Anna S. E. Lundberg

Coach, Speaker, Writer

How to be Single (from someone who’s done it successfully)

By Leave a Comment

Heart-shaped hedgeI was doing some keyword research on Amazon the other day and on entering “how to” into the search field I was amused to see one of the most popular entries being “how to be single” (the others included “how to grow a baby” and “how to murder your life”…). Now in fact “how to be single” is the name of a book and a film so maybe people are searching for those specifically – but it doesn’t change the basic theme of the query: the need or desire to understand how to “do” singledom successfully.

This must stem from our deep-rooted expectations of how life is to be lived: we meet someone, we marry, and we have children, so that they can grow up and then go on to do the same. This is a basic prerequisite of the survival of the human race and as such a core expectation in our society. “How to be single”, then, must be about coming to terms with not following this expected path, either temporarily (until you find someone and slot back into the “right” order of things) or permanently (should the worst case scenario happen and you never meet Mr Right and instead die a tragic spinster). In my own experience and in that of many of the people I’ve coached, the question of a possible relationship or family is inevitably tied up in other life goals and it’s hard to speak about career plans without also considering these aspects.

Given my extensive past experience in this field, and compliments I’ve received as to how “well” I pull it off, I thought I’d share my thoughts; so, here you go, my five top tips on How to be Single!

1. Make a plan but stay flexible

Maybe the toughest thing about being single while knowing that you want to meet someone – especially when you’re a bit older (tick, tock!) – is how to manage this in terms of planning your life. If you know you want to build a home and family with a partner, you want to travel and have shared experiences with that partner; do you put that life on hold and hang around waiting for Mr or Miss Right? Or, if you make plans without that person, are you then giving up on your dream and ruling out the future possibility of meeting that someone?

You don’t want to be putting the rest of your dreams to one side while you wait for that partner but you still want to be open to the possibility of doing so. So I say: if you want to travel, do it! If you don’t want to go alone, go with a friend or find a group trip. If you want to move to a different city or country, go ahead!

The truth is that you’re more likely to meet the “right” person if you’re living the life you want to live. If you’re true to yourself, working towards your goals, and feeling happy and fulfilled, then first of all you’re going to be much more attractive to any potential partner and second you’re more likely to be putting yourself in the situations where the right kind of person – in the sense of someone who shares your values, who appreciates you for who you are – might be found.

2. Make time for you

You might expect a single person to be selfish and to some extent that is true, but also true is that the single one is likely to often put their own needs last and simply through being more available and more flexible they will find themselves in situations where other people are prioritised. This might involve being that unfortunate “third wheel” in the back of the car with another couple, or being the one who’s relegated to the single bed in the smallest room when you’re on holiday, or the one who’s always there for other people since, unlike everyone else, you don’t have someone waiting for you at home.

That’s not to say that you shouldn’t spend time with couples, or go on family holidays, or help other people out when you can! But it’s important that you still carve out your own physical and emotional space, and set boundaries for what you want to put up with. Make time for you to do your own thing, whatever that entails – grab a book, go for a walk, go on a little solo shopping trip. And make time to see your single friends, and go on dates – adult “me” time essentially, that doesn’t revolve around other people’s children or lifestyle choices.

3. Question your beliefs

In coaching, we often talk about “limiting beliefs”. These are basic notions that are largely sub-conscious and have been created through our own past experiences but also through those of our environment, for example, our parents, our friends, and society as a whole. Our behaviours are a reflection of our beliefs; and changing our beliefs will change our behaviours and, ultimately, can change our lives. Common limiting beliefs for single women might be:

  • All men are arseholes
  • I never meet nice guys
  • I’m never going to meet someone
  • There must be something wrong with me
  • I have to meet someone to be ‘whole’
  • I don’t need a man
  • etc.

In order to challenge these beliefs, you need to first ask yourself: is there any evidence that this statement is true? Even more importantly: does this belief serve me? Do I want to continue to believe this? And, if you want, you can choose to believe something else: turn the belief into something positive, and look for evidence instead that this new positive belief is true. Then act based on the new belief and, before you know it, this will be part of your fundamental belief system.

