Here comes the new expac…

As one year shuffles off and a new one looms on the horizon, reflection and planning are the traditional activities. Reflection of how the last 12 months have gone including acknowledgement of our mistakes and failures in addition to celebrating our wins. Planning for what needs to change in the next year to move you towards your goals.

When reflecting, the rules of nonjudgementalism and self honesty must be observed to keep the entire process from devolving into an episode of rumination and ruin. Make a list of both what went right and what went pear shaped. Analyze what contributed to success or failure and determine which of those things are under your control. That list is the one to bring into your planning session for the coming year.

Plan for the next year while avoiding the trap of “go big or go home”. Big plans are flashy but almost always doomed to failure. They take too much energy and trigger enormous amounts of pushback.  Small changes are easier and they add up over time. Choose changes that help you more closely fit the image you hold of your best you.

Make this year different starting at the loading screen. If your long term goal involves improving your “healthy lifestyle” score, avoid burnout. Instead of setting the bar at daily gym time before breakfast and a diet of beef jerky and carrots, why not try adding in 5 minutes of any physical activity that you enjoy every day and replacing sodas with flavored waters. Establish a firm foundation then build out from there. 

I mostly followed this protocol over the past year as I worked on building my online coaching business and the times I didn’t are when things went off the rails or failed to move forward.  While the fallout has been limited to missed social media posts or arriving a few minutes late to appointments, I will not minimize the importance of ongoing adjustment to avoid more problematic problems in the future. For me the bigger problem has been maintaining consistent growth. I have half dozen things that have been sitting in my quest log for more than 6 months that I have been habitually avoiding. It is as bad as that Chromie quest that my main has not completed since the Legion expac.

Once upon a time this would have resulted in an epic level emotional beatdown where I called myself every name in the book while highlighting every weakness and discounting every strength. Now I can look, shake my head and ask myself “WTF dudette?” because clearly my inner committee has some objections. I am formulating a variety of ways to get things moving including breaking each task down into even smaller pieces and attaching those pieces to other activities that are already established. For the few things that won’t fit that mold, breaking them down and treating them with the same respect as a client appointment by putting them in my calendar. I will also spend a little more time doing casual journaling on the problem topics to see if my subconscious will explain itself.

The point of paramount importance is the deliberate, conscious choice to view thoughts and actions through a “left brain” lens that allows me to acknowledge feelings but absolutely does not let them drive my mental bus. Maintaining a balanced view where I can acknowledge my feelings without being hijacked is the result of a thousand tiny changes over time and a work in progress.

Heading into the new year, I want to be able to help even more people make use of the power of play in creating a life you can’t wait to wake up to. How can I help you today?

#LevelUp #WomanGamer #NewYear #NewLife