A Horse Breeder's Priorities for the New Year.

And how to plan

How do you review your past year, to plan for next year?

Last Wednesday we looked at the overall trends for next year, as I see it. If you missed this article, here it is:

The key is to do three things:

• Review the good and bad.

• Consider the lessons learned.

• Celebrate the wins.

Let’s break this down a little bit more so you can apply this to your year just like I do. And you never know, you might find that you had a lot more wins this year than you think!

Step #1: Review

When it comes to reviews, I ask myself three main questions. These questions help me consider the year objectively and subjectively. I create lists based on these questions. They are as follows:

• What good things happened this year?

  What were key victories, lessons learned, or positive outcomes from everything I did this year?

  These could be simple like meeting a new friend.

  (Example: I wrote five e-books - you can take a look at them here. You are the first to see them.)

  Nothing is off limits!

• What hard things happened this year? Anything that didn’t go like you hoped goes on this list.

• What were some unexpected outcomes of this year? Maybe you overstretched yourself and didn’t do all the things you had planned. Or perhaps, you found a profitable side-line and it took off.

This list is about good and bad things that you didn’t see coming. This is important for later.

The key to these questions is to help you look back and consider what happened, good, bad, and unexpected so that you can celebrate, learn from, and try to see how you can better plan for the following year.

Step #2: Write down lessons learned.

While the bulk of step one was about reflection, step two is about sifting and refining what happened last year.

As I reflect through everything that happened, I try and write a list of five to ten lessons learned from the year. Here’s what I do:

• Lessons learned from positive outcomes: I write down key takeaways for positive outcomes.

• Lessons learned from negative outcomes: These lessons come from the not-so-good lists from before. They are more about what I would have done differently had I known better.

• Lessons learned from unexpected outcomes: These are the surprises,

  good or bad, that hit you this year.

Be open to new opportunities and be willing to let go of old ones. Now, these are just three examples. You might have a few more, you might have a lot more. But the goal is to see what those lessons learned are so you can use them in the second part of the process.

Step #3: Celebrate Your Wins

You have reviewed, you have noted your lessons learned. And maybe you have a lot of lessons learned.

But now I want you to celebrate the good things that happened.

The key to celebration is to prepare the way for making plans on a positive note. These positive notes create hope which unlocks dreams and plans that you may not even know are inside you yet.

So, take some time this week and review your year. Share in the comments any wins you have this year that come to your mind right away. We can celebrate together!

This simple system is exactly how I get started for the year. It focuses on priorities, goals, and actions. And when it is done right, it leads to incredibly successful years.

So, let’s dive into it.

Step #1: Determine Your Priorities

The key here is determining what is most important for you. This will help you in taking action and making decisions as the year goes on so you actually achieve what you want to achiever.

Here are three questions to ask yourself:

• What do I want most out this year? This is different for everyone, yet it can be very straightforward for you.

  Here are some examples: grow my connection with my horses, improve my riding posture, take a horse to the State Championships.

• Pick two to three of the things that are most important to you this year and write them down on paper.

• For each important thing, write down under the it WHY it is important to you.

This will help you understand your priority before we take the next step.

(Example: I want to take a horse to the State Championships, because it has been on my bucket list for a long time. I want to be able to compare myself with others who are top in the game, and learn from the experience.)

Now that you have your priorities in order, you can take the next step and start really preparing for next year.

Step #2: Create Goals, Set Your Action Plan

This plan isn’t just about setting goals. It is about creating an action plan to achieve the goals so you can realize your priorities and the dreams and desires you have for those priorities.

• On the sheet from before, write down three goals for each priority.
  Write down why you would like to do this. What will it achieve for you?

• Now, on that sheet of paper, create your action plan. How are you going to achieve these goals? Write down five to ten action steps for you to take.

  (Example: choose the horse which you will take, mark the date and take time off work to attend, discuss with your mentor, start a preparation plan, buy any needed equipment, do a checklist for the last six weeks. )

• Save this information somewhere so you will see it everyday. Wherever you put it, make sure you look at it daily.

This is it. It’s simple and straightforward. And most of all, it is effective. You know where you have been. You know where you are going. Now, it is about execution. Are you going to commit to doing it?

PAID MEMBERS: I have created a worksheet for you to deep dive into this.
Here is the link for you to download the document.