It’s the end of the year. We’re caught in that place between looking back over what’s happened during the past twelve months and looking forward to what 2018 could hold for us. There’s also that super strong feeling associated with the thought, “How in the hell is it December already? I feel like two weeks ago it was April!”

.

Sometimes, as we find ourselves at the end of another year, it’s tough to get clarity—on what’s gone on in the year that’s passed and what we’d like to make happen in the year that’s coming up on the horizon. We end up sorting through questions like, “What actually just happened?” and “What am I going to do with myself next year?”

.

This is especially true for transformational goals—those ones that deal with our minds and bodies. Did we get ourselves to new physical, and mental, places this year? And, where would we like to take our bodies and minds during the next 365 days?

.

These are difficult questions—and it’s perfectly ok that they’re difficult. But that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be answered.

.

Let’s chat about a few things we can do to help answer these questions as we look back over 2017 and forward to 2018.

.

Looking Back: Start with Bright Spots and Gratitude

“This year has been shit.”

.

How many times have you heard someone make a statement like that over the past few months? Maybe you’ve thought that, too.

.

But has it been shit? Really?

.

See, the thing is, we’re all relatively skewed to spot the negatives because being able to find problems is what helped our ancestors survive. And we still need to be able to spot real problems, we haven’t evolved past that, and probably ever will. But that skew towards negatives, and the corresponding emotions, distorts our reality. Things are rarely as bad as they seem.

.

So, as you look back over 2017, think about being grateful first. You’re alive. You live in the freest country on the planet. And you have the opportunity to do things that many folks in the world never will.

.

With that mindset, look at your year month by month…what went well in each month? Jot those things down. Soon you’ll have a list of at least twelve things that were good this year.

.

Now that you have yourself in a grateful mindset and armed with a list of bright spots, you have a slightly positive shift in mindset that allows you to look back on 2017 with a brighter reality. Now you can look at your mistakes, the things you didn’t do well, and the goals that you didn’t hit and see them for what they are—opportunities to learn and grow from.

.

The goal isn’t to avoid being self-critical—it’s important to look back and critique ourselves. The goal is to do it with a good mindset, and once you make that critique, think of a strategy for improving how you could have acted. That way the next time that situation arises, or the next time you have the chance to work toward a goal, you’ll be better prepared to act positively.

.

Ask Yourself How Ready You Truly Are

 The beginning of a year tends to make us all pretty gung ho about what we’ll do with the twelve months that lay ahead. Enthusiasm is a great thing, but it can also blind us to reality and how willing we really are to change.

.

We have to give ourselves a rubric for being honest with ourselves, because it’s really hard to do.

.

As you sit down to formulate your goals for 2018, keep in your head, or on paper, a 1-10 scale of how truly ready you are to make changes in that area—1 being not really ready to change, 10 being definitely ready.

.

For example, many folks, at the beginning of a year want to overhaul their diet and nutrition, claiming that this is the year that they’ll put it all together and eat like a champion. But they do this without truly considering how ready they are to change that aspect of their lifestyle. Then, about a week into the process, they slip up. That one little slip is the catalyst for full-scale abandonment of the change. It’s mostly because they didn’t do enough self-examination to accurately gauge how ready they really are for a complete nutrition make over.

.

Here’s the thing, this requires honesty—if you aren’t honest with yourself, this process won’t work. The rating scale just gives you the opportunity to be honest with yourself.

.

I’m not saying all this to be all Johnny Raincloud or Debbie Downer on your future vision. I’m saying it because if you find the areas of your training, life, nutrition that you are truly ready to change, you can start there and build momentum that can help you overhaul your entire life. But it takes an honest assessment, and it takes starting small in areas that we’re really ready to do the work on.

.

Find The Bright Spots and Get Ready

 Putting yourself in the right mind frame to examine your past year prepares you to think clearly about what went well and what didn’t. Then you can strategize how to do things differently in the future. And when you get to plotting out that future, assessing your honest readiness will help you take action in the places where you’re truly ready to take action. These techniques combined can help you transform your body and your life in 2018.