- Part 3: In 2018 my body will move my mind
- Part 4: In 2018 I will speak up, not eat up
- Part 5: In 2018 I will (sometimes) accept the unacceptable
- Part 6: I will set boundaries around my phone
- Part 7: I will be happily less than perfect
- Part 8: Let them do them. You do you.
- Part 9: I will claim my power
- Part 10: I will be my own cheerleader
- Part 11: I will say something when there is nothing that can be said
- Part 12: I will be a deep listener
- Part 13: I will be mindful of the stories I tell myself
- Part 14: Change your world by making your bed
- Part 15: I will improve sleep quality (not just quantity)
- Part 16: I will decide to not be scared
- Part 17: I will improve my digital discernment
Through her online Happiness programme “Wellbeing Warriors”, life coach Louise Thompson helps people unlock their happiest and healthiest life. Sign up at
and find more from Louise at