How To Build a Successful New Year Plan

My word for 2023 is BUILD. In this blog series I’ll share how I’m bringing my personal development vision to life one month at a time and show how you can do the same to become a more successful version of yourself.

Just in case you are wondering this is not another New Year’s Resolutions post. To be sincere, the word gives me the creeps as, to me, it’s a synonym for “things you say you are going to do but you know you won’t (for long).” With that out of the way, let’s get started.

The BUILD Journey

I know it’s all semantics, but I prefer to use the word “commitment” to describe my plans for the upcoming year. It feels more than just deciding on doing something on a whim, but fully engaging oneself with whatever one wishes to accomplish. For 2023, to keep things simpler, I’m sticking to my word of the year: BUILD. I chose a verb because “action” will be at the center of my decisions BUILD is also an acronym that stands for:

B = bold: stretching oneself outside the comfort zone
U = useful: supports personal development
I = interesting: appeals to individual preferences
L = lasting: it’s not just a fad
D = doable: simple to accomplish

The BUILD Journey will focus on a different aspect of my life each month:

Plan
Habits
Consistency
Skills
A career
Network
Strength
Flexibility
Balance
Mindfulness
Kindness
Perseverance

My January Plan

My plan to kick off the BUILD Journey in January consists of the following steps:

Journaling on a daily basis
Riding a bike (indoors or outside) 3 times a week
Doing yoga or other physical activity 2 times a week
Reading one book per month
Publishing one blog post per month

It’s a simple plan that fits my busy schedule, even in the busiest months. Which means I can stick to it all year round.

How to build your plan

Planning is not something everyone feels comfortable with, let alone sketching an entire year beforehand. Not only does it sound like a lot of work (that will probably be wasted), but it can be overwhelming too. Well, not really… I am not going to lie to you: I love making plans and seeing them come true. Even if navigating through them doesn’t end up the same way I had envisioned them in the beginning, I still enjoy the process. It takes willpower and patience, but also a good dose of self-knowledge (or at least the intention of getting to know oneself better). Since the pandemic, we have also become more flexible, haven’t we? If months in lockdown was a reality check on what we can control, I don’t know what else would be. Maybe you are not into plans and prefer a carefree approach to life and that’s fine. I am not here to say you cannot make it because you aren’t crazy about planners, journals and whatnot like myself. However, even a free soul can benefit from some structure to achieve their objectives. Find out how you can apply the 5 steps of the BUILD Journey for success. #BUILDJourney Click To Tweet How your plan will look depends on things such as your goals and availability. If you want to master a sport but can only train once a week, it’s better to adapt to the desired results or you’ll only get disappointment and we don’t want that. Remember that while not ideal, don’t hesitate to restart as many times as necessary if life comes in the way. Be always kind to yourself, including when things don’t go as you wanted. Realize that the progress you’re making sometimes won’t be visible to you. The important thing to keep in mind here is that not being visible is not the same as not being present. E.g. you are going to the gym to lose weight and after a couple of sessions, you are still not seeing any weight loss. This could be because you are building muscles in addition to burning fat. Since muscles weigh more than fat, on the scale this might not translate itself into the desired weight loss. But if you stick to the plan, the muscle growth will stabilize and all of a sudden you will start losing weight. The moral of the story? Don’t give up too soon.

More planning tips

To help you get some clarity, I highly recommend you check these posts:

What’s your opinion and experience with planning? I’d love to hear your thoughts.