So, for example, if your belief is “All men are arseholes” then start by questioning whether that’s really true (presumably you do know some nice men, even if they’re not single or even attractive to you); then think about whether it serves you to continue believing this. To some extent, it might: having this particular belief will make you more aware of the risks and so will help to prevent you from getting hurt; however, if you actually do want to meet someone, then this belief clearly does not serve you as it means you will never meet a nice guy. Now decide that you want to believe something else, and transform it into something positive; e.g. “There are men who are arseholes but there are also men who are great guys”, turning your attention now to look for nice guys rather than arseholes. Makes sense, no

4. Acknowledge that you want to meet someone

Single women have often been portrayed as being needy and desperate and this is, of course, unattractive; but I also see a danger of going too far in the other direction. If you move away from the neediness of clinging onto any man who shows even a little bit of interest and declare that you don’t need a man at all, then it’s likely that this message will also put those dreamy men off, given that you’re basically saying that you don’t want to be with them.

Going back to those limiting beliefs, the one that says “I don’t need a (wo)man” can be an important one to look at. As much as those sexist comments about independent women being intimidating to men can be irritating (and, I suppose, there is an equivalent pressure on men to be strong and not to admit that they feel lonely and want to meet someone), you have to recognise that it’s not exactly an invitation to the poor prospective partner when you declare that you don’t need, or want, them.

There are times in your life when you don’t want to meet someone (maybe you feel you’re too young to settle and you’re having fun with your single friends), and other times when you probably shouldn’t (you’re going through difficulties or perhaps some major life changes and you need to focus on yourself first and foremost). There are other times, though, when you do feel ready and you really do want to meet someone. The trick is to find that delicate balance between living your own life and having fun on your own on the one hand, and being honest about the fact that it would be nice to meet a partner on the other.

5. …and be open to doing so

It can often seem like meeting someone is one of those things that’s almost completely out of your control – unlike other life goals like, say, quitting your job to pursue a passion or moving to a different country. It’s definitely harder to put together a romance action plan in Excel! That doesn’t mean, though, that there’s nothing you can do.

First of all, there’s the mindset and I really wouldn’t underestimate this. Challenging those negative beliefs and being open to the possibility of meeting someone is vital. Second, knowing what you’re looking for. Especially when you’re older, you have a much clearer idea of who you are and what you’re looking for in a partner – compared to when you were 18 and you didn’t care as long as he or she was hot – and as with anything in life, having clarity on your goal is crucial to ever having a chance of achieving it. And, finally, exploring what you might do to make it more likely that you’ll meet such a person – where to spend your time (online and offline), what kind of activities to do outside of work and which trips to go on, and so on. It’s not an exact science but there are things you can do – and it’s not limited to joining Tinder and going on lots of dates!

Observing some of my single friends, men and women, a lot of them are filling their calendars with work and travels to the point that any potential partner would really struggle to fit into that life. A friend was trying to meet up with a guy and he said his next free weekend was in May! So while it’s great that you’re keeping busy and having fun, it might be worth allowing for a bit of flexibility in that schedule to give another person the chance to spend some time with you.

So there you go! Some thoughts on how to be “successfully” and happily single – while staying open to the possibility of being happy with *someone* as well. I clearly have a lot more to say about it… but what about you? Any tips or reassurances you want to share? Comment below!

This is to some extent a counter-post to the 2015 Valentine’s Day edition: The 7 Deadly Sins of a 30-something Singleton.

The intuitive power of a vision board

By Leave a Comment

pierJust as it is for most of you, the New Year is a time for me to review what I’ve done and look ahead to what I’m going to do. In the past weeks, I’ve done an annual review of 2016, I’ve decided on my new theme for 2017 (IMPACT), and I’ve set three specific over-arching goals for the year. In order to help me achieve these goals, I’ve started to work with a new coach, and in our first session I was very clear on where I wanted to focus my attention: on defining my big vision for the future, on the longer-term goals I have and how I might get from here to there. It’s impossible to achieve those goals unless I’m clear on what they are! As a result, a natural first exercise that my new coach gave me was to do a vision board.

Now a vision board, in case you’re not familiar with the idea, is simply a visual representation of what you want in your life. It’s an exercise that taps into your intuition rather than your analytical mind, which is usually in control of your thought process. The beauty of this is that you won’t get caught up in “oh but that will never happen” or “I could never do that”, “what if…” or “I’m afraid that…” The vision board is simply a collage of beautiful, inspirational images that reflect in some way your heart’s desire.

Our long-term goals are the first to suffer when we’re busy (i.e. always). The short-term stuff always gets done as the deadline looms up ahead – but what about our big dreams, our far-off plans that don’t feel urgent or even realistic right now? These dreams get put on the back-burner, left for later, as we put our heads down and continue working on the day-to-day of whatever situation we happen to find ourselves in right now. In fact, this is a factor in why we end up staying within our comfort zones, always favouring the status quo over anything big and different that would require a lot of effort on our part to make happen.

