What does it take to properly prepare for the new year and the world of opportunity it will bring along? 5 minutes chugging champagne from a disposable cup? A couple of hours to save important dates on a new planner? Half a day to draft the year planning? Two days spent at an intensive mastermind retreat? I think anything goes, but I’ve also decided to devote the last 45 days of 2019 to set up 2020. And I wrote this blog post for anybody who’s interested in joining me.
How did it all begin
At first, it all was about getting ready for Atlanta and making sure my brand, business, and website were up for it. But then I realized I will be working every weekend (but one) until 2020. Which prompted this very reasonable reaction:
I like to think of myself as a pale Mindy Lahiri, and like her, I tend to deal with complicated situations by coming up with elaborate solutions. Like setting up a challenge to inspire my feast of a year-end to-do list!
That is how the idea came to fruition to devote the last 45 days of 2019 to follow through with my plans for Atlanta, while also accomplishing one tiny task every day. And Instagramming it for posterity, which will both serve as an accountability action and provide content for my randomly populated grid.
How it works
Starting on November 17, and going on for 45 days, the challenge will see me perform daily activities to prepare for a pretty pivotal year.
On Instagram today I will post the summary image, for anybody to use as a reminder on how to follow me and the challenge itself.
Daily tasks will be evenly spread among different categories:
- mental/emotional health
- baby steps
- simplicity
- creativity
- body
- money
- work
These are the categories where I need prompts to accomplish my to-do list, but I tried to keep tasks as general as possible so anybody can join.
Anybody can join
That’s it. You don’t have to own a business to benefit from this challenge, you don’t need grand plans or big dreams. You don’t even need new year resolution, and you don’t need to be the kind of person that makes new year resolution in the first place.
In fact, you could be any gender/age/etc., be at any point in your life, because this challenge doesn’t have any designated start point or goal.
I feel a good preparation for a new year is about:
- shaking up our perception of the world
- training us to be aware of our purpose
In short, this challenge is not about controlling your future through meticulous planning, it’s about waking up from your stifling routines and regaining awareness of your desires and of the power you have to fulfill them.
If this is something you need, feel free to join me.
There’s an hashtag to follow
It’s not about being trendy, but it’s about making it easy for people to feel part of a community accomplishing something together.
I’m usually the solitary type but I get it that some people need the comfort of numbers or an accountability buddy or two. If that’s you, following #45daysyearend will allow you to stay on track and be inspired.
I think I might also start following it, to find inspiration when I feel like getting some, or to explore alternative points of view on the daily tasks I accomplish.
I will send instructions via email
If you want to have more details about each activity or suggestions and further reading about them, I’ve got you covered. Every Sunday I will send a newsletter with a nifty task list for the following seven days as well as instructions for each. On week 2 I will begin adding a small recap of my previous week.
You can subscribe to instructions email here:
Every message will be short and to the point, I will not try to sell you anything, nor it will be required for you to interact or do anything after receiving them. Every message will be easy to print so that you can carry it with you.
You can always unsubscribe from the emails, and at the end of the challenge, I will write to you to remind you to press unsubscribe or to stick around if you’re interested in more content.
Anything goes
There are no special rules for this challenge. You can join me for a day, five, all of them, or none at all but coming along for the spectacle.
The only rule to abide by is to not let guilt or impostor syndrome get to you, should you choose to join and then quit. The task list is a tool, if it no longer serves you… ditch it.
