My 6-Step End-of-Year Goal-Setting Reset Routine
It’s the most wonderful time of the year - to reset, reimagine and recreate your personal brand goals.
In the last few months of the year, my usual personal brand and personal goal-setting routine goes into overdrive.
Much to my surprise, my goal-setting routine seems to pique people’s curiosity during the festive season socialising, with many asking me follow-up questions often months on.
So, if you’re looking for new inspiration for your own personal brand end-of-year reset, here are some highlights from my end-of-year goal-setting routine.
1. Start annual goal-setting months ahead
If you read this blog, you know I’m a big fan of The 12 Week Year, by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington, who present a complete paradigm shift - challenging you to redefine how you see a year. Because, if calendars are historically a human construct, why can’t you define your own sense of time, too?
Twelve weeks is not a quarter of the calendar year - it is the year. The authors challenge you to forget annualised thinking and think in 12 Week Years. With this in mind, I always set personal brand and personal goals in 12 Week Year timeframes now. However, the goal-setter in me, who has been setting annual goals diligently for over a decade, can’t help but keep doing this too. But, I make sure I overlay my annual goals into much more detailed 12 Week Year plans as well.
Importantly, the 12 Week Year mindset motivates you to take all the motivation that usually comes with the end of the year and distribute it throughout your year. This ensures you keep a sense of urgency about your goals, compared to the complacency a full-year calendar can create.
I use my October 12 Week Year to start planning my annual goals for the year ahead. I start this early to help give my goal-setting ideas time to percolate (or be vetoed). I use the time to do further research before I set my goals in stone. If there is something big I want to start in January, which in previous years has included my blog, YouTube channel and podcast, the preceding months are essential pre-launch planning periods.
I keep refining these goals casually in the Notes app on my phone, then ensure I’ve finalised them between the weeks of Christmas and New Year. 12 Week Year aside, for me, it’s undeniable that the festive season and being surrounded by friends, family and the Australian summer sun brings out the best in my motivation.
2. Write down your goals
I’ve been writing my annual goals in the Notes app on my phone since at least 2012.
With each new note stacked on top of each other, it creates a chronological reminder of how far I’ve come. In some cases, it shines a light on the ghosts of my goal-setting past that still haunt me (I’m still trying to visit India for the first time and become more proficient at sewing).
I was initially only writing down my goals because I couldn’t remember them all any other way (I sometimes had up to 40). I’ve since learned the research (and the art of refining, for that matter) about why writing down your goals really matters.
Studies have consistently shown that writing down your goals increases your likelihood of achieving them. A study from the Dominican University by Dr. Gail Matthews found that people who wrote down their goals were 42% more likely to achieve them compared to those who only thought about their goals.
The value of writing down your goals often relates to a concept called ‘psychology ownership’. This describes the sense of attachment, control, or responsibility people develop toward objects, ideas, tasks, or roles. When you experience psychological ownership, you treat a goal as part of your identity. This can lead to increased commitment, effort, and care toward it.
During a significant period of change for me, in support of my goals, my husband gifted me a small trinket tray with some motivating words on it. It lives in its box under our Christmas tree. At the start of each new year, we both put pen to paper and write down our biggest intentions, fold it up tightly and pop it into the boxed tray with our previous year’s intentions - hoping the Christmas spirit works some extra special magic on them, of course. With each New Year, we take a moment together to revisit old intentions and reflect on how we went.
3. Share your goals with a friend
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know I value the idea of building in silence and not always announcing moves. Not everything you do needs your own personal social media PR statement. But science shows there’s value in sharing your goals with a friend.
The research by Dr. Gail Matthews showed the positive effects of accountability for your goals. Those who sent weekly regular ‘reports’ to a friend accomplished significantly more than those who didn’t.
My husband, bless him, knows all about my goal-setting plans. While I don’t send him weekly reports, he certainly gets regular reports at the dining table. Whatever your own version of telling a friend, this helps create what psychologists describe as a public commitment. This leverages the cognitive dissonance that not following through on your announcements creates. Humans are social creatures. We are most comfortable when we create consistency between our words and actions.
4. Create an annual vision board
Vision boards are psychology meets creativity at its best. It’s only been in the last year that I started to fully embrace visualisation into my goal-setting routine. This manifests itself in the form of my annual vision board. I now create this on Canva and set it as the default desktop image on my laptop.
Most highly driven people seem to have the written goal-setting routine down pat, but I hear less of everyday professionals talking about goal visualisation. Yet, science shows the importance of this essential ingredient in goal setting.
Guang Yue of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation had volunteers imagine flexing their biceps as hard as possible. After a few weeks, participants’ strength increased by 13.5%. No participant had physically flexed. They merely visualised their biceps growing. It seems outrageous, but our brain is a beautiful thing.
Visualisation in Neuro-linguistics Programming (NLP) argues that the mind can’t distinguish the difference between vividly imagined and real experience. So, detailed visualisation for desired outcomes becomes a form of mental rehearsal. By consistently visualising, you rewire your subconscious to align your thoughts, emotions and behaviours with your goals. The key is detailed visualisation, so make your vision board specific to your personal brand or personal goals. Exactly what will it look like when you get that goal? Check out my previous blog on How I Use Pinterest Boards to Rewire My Brain and Upgrade My Life.
I work on my vision board during the Christmas holiday period as it’s the perfect personal project for the festive season.
5. Give something up to get uncomfortable
For six years now, I have been giving something up for one year. This has included chocolate, clothes shopping, streaming subscriptions and more. It started when I committed to going one year without alcohol. I loved the challenge, so I decided to apply it to new things each year.
I came to recognise this personal challenge in the phrase ‘voluntary deprivation’. This is intentionally practised by some. Giving up something that’s normally a part of your life for a set period. The aim is to challenge yourself to adapt to changes and test your limits.
In his book Discipline is Destiny, Ryan Holiday highlights the Stoic tradition of avoiding the superfluous.
Holiday highlights (in an obviously much more poignant example than my temporarily giving up chocolate) the inspiring story of boxer Rubin Carter’s 19-year wrongful imprisonment. It wasn’t his wealth that got him through his incarceration, but quite the opposite. He deliberately stripped himself of whatever “luxuries” prison offered - no pillows, radio, rugs or TV. This was a remarkable act of willpower in the tragic circumstances of unjustly losing his freedom. It was a strategy to ensure that nothing else could be taken away from him. The guards had no leverage over him. Holiday says:
“By being strict with ourselves, we take away others’ power over us."
The end of the year always escalates conversations about levelling up your life. But what about downgrading? If you had to downgrade your lifestyle or go without something you enjoy for even just one year, what would it be? Tiny tests of your comfort zone over time build your reservoir of resilience for when unexpected challenges arise.
I make sure I have what I’m giving up finalised by the time the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve.
6. Read for end-of-year inspiration
To keep me inspired, I like to switch my regular reading to a goal-setting focus toward the end of the year. Just some of my recommendations in this area include:
The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
Your Best Year Ever by Michael Hyatt
The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington
Ikigai by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles
Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki
For more end-of-year and holiday reading inspiration, check out my previous blog on the The 5 Best Business Books to Read in 2024.
All the best with your own end-of-year reset!
