Goals and Dreams for 2013 and Clear Vision

I've got some throat thing, so I'm holed up on my couch watching old soccer games and listening to the soundtrack to "Les Miserables." And I'm planning. I'm planning planning planning for 2013.

It feels to me like for the last couple of years I've been very much in a "get it done" mode, in which I make a goal and then make a straight line to that goal. And I know why--I was asleep for so long, just trying to maintain, so being able to actually take action was a big deal. But now I have this sense that there's way more that I can do, that's not just utilitarian but is actually good for me and has some room for fun and delight. Enter Leonie Dawson's 2013 Create Your Incredible Year Workbook and Planner.

I don't know if any of you read Leonie. She's an Australian business coach and she's super woo-woo, way extremely woo-woo. About as woo-woo as I am cynical, honestly. But she and I are looking for the same thing: movement and freedom. She gets there with rainbows and glitter and I get there with cynicism and coffee, but we're both looking for something more, for ourselves and for the people who read what we write and who work with us. And we both like structure that leaves room for movement.

And I was just having this feeling that I could do more this year and somehow my regular one-page list of goals wasn't going to do it, and right them Leonie's bright pink and purple glittery superfantastical planning tool landed right in my inbox. So I bought it, and it is no joke. No. Joke. I spent yesterday doing her "closing out 2012" section and shed some tears. She moves you through the big ideas in a way that seems natural and kind. And now I'm moving into the planning for 2013 section, and something about this workbook is really sparking me to think big.

I'm loving them (the Life Edition and the Business edition) so much that I'm recommending them to you. You should buy them. Each one on its own is only $9.95, or you can get the pack of two for $17.90. You buy them and get access immediately and print them out on your own so you can start right now. Full disclosure: this is my affiliate link, so when you click through and buy them I get a little kickback, just like when you buy something from Amazon through this site: 2013 Create Your Incredible Year Workbook and Planner. (Does anyone else remember that "I liked it so much I bought the company" commercial? That's how I feel.)

If anyone's local to me, a few of us are going to be at Fraser's Pub on Packard at 6 pm on January 3rd to work on the workbooks, and you're invited. Show up with your printouts and pens.

Clear Vision: If anyone has FSA money you need to use by Monday, and you wear glasses, I'd like to recommend WarbyParker.com. You send them your prescription and pick out the glasses you want, and they send you the entire pair (frames and lenses) for $95 AND they donate a pair of glasses to people in areas without access to vision care. The glasses are excellent, and I'm wearing a pair as I type this. (The green pair in my banner photo on my Facebook page.) I have two pairs of their regular glasses and one pair of their precription sunglasses and am pleased with all of them. If they had an affiliate program I'd totally join it, because I do use their glasses happily every day, but they don't. I'm just a happy customer recommending the glasses I love. (Their customer service is excellent, too, especially Colleen.)

 

And now back to tea and the workbook and SKy Sports News.

Comments

[Cordy]

I'm interested in this (I could use some woo in my life), but I don't know which edition I need. I write for a living, so my business has basically 100% overlap with my life... or so it always feels! I don't really want to do two workbooks - any idea which edition I want?

And did you just print your copy at home?

[Erin]

On the glasses... how do you handle getting an exact fit? when I get glasses at the store, they always need to adjust the frames a smidge so they fit just right.

[Asha Dornfest {Parent Hacks}]

These look fascinating! I love that you were flexible enough in your cynicism to be open to purple sparkly woo woo. PS. Every time I buy something from Amazon I click through from AskMoxie!

[klj]

Cordy--I printed my copy at home and had it spiral bound at Kinko's. Some people use a 3 ring binder.

[sw]

I have never set goals (other than "lose weight"). Will the workbook help in creating goals? I'm a SAHM with 3 under 5. I live in A2 and could try to make it to Fraser's. I would like to try to put some focus back on to doing some things for myself.

[Moxie]

Cordy, I'd do the Life edition if i were you. And yes, I did just print at home.

Erin, if you don't have to make the purchase under the wire for Monday, they will send you five pairs of empty frames to try on and then send back for free so you can try them on and see which ones fit or look best on you.

sw, I think the workbook will help set goals, but not exactly in that language. It's more like leading you to what you value most at this particular point, and whether your actions are getting your toward that or away from that. Plus there's a list of 100 things you want to do next year, and I'm surprising myself with the stuff I'm putting on it (big and small).

Asha, thank you! And I'm attracted to sparkly. It's just not what I seem to generate. I like when it happens to me, though.

[Katie]

Hm.

I might could part with ten bucks.

Something my pastor has said occasionally in a message is 'Direction determines destination.' I'm picturing that on the cover of my binder.

[pennifer]

I'm interested in the business one, but not sure it will meet my situation - one-woman-conservation-non-profit. So it's marketing, but it's fundraising and grassroots consulting and environmental advocacy and community organizing and and and. I suppose it boils down to marketing, but I need other areas too. Whaddya think?