I’ve heard miraculous stories about vision boards – a man putting a picture of a house and 20 years later finding that he was living in that very house; a woman putting a picture of a partner and several years later falling in love with a man who could have been that man’s twin – and though you may choose to believe or not believe at that level, it’s clear that the exercise of imagining what you want in life can be a useful one.

I did my first vision board five years ago when I was looking out at the world from my office job in Geneva, imagining what I might do if I were to leave. I don’t think I took a photo of the board unfortunately and it’s now long gone, but I can remember very well the core themes that were on there: I had backpacking, beaches and hammocks (I was beginning to plan my sabbatical travelling across South America); I had the logos of various companies that I thought would be a better fit for me; and I had beautiful spacious houses with big windows and ocean views.

I did a second vision board after I’d quit my job, this time on Pinterest, a fully digital collection of images that inspire me. It hasn’t quite worked as a visual reminder, though, as I forget to go into my account and check it on a regular basis.

The third iteration that I’m now working on is semi-digital! I’m collecting images online and pasting them onto a Keynote slide. When I’m happy with it, I’ll be able to either put it as my desktop background (a nice idea, I thought, given the amount of time I spend on laptop!) or print it out and have it as a physical visual aid.

I’ve only just started the exercise this time round and I’ve already had some big realisations. For one thing, the images I’m putting on the board look nothing like my present situation at this very moment. There certainly aren’t any pictures on there of me sitting hunched over my laptop by myself! Where there are themes that are consistent with my previous boards, it’s clear that these areas are still important to me and I haven’t given them enough attention. Both of these realisations have given me the impetus to take action to move forwards in these areas in the coming weeks and months.

Create your own vision board

To do your own vision board, collect some magazines together – ideally with a range of topics, e.g. travel, home, fitness, lifestyle, fashion, so that you don’t end up limited by the type of pictures inside – and grab a pair of scissors, some glue and some kind of cardboard to use as a background. Plan some time when you’re alone and feeling relaxed and just flip through the magazines, cutting out the images that appeal to you. I do think this is a better way to do it than my digital approaches as it’s more tactile and creative, it’s just that with my travel in the next weeks and the fact that I don’t read magazines it felt better to do it this way! Don’t overthink it, don’t analyse why something is attractive to you right now, just do the exercise at more of an intuitive level.

Let me know if you have any big insights!

Goodbye 2016, Hello 2017: My theme for the New Year

By Leave a Comment

This year I’ve been more organised and thorough than previous years and I’ve spent much of December reviewing 2016, mind mapping possible new themes for 2017, and setting specific goals for the New Year. With just a couple of days to go to 1st January 2017, it’s time to make that final decision on what my new theme will be.

Can I have a drum roll please!

My New Year’s theme for 2017 will be… IMPACT.

impactI really thought that I was going to go for something along the lines of being ‘intentional’, ‘proactive’ or, a new word that I’ve discovered, ‘purposive’. I tend to be quite reactive to what’s happening around me, planning my year around things going on in other people’s lives and not being too forceful about what it is that I want. This is a ‘first world problem’ of course and I’ve had a really fun year in 2016 as a result of being this reactive; and at the same time I do feel that I’d like to move towards a more proactive approach.

Somehow, though, ‘impact’ is the word that has come up for me and now feels right for 2017. In fact, I would say that those themes of being intentional and proactive are an integral part of ‘impact’ as well…

In my research and coaching this past year, I’ve found that the number one driver as to whether or not your work is meaningful is believing that your job is having a positive impact on other people. In so many office jobs in particular, we are so far removed from the end users of our products and services and we just can’t see that impact. This was a key reason for why I left my full-time job back in 2013, and I believe it’s the underlying reason why so many people are feeling unmotivated and unfulfilled in their jobs today.

I tend to focus on process-oriented goals, input and actions, and while I think these are important I have a feeling that it’s time to shift my attention to the actual impact I’m having. It’s not just about writing blog posts or doing videos, it’s about the impact that this content has on my business, on the people I work with and, ultimately, on the broader issues I’m trying to address.

The events of 2016 have also given me a bit of a jolt, bursting the bubble that I’ve been living in and compelling me to open my eyes to what’s happening around the world and to seriously consider what role I have to play here.

For me personally, IMPACT means a few specific things.

