As a person and clients who have long identified as “high achieving,” it is always so tempting to want to jump straight into future planning this time of year: setting the targets, crunching the numbers, writing the plans for the months ahead.

But what most people don’t understand is that doing this without seeing the full picture is likely to create more of the same: gradual growth, improvement, success.

An incremental way to grow, which is what conventional business has taught us to accept as “normal”—not usually an exponential way (which excites us much more).

I recently took a group of clients through a 2023 planning session where we spent time examining their past in order to create their future.

A client or two admittedly owned up to jumping to the back of the worksheet, eager to map out her 2023. A few years ago I would have done the same thing.

But now I know that creating exponential future success requires us to mine the past.

So we explored the following provoking questions.

1. What were your 3-5 biggest personal and professional accomplishments in 2022? Why?

2. What was the hardest thing you had to overcome in 2022? What did you learn from it?

3. What were the 1-3 activities or habits in 2022 that created 80% of your desired results and success?

4. Who were the 3-5 people that helped you produce 80% of your results? (Clients, coaches, colleagues, friends, loved ones).

5. What were the 1-3 activities or habits in 2022 that created 80% of your challenges, problems, unhappiness or poor mental/physical health?

6. How are you different at the end of this year from 12 months ago?

7. What coincidences, lucky moments, or miracles occurred this year? How did you create them?

8. What are the things that didn’t work out or go quite as planned? What did it teach you?

9. What are you grateful for?

Next time you’re in a headspace of “what hasn’t been done” or “yet to be accomplished”...

Or you’re eager to look only at what’s to come…

Try reflecting on what’s already occurred. It can shift everything.

And as always—if you’d love my help creating your most amazing, intentional and abundant year, reach out with a PM.

To your brightest, boldest success this year and beyond <3