[Anne]

I ordered the combo pack but I wish I'd read more carefully and knew I would have to print it myself. It feels like a big waste of ink to me. :( Sorry to be a Debbie Downer.

[Artemis]

I bought the Life version. It seems like just what I was looking for/needing. Hope so!

[Jeanine]

This is exactly what I was looking for, and I didn't even know I was looking! Thanks for the suggestion! I want to be more intentional about my goals both in my personal and work life. I'm an academic, so not a business but very self directed. Do you think the business version would be helpful or could I do both aspects with the life version?

[courtney]

Thanks for the glasses tip. I have approx $100 left in my FSA account and my glasses broke last night and the last thing I wanted to do with my kid on our day off together was get glasses. I will report back after purchase.

[Kathleen]

She should really partner with a printing company like mimeo so those who can't or don't want to print can get a copy in the mail. I'm going to go see if I can find a way to suggest that to her.

[BethB]

This is way OT, but I was wondering if Moxie (or anyone else) saw that "Little Bit Divorced" article in the January issue of Good Housekeeping?

Here is a (very) brief summary:
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/family/happy-marriage-tips?click=main_sr

[mattress sale]

As the author suggests, sketch out your own habit loop and try to diagnose the cues, routines, and rewards that make your habit come to life.

[Amanda]

Mimeo is not a good option. Spiral-bound, color copies cost $70 (for 100 pages). I love the workbook, but am appalled at the price for printing.

[ARC]

Wow, thanks for the link. This quote on her site sealed it for me: "But I’m also a hippy that gets shit done."

There are online coupons for Mimeo floating around that may reduce the price significantly - I used them for some other online class stuff.

[hedra]

I'm putting mine in my Levenger Circa binders, so kinda like a three-ring binder approach.

And Moxie, I love woo-woo, but not so much the sparkly purple thing. SO glad you directed folks to this one, as I would have seen the sparkly and skipped right over it. Just READING the first 8 pages of the business one changed my thinking - end of the year has been heckpie, and I've been struggling with how to frame rethinking going forward. Her questions just for clearing last year were like opening windows. Wowzers. Completely shifted to positive and hopeful, instead of mostly there but fighting for the last 20% of positive and hopeful.

Count be feeling very grateful to you for putting this one out there.

For those who might be COMPLETELY put off by the girly (including guys - epeepunk bought it anyway, but some folks might not be able to get there), someone else who might be similar in soul/spirit but more neutral in decoration is Mark Silver (Heart of Business: http://www.heartofbusiness.com/ ) - he integrates heart and spirit into business in similar ways, and ep has found his information very helpful also.

[hedra]

*me not be... apparently my typing is as congested as my head. :)

[MeinTX]

Thanks for sharing this. I'm not a superfantastical person, either, but after the year that was 2012 - some of my deepest personal valleys - I believe I need some glitter and light to move forward.

[hush]

On the topic of transformation and overcoming tough years, I can't believe nobody here has ever mentioned the tremendously deep, thoughtful books "Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow" by Elizabeth Lesser and "tiny beautiful things: Advice on love and life from Dear Sugar" by Cheryl Strayed. Do yourself a favor and pick up these wonderful gems.

@BethB - I LOVED that "Little Bit Divorced" piece in Good Housekeeping. I kind of wanted to marry it (but then again, it would totally divorce me). Reminded me of some of the "upside of divorce" things Moxites have often said about how in some break ups, mama finally gets her weekends free, and that can be awesome and can open up some real possibilities for growth. So, as the article suggests, why can't happily married people arrange their lives that way sometimes, too?

@ARC - didn't you have a post awhile back about how to order the correct size glasses from a site like Warby Parker? Maybe she'll re-post the link here.

[Tor]

Concerning the print-it-out-yourelf aspect of the workbooks, I just wanted to share my silver lining.

It turns out (and I was not expecting this) that I actually prefer this because if it came all beautifully printed & bound I know I would worry about "ruining" it. I'd end up never putting pen to paper. But if it's printed myself then it's not so perfect one-chance-only, and I can reprint any page I really screw up and throw out the one that ended up being all crossing-out-changing-my-mind or illegibly messy. It takes away alot of the "do it perfect or don't do it at all" fear & inhibitions.

Her hand-drawn, freestyle, quirky, chirpy style helps with this too. It's not graphic-designed to within an inch of it's life, instead it's inviting me to add my scribbles, judgement free & welcoming.

It's like all the informality is letting it sneak under my radar so I can actually DO the work safely, instead of getting anxious about if I am doing it perfectly enough.

So that was my unexpected benefit of this print-yourself, hippy-dippy-rainbow-unicorns verson compared to a more formal, "professional" bound copy. It might be less slick, but this one actually gets DONE, which makes it more valuable.

[Christine]

This looks nice! I found this site by a P31 author yesterday and loved the idea of summarizing into one word your focus for the year: http://myoneword.org/pick-your-word/. My word is 'moxie', by the way, which is how I found you :) Cheers!

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