First, I believe I need to get even clearer on my message in terms of my vision, the real value that I bring, and who exactly I help. I have so many ideas and different projects but I know I will be much more effective if I can craft a more coherent and cohesive story. When I have that message, I will be able to bring that missing intentionality and purpose to my work and be much more consistent and persistent in working towards that bigger purpose.

Second, I need to make choices and really focus on the priorities that will make the biggest difference, create real forward movement and have the biggest impact. It’s easy to get distracted by things like Facebook posts and ads while missing the bigger picture of the things that will really drive the business. In terms of scale, I want to be reaching more people with my message as a first step, and ultimately I want to be helping more people with my coaching and consulting.

Over the autumn, I did a social entrepreneurship course and I loved bringing together my business and marketing experience and expertise with my studies (my degrees are in International Relations and Development). The course gave me both academic and practical frameworks to apply to my own work as well as a heightened awareness of what other people are doing to make a difference; it made me think bigger in terms of the impact I want to have and at the same time think smaller in terms of how I can get started.

Therefore third, I want to work with other people who want to, or are already, making an impact. This means continuing my career coaching of people who want to leave their corporate jobs to find more meaningful work, guiding them through defining the impact they want to have and how they can go about achieving it; as well as working more with solopreneurs and small startups who are aiming to create a real impact with their business ideas, and supporting them in building an effective brand and marketing strategy to maximise that impact.

In fact, bringing these threads together I think the common theme across my different projects and businesses may well be that I help people create an impact in their personal and professional lives.

So I’m feeling pretty good about this new theme. Inspired, a little bit nervous, and excited about the year to come.

I’ll be setting specific goals with milestones along the way to support my theme this year, and of course I’ll be checking in as usual every three months with a quarterly review of how I’m doing.

Have you decided on your theme for 2017? If you’re still unsure, take a look back at my previous posts, this year and past years, for inspiration!

How to find your annual theme 2017

Goodbye 2015, Hello 2016

Hello 2015

Goodbye 2013, Hello 2014

In the meantime, I wish you a very Happy New Year!!!

Annual Review: Inspiring goal setting for 2017

By 1 Comment

1st JanuaryIn the past few weeks, I’ve been kicking off my 2017 planning first with a review of 2016 – looking at three elements, my theme, my priority areas (the Wheel of Life) and my goals – followed by a look at how to define a new theme for 2017. I’m not going to go through the Wheel of Life* piece as I’ve covered this in blog posts and my recent webinar. So, today I’m looking at the final piece of the puzzle: effective goal setting.

*If you’re not familiar with this and haven’t done the exercise yet, I recommend my little ebook, which will take you through the steps from identifying your priority areas to assessing where you are today and where you want to get to.

Now I’m a long-time fan of goals, having always been very future-focused – throughout school, I would constantly be looking to the next thing, the next challenge to take on… I’ve been achieving those goals with varying levels of success, however!

When I started my coaching training, goals were at the heart of what I was learning, and it was emphasised how important it was to set specific goals, whether for the whole coaching relationship or for the specific session. If you don’t know what you want to get out of it, how can you know if you actually get it?! In parallel, I got busy with my own goal setting, creating action plans in Excel and making sure that my goals were SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound). Where I often got stuck, however, was on accountability – not in the sense of someone else checking in on me and giving me a hard time but rather in terms of holding myself accountable. The truth is that no matter how many times I set the goal that I want to eat healthily or do more exercise, the universe won’t implode if I eat that cinnamon bun, and nobody will die if I skip a training session.

So how can you set goals that you’ll actually keep?

The right goals

This is all about identifying the goals that will really have a meaningful impact in your life, committing to those goals wholeheartedly, and then actually following through.

If I just keep setting a goal of losing weight without understanding why that’s so important to me, or what losing the weight would bring me, then it’ll always be very easy to stray. It’s not like we don’t have the knowledge we need to lose weight – most of us know the difference between healthy, nutritious food and pre-packaged sugary crap – so there’s clearly something else going on underneath it all when we nevertheless reach for that bag of crisps or packet of biscuits.

This vicious cycle of setting goals that we know we won’t achieve is a KILLER! It establishes the precedent that goals aren’t something that you stick to, and it gives you an excuse when you inevitably fail – better then to not set the goal at all, and enjoy those crisps and biscuits without the feelings of guilt that so often come with acting differently to what you had planned!

Big vs small

Now since then, I’ve been reading a lot more about goals, and when it comes to long- and short-term goals, I’ve come across two different schools of thought.

