Today's the last day of the first month of this year.

Use today to review this past month. Or, if you're happy just going along and letting things happen to you, then don't. But if you have set some goals for the year, this is the best way to make sure you're on the right course. It's not like autopilot yet you know. You have to install the programs in you before you can just cruise along. I think one of the biggest mistakes we make is to not look back.

This process is easy and only takes a few minutes and I will be vulnerable and share some of what I wrote down to show you how easy it is.

Start with what your intent (or goal) for the month was. If you're sitting there saying "but my goal was for the year, i didn't have a specific goal for January" then you can help yourself by breaking that big goal into chunks. That's one way that massive goals become do-able and how we can stay motivated. You've heard me talk about how thinking about 314 MORE miles on day 1 would have been intolerable but thinking about 16 miles in the next 12 hours was very doable and not frightening. Then you just rinse and repeat. Let's say you want to take off 50 pounds by the end of the year. That is ominous because your mind is going from "let's have desert" to "i'll never be able to have desert again" to "this is too hard, i can't lose 50 pounds". But what if you thought "I can lose 4 pounds this month"? Doesn't that sound more palatable? To me it does. Or maybe you just have a 1 or 3 month goal. Still break it down into the smallest possible pieces. That will exponentially improve your chances of success.

So you have your goal for the month. Mine was to continue my growth through my daily routine while working on editing my book 2 hours a day. 

Then move to something along the lines of "what went well this month" - here is what i wrote:
1) I finished Across the Years and turned a somewhat disappointing experience into the positives
2) Started editing my book and have continued to do 2 hours a day every day PLUS i'm also enjoying the process and have learned to look at things differently and this will help with my next book
3) Started slowly learning spanish via Babbel practicing every day
4) Began consistently getting up at 0400 and getting at least 8 hours of sleep
5) Discovered and started Optimize coaching
6) Got my Day Runner organized finally so that I can keep track of what i need to
7) Began the chronic pain course and have practiced 30 minutes every day and am seeing results
8) i CALLED the RV company for 3 Days at the Fair using one of the "tools" I've learned. It was so empowering
9) I felt happy most of the time this month and that's a first
10) prioritized my time by asking "does this bring me towards or away from my goal"
11) I've come up with ideas for my future books and posts

See, just 11 things that tell me what happened this month and what propelled me toward my goal. and it didn't take me long to jot them down

Next I listed what didn't go well and I am happy to report that I don't have many things on this list this month.
1) I'm not getting the editing done as fast as I thought and would like. That's ok because I'm getting so much more out of than when i thought it would just be a tedious process. I am enjoying it and restructuring the book as I go. Plus I'm getting more ideas
2) I had a bit of trouble adjusting to the "cost" of prioritizing my time but quickly rebounded

Don't get into the future until tomorrow. Review January today