2 steps to killing it in 2016!

See part 2 here

What's the best way to kill it in 2016? Make some pathetically impotent new year's resolutions, or take stock of how you killed it in 2015 and use it to plan ahead...

Here in Vail, with the help of a few clients, I've been designing a year-end process that I plan to roll out next year as a two-day winter retreat.  

Like all of my work I've been focused on building an incredibly rigorous yet simple two-step process for propelling yourself out of this year and into next...

STEP ONE: REVIEW 2015.

Ask yourself these five questions, and to get real benefit from this process spend at least an hour writing out your answers. 

1. Where did you win this year?

Not just in your business or career, but in your life— family, health, mindset, etc.—where did you excel this year?

Look back on your year and write out at least 10 things that you feel went great and take some time to reflect on your success. Celebrate what you did right. Look back on how you made things happen, and most importantly build up the feeling of what it's like to be killing it!!

2. Where did you lose this year?

Look back and create a list of at least 10 ways that you lost. Again, consider your business, career, and financial, but also more generally reflect on your life, health, family, mindset, and so on.

Reflect on where you could have done better and more been the person you know you can be. Again, build up the emotion, but avoid any beating up on yourself, regret, or other useless negative emotions.

3. Now, here is the key question...

When you won or lost this year, what was different? Was it about your level of commitment? Preparation? Will? Wimping out? An excess or lack of skills? Some other factor that consistently leads you to success in some areas of your life or failure in others?

Here you want to go into your processes and understand what you do differently when you win, relative to when you lose...Again take the time to write out thoughtful answers. 

4. If you could re-write this year, what would you change?

If you could go back and turn on more of the things that lead you to success and turn off those things that led you to fail, what would you do differently? How would you be different? What results might have been different for you?

Again, take some time to go back through what you wrote in Steps 1-3 and write out some solid answers.

5. Close your eyes for a few moments and reflect on Step 4.

See yourself back at the start of this year having made these changes, and imagine seeing your year play out differently. See yourself winning more. See yourself turning around some of your loses, and imagine more great things that might have come into your life. 

And here's the trick in this. Take all of your memories and feel as much positive energy as you can about this year. Let your loses fade away into the past, and infuse as much celebration and joy into your year as you can muster. 

Take at least an hour to set this up and then review your ideas twice a day for the next few days. Then, let's talk Step two.

Geoff Blades is the author of Do What You Want on Wall Street. A former investment banker at Goldman Sachs and investor at the Carlyle Group, Geoff Blades is an advisor to senior Wall Street executives, CEOs, and other leaders on strategic matters as well as topics of personal and professional development.