On the one hand, we have books like The 12-week Year and online courses like The 90-Day Year, which argue that there’s no point in setting long-term goals and we should focus on a three-month period at a time. I love this focused approach – but aren’t we missing an opportunity here to really see the big picture and plan towards our biggest, wildest dreams?

And that’s where we, on the other hand, have people like Tony Robbins and Bo Eason who encourage us to look at the long-term horizon. Bo Eason is a recent discovery for me, and he tells his personal story of how he has set himself the goal of being the best X – and each time he has given himself a 20-year horizon (“I work well on those time frames.”. And what can’t you achieve in 20 years?? This is hugely inspiring!

I think the most effective approach is a combination of the two, of course: big bad long-term dreams combined with shorter-term goals to keep you focused.

Process vs outcome

The other question is whether to go for process-based or outcome-based goals, and here I’ve read that men tend to be more outcome-based.

I actually think that although it’s good to first have the outcome in mind – losing x kg or y inches, becoming a confident speaker, earning £100k, or whatever the desired outcome – in order to make any kind of change you’re going to want to focus on the process i.e. the actions you’re taking.

So for that goal of losing weight, especially if you really care more about your health and wellbeing, I find it much more constructive and productive to focus on the new behaviours you’re going to implement. For example, going to the gym 3x a week for 45 minutes, eating five different greens each day, reducing portion size, etc.

How to come up with your goals for 2017

And so we come to the point of all this, which was to set specific goals for 2017.

In an old video I watched with Tony Robbins, he simply led a free-writing exercise, which was surprisingly quick and effective at finding meaningful goals! Here’s my version…

  1. Give yourself 5 minutes to write everything you want to achieve from a personal development standpoint. This can include writing a book, learning a language, travelling to some bucket list destination, and so on. The rule is you just have to keep writing, don’t let your pen stop. Big/small, process/outcome, doesn’t matter!
  2. Look through what you’ve just written and mark each one with a number to represent the timeline: do you want to achieve this in 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years or 20 years? Don’t overthink this, you just want to get the general gist.
  3. Now out of the ideas you’ve marked with a 1-year time frame, choose the three that you are most excited about and most committed to achieving.
  4. Write down each of these goals in your journal, or on a notepad, or just on a clean sheet of paper. Underneath each one, write down why you are so excited and committed about making these happen this year. What will achieving this goal bring you? Why is it so important to you?
  5. Congratulations, these are your goals for 2017! Now guess what… you’re going to identify ONE STEP that will already get you closer to each of those three goals.

Now of course we’re talking about personal development goals here – they may be linked to your business or your career, but they’re really about things you want to achieve in your life, rather than specific business goals and objectives. So in my case, I am also working separately on business planning for 2017, with strategies, goals, and milestones, in addition to these three big personal goals.

Since we’re looking at 2017 planning, I won’t get into the longer-term goals for now but it’s definitely something I’ll be exploring further!!

As an example, here are my three goals with respective ‘whys’ and ‘one steps’…

Anna’s goals for 2017

  1. I want to become the person who sets and achieves her goals, who commits and holds herself accountable, and is a 100% authentic and inspirational role model for my clients and for people I meet every day.

WHY: I know that I’ve been the most unhappy in my life when I’ve wanted to do something but not done anything about it; and I know I’m happiest and freest when I’m 100% aligned with my intention and my actions. This is also important as I coach people to be authentic and committed in their own lives and I want to be a credible role model.

ONE STEP: I’ve done the exercise above and set these three goals for 2017 🙂

  1. I want to be the fittest I’ve ever been, to nourish and fuel my body and mind with nutritious food and become strong and full of energy.

WHY: My health and wellbeing is critical to everything else in my life, it sets the foundation and affects my confidence and my energy levels. And, again, having this as a goal but not consistently sticking to it really grinds me down and I want to address this once and for all.

ONE STEP: I messaged my inspirational friend Sophie who has done the most amazing fitness challenges over the years, for some tips on how to start upping my game.

  1. I want to become fluent in Spanish so that I’m no longer shy when I meet Spanish speakers, and I want to learn salsa dancing!

WHY: I’ve always loved Spanish and I want to be able to speak confidently with Spanish speakers I meet. It’s a sexy language, as salsa is a sexy and feminine dance and also one that I’ve always wanted to learn! Both things are on my bucket list so what better time to start than now!

ONE STEP: I emailed my Spanish teacher I worked with in Geneva in early 2013 ahead of my sabbatical trip to South America and we have our first call on Tuesday 20th December. For the salsa, I’ve got a group of friends who want to join and I’ve emailed a salsa school in London (they haven’t replied so I’m going to need to follow up – a key step that we often miss after the initial excitement of taking action!).

