Happy New Federal Fiscal Year and Final Quarter of 2018! As of today, there are only 13 Mondays left in 2018. That’s right! You only have thirteen weekend-ending work days to go before the next year of weekend-ending work days begin.
Is that good news or bad news for you? I guess that all depends on what you are doing with your Mondays. Now might be a great time to check your Monday Mindset. Here are 10 steps to check your Monday mindset whether you’re celebrating a new fiscal year or winding down the calendar year!
1. Remind Yourself Of Your Purpose
Remember that New Year’s Vision Board? Why do those items you placed on your vision board matter to you? What is your highest intention for creating the vision board? Sit with your memories of creating this picture of your ideal. Remember why you selected certain words, pictures and decorations. What was the purpose for the arrangement that you created?
2. Celebrate Your Progress
Where you were back then might seem a little unfamiliar. It’s only been a few months since you set that list of resolutions for the new year. Spend a few moments reviewing how far you have come. Allow yourself the shock, awe, and genuine surprise and delight that comes from noticing your progress. Take a moment to celebrate your forward motion in a way that feels right to you.
3. Evaluate Your Mistakes
Oops. Yeah, this might not be the most fun part of your end of year evaluation but it is really necessary. What went wrong? Why did it go wrong? There’s a lesson in your mistake about how to become a better you. You can’t get to it unless you are willing to spend some time evaluating the mistakes that you have made.
4. Measure Your Outcomes
What happened as a result of the activity you’ve been engaged in over the last 9 months? Separate the busy work from the purposeful work. What activity is creating the outcomes you wanted to have and what is just getting in the way? Measure the outcomes you’ve created so far. Good, bad and the ugly. Just take it all in as data. You might not be exactly where you set out to be, but spend time measuring where you are in relation to where you set out to be.
5. Make Course Corrections
If you’re headed in the wrong direction, turn around. Now is the time to notice and begin to do things differently. If you are super clear on your purpose and the visions, you can see exactly what adjustments in behavior or attitude are required to get you back on track. You can also see the impact of the less than purposeful decisions you’ve made so far this year. No time like a new fiscal year to begin moving in the right direction.
6. Identify Your Best Practices
The fun thing about evaluating your new year mindset is noticing all the things that are going well. Pay attention to the progress and the process you are using to make the changes you’ve set out to make. Take a moment now to notice the patterns, the systems, the habits, the structure that is helping you be successful in one area or another. How might you take that success and apply it to other areas that need more efficiency and effectiveness?
7. Revisit Your Intended Results
Every now and again, we begin to drift away from our initial purpose. Pull out that list of goals and your visions. Notice how true your focus and energy has been toward the things you said mattered to you the most. If your recollection of those results has shifted, take this moment to get back to your intended results. Unless you uncovered a more purposeful reason to make adjustments to your goals and priorities, stick to your initial plan.
8. Develop Lessons Learned
Now that you are willing to acknowledge your mistakes, you are ready to learn from them. Now that you know what went wrong, think about how to prevent those things from going wrong again. Imagine applying the knowledge and wisdom you now have from making a mistake to preventing future mistakes. What are you going to do differently from here on out? How are you reshaping the end of 2014 based on the things you’ve learned about yourself in the first part of 2014?
9. Get Started On Your New Year’s Eve Plans
I know. January seems so far away. Yeah, so did October last January. Be bold. Set your intentions. 3 months is far enough away to seem far and close enough to light a fire under your feet. How will you celebrate the coming of 2019? Speak life and possibility into your final quarter. Motivate yourself with powerful purposeful plans for October, November and December.
10. Sharpen Your Attitude Of Gratitude
You may not be exactly where you want to be but why not enjoy the journey anyway? Take a moment to celebrate what is. Be still, be present in your current circumstances. Notice all the reasons you have to appreciate where you are right now. Let your gratitude for what is fuel you. Thank yourself for where you are right now. Be grateful. Nothing motivates you to move like a good mood. Let your gratitude celebration kick up the joy and energy you need to knock those final quarter of 2018 goals out of the park!
