The New Year is here! Have you started thinking about what’s ahead? Will it be better than the last or at least as good? Have you planned for your relationships, health and income to improve or at minimum, not get worse?
Do you find one year melting into the other and nothing changes? Can you do something to make it better? The answer is a resounding YES!
Self-empowerment is your roadmap
Use rear-view mirror thinking to create your future. Begin with the end-in-mind. Rear-view mirror thinking is a very effective strategy for anyone to change and improve their future.
Your past no longer plays a significant role as a direct roadmap to the future. It may give you perspective and guidance but no longer ushers in the days ahead. Instead, start with the future you want to create. Then you can design the roadmap you need to get you to the future you want. This is rear-view mirror thinking and is incredibly self-empowering.
Using only history as guide to creating the future is like taking advice from the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland. When Alice asked him for directions he queried, “Where are you going?” She replied,” Oh, it really doesn’t matter, as long as…” The Cat responded, “Then it really doesn’t matter which way you go.”
A rear-view mirror roadmap is the answer to both self-empowerment and creating a better future.
Maximize the Power of Rear-View Mirror Thinking
Resolve unfinished things first. This is the first step to self-empowerment in the New Year. Eliminate as much old stagnant things, issues and people as possible. Review and evaluate the past twelve months to see what needs to be resolved – then eliminate it, organize or let go of it.
The most successful new beginnings are ones where the old energy has been shifted out of your life making room for self-empowerment and the new future you are creating. If you plan for a better new year, you will have a better new year.
Use end-in-mind focus. Once your surroundings, thinking and relationships have been prepared, envision your best end-in-mind objectives for the year ahead. What is it you want? Be specific. You cannot create it and become self-empowered if you do not know precisely what your heart desires. If you want new a relationship, be specific: what kind and with what type of person. Do you want a new job? If yes, what kind of job do you want, where, why and what type of income.
Create a visual roadmap for yourself so you can hear, feel and see where you are in the process today and where you need to be tomorrow, next week and next year. Endin- mind thinking and focus helps you create your roadmap. For example, if you want additional meaningful relationships in your life, what are you willing to change to make that happen? Can you learn to communicate differently to reach others, shift your idea of what a relationship is or be more flexible to someone else’s timing?
Create a self-empowerment focus strategy. If you do not create a focus strategy your focus will be consumed by distractions like shifting emotions, wandering thinking, social media, phone calls and family interruptions. There will be no flow of focus left for productivity and performance or relationship building.
Create a focus strategy to eliminate distractions and enforce it just as you would a mandatory health assessment or dress code. Distracted focus is disempowering and when it happens, your productivity decreases and connection with others drops.
You have to plan now for success and self-empowerment in the year ahead. Eliminate as much unfinished business as possible so new energy will be your only companion as you transition into the future.
Rear-view mirror thinking results in end-in-mind focus and self-empowerment. When you prepare your surroundings and thinking with a clear uninterrupted flow of focus, you will create the future you clearly laid out in your end-in-mind roadmap.
To successfully use the rear-view mirror thinking always begin with the future and work back to the present, then create a roadmap to get you where you want to go.
Pat Heydlauff, a “flow of focus” expert, speaker and consultant designs home and workplace environments that unleash the flow of focus and maximize performance while creating balance and increasing prosperity. She is author of the forthcoming book, Beyond Engagement: Seven Ways Leaders Fuel Tomorrow’s Sustainability and published books, Feng Shui, So Easy a Child Can Do It and Selling Your Home with a Competitive Edge. Contact her at 561-408-270