Are you ready to come up with your three goals? Grab a pen, set a timer, and… go! Go ahead and share one of your goals and the action you’re taking in the comments, or you can come on over and join our Facebook group and share it there.

How to find your annual theme 2017: finally, a process!

By Leave a Comment

In last week’s post, I outlined the process for making my own annual review, covering three different elements: (1) my annual theme, (2) my Wheel of Life and (3) my specific goals. Now it’s onwards to planning for 2017, and I’m starting to think about my new theme. In past years this has been a spontaneous choice on New Year’s Day but people have been asking me for tips so I thought I’d try to break down the process into something a bit more systematic!

First, though, why even bother with a theme in the first place?

1st JanuaryWell, traditionally of course people set New Year’s resolutions. As few as 8% of the people who write resolutions actually achieve them – and that’s in spite of the fact that writing down your goals can greatly increase your changes of achieving them! So it doesn’t seem like a particularly useful exercise…

But having no goals at all doesn’t seem especially useful either, as you’re liable to just float along and miss out on your long-term ambitions in particular, your big dreams, that won’t happen unless you really bring some intentionality to the process.

A few years ago, I came across the idea of defining a theme instead of setting those more traditional resolutions, and it instantly appealed to me. For me, the benefit of having a theme is that it gives you an overall framework and focus for the year – without the rigidity (or, somewhat contradictorily, the vagueness) of long lists of New Year’s resolutions.

The theme guides your choices when you have to make a decision between different priorities, and the added focus on an otherwise neglected area is going to ensure that you see progress by the end of the year – much more so than if you set a resolution to “lose weight” or “get fit”.

So what kind of themes are we talking about?

It’s really completely up to you and that’s what makes it so flexible. It’s also why I’ve favoured a more spontaneous and instinctual approach to coming up with a theme these past few years. Somehow you get a general feel for what’s been missing in the past year, and what you could do with having more of in the coming year – and that’s probably going to be the perfect theme for you.

As an example, in the past I had FOLLOW-THROUGH as a theme: I had made big decisions about quitting my job, leaving behind my friends in Geneva, and starting my own business, and now was the time to follow through on my big ideas and to begin to consolidate those ideas and properly implement them.

Another year, I had BEING ACTIVE as a theme. This was a more personal theme, and reflected my realisation that my health and wellbeing was really fundamental to everything else in my life working well. It gave me a focus that drove choices I wouldn’t normally have made, working with a personal trainer and later a running coach, and joining more physical adventures like dog sledding, kayaking and paddle boarding.

Okay, so what’s the process?

As I said, I’ve tended to favour a very organic, last-minute approach these past few years! But this year I did my annual review well in advance and so I have given myself more time to reflect and really think about what might be a good focus for next year.

In fact, a tool I’d suggest that you use to brainstorm your own focus is MIND MAPPING. I’m not a hugely visual person and I tend to be more of a writer than an artist but I do think this particular tool is a great way to capture your ideas in a structured yet flexible way, and to help you to identify possible priority areas.

You can do this freehand and I’d probably recommend that, at least for the actual brainstorming part – my mind definitely works much better when I’m writing by hand than if I’m typing! You can also find free tools online if you want to make it look a bit more presentable and keep it for future reference, for example, https://bubbl.us/ or https://www.mindmeister.com/. *Edit: Canva now has a new set of free bubble-map templates available as well.*

‘mindmapI’d start by simply letting your mind, and hand, flow freely; but if you’re really stuck then how about mapping out a few different areas of your life: business and career, family and friends, health and wellbeing… and that might help you to structure your thinking and spark some ideas for themes that will help to shift your focus in the coming year.

With each theme, and each keyword, try to dig deeper and take it to the next level: what is it exactly that you’re missing here? What is it that you think would be most powerful in making a shift this coming year? What will most clearly guide your choices and your actions in 2017?

Having just done the exercise myself, I have a few ideas at the moment for my 2017 theme. This past year or so has been about establishing my businesses and so I feel a need now for more consolidation, growth and scale, reaching more people and making more of an impact. Looking at the most powerful words in the map, my ideas for a new theme now include PROACTIVITY, INTENTIONALITY and CONSISTENCY – all stemming from gaps I’ve identified in the past year in these areas.

We’ll just have to see what I eventually settle on in a few weeks’ time when the clock strikes twelve!

In next week’s post: setting specific GOALS.