I am probably a little bit more amped than usual! For me, this is THE greatest week of the year-- this is my birthday week! My birthday is this coming Saturday and I am overjoyed!
What I want to get into today is a little controversial and it’s going to kind of turn some folks on their heads, but hey, anybody who knows me knows that what I do! Let’s get right into it this is what I want you to do
I want you to grab a sheet of paper. At the top of that sheet of paper, write when your birthday is—just the month and the day. You’re going to see why in a minute, but that’s the first thing.
The second thing that I want you to do is Google, Alexa, Cortana, or anything you can do to find out how many days it is FIRST to January 1 and then do another search for how many days until your next birthday. You’re probably like, “Why?” Well, New Year’s Starts on Your Birthday. Now, I'm throwing a disclaimer out here real quick—if your birthday is actually new year’s day, what I say to you may not make sense; however, you can still use it.
Why do I say that New Year’s starts on your birthday and not January 1? Well, the first thing many of us get up on our birthday and we may say that we’re excited to be celebrating another what? Another year! Why? It’s because you don’t get older on January 1, you get a year older on that day when your birthday is. I didn’t turn 37 on January 1, so that’s not my new year.
I present this topic every year around my birthday because that gets my mindset ready to take on the year. I went planner shopping not too long ago and I got upset because the only planners that I could find went from August to July and I was like, “I don’t want no planner that goes from August to July. What am I going to do with that—that doesn’t help me. That doesn’t take me till the end of the year.” However, as this time got closer and I bought an undated planner. The first thing I did with that undated planner was start it in August and I died laughing. I didn’t want that undated planner to start in any other month so, while I was mad that the planner that I was trying to get went from August to July, I did the exact same thing when I bought that undated planner! I paid less for the undated planner, but I still made that planner go from August to July and I fell out!
A young lady I spoke with shortly before I did the video that launched this project told me that her husband came and asked her about setting birthday goals—that’s exactly what I’m talking about. These aren’t New Year’s resolutions, these are birthday goals. These are things you are going to do after you have finished turning up and celebrating—however you do you on your day. This is what you are going to do for those 365 days or 366 days if the next year is a leap year.
The first thing I’m going to tell you to do is, whether you are a planner person or not, to go buy or make an undated planner. Make the first month of that planner the month you were born in. You may say to yourself, “Well, Tammie, do I start it on the first of the month or do I start it with my actual birthday?” I would say that you start it with the day before your birthday—mine starts August 10 and on that day, I have written New Year’s Eve.
The second thing that I want you to do is I want you to come up with a plan for your new year. Now if you have followed me for any length of time, you know what I’ve said about planning. Your plan needs to answer seven questions: who, what, when, where, why, how, and how much.
Whom do you want to link up with this year?
What do you want to get done?
When do you want to do get it done—put some dates on this stuff!
Where do you want to go? Or where do you need to go to get it done
Why is that a goal for you? What’s the importance of it? What’s your motivation for that goal?
How are you going to get it done? What are you going to do over the course of that year in order to make those things happen? How are you going to see these come to fruition without regrets the next year?
How much? Count the costs from the beginning so that you will know how to move forward.
This is going to take research! You’re going to have to think and then you’re going to have to be watchful all year long! If somebody, and it doesn’t have to be me, writes a book that speaks to the goals that you have and they are releasing on x day, write that done, write down how much it is. When you are looking at your plan as it pertains to your goals each month, you know to account for that in your spending for that month. If there is a conference, event, somebody’s webinar, an event in your community—anything like that—put it on your calendar.
If you’re not a paper planner type person, there are apps that allow you to change the start date, so it’s just about what you want to do and what works best for you. Me? People who know me know my mantra is it’s time to put your heart on paper, so that’s why I mentioned the paper planner.
Next thing, I like vision boards. I make vision boards throughout the year, so guess what I’m going be spending my NYE doing? I’m going to have my Birthday Behavior Vision Board and I’m going to have on there my 7 question plan as it pertains to the goals that I have for myself for the year. Then I’m going to write down when those things come to fruition and celebrate! I want you to do the same—put your who, what, when, where, why, how, and how much on there, write down when those things come to fruition and CELEBRATE!
Another thing I’m going to do is to fill up the Prayer, Praises, and Gratitude Journal I bought from Family Dollar. In it, I’m going to write what I prayed about, when it came about, and express my gratitude so it will help me keep focused on what’s going on. Pick one up and do this yourself! If you’re going to work through this New Year project with someone else, write their prayer request and praises down too and celebrate for both you and them so both of y’all can be great.
Tammie, why are you telling us this? It is because I want you to change your mindset. What prompted me to do bring this topic back again was all the coaches and other gurus asking “How are finish the year?” or “How are you going to finish this last quarter of 2018?” I said my year has just begun because, for me, the New Year starts on my birthday. I don’t plan for January 1, I plan for August 10 and a lot of people were like, “Well dang… I never thought about that.”
To coin a meme I’ve seen a lot on Facebook recently: You don’t need a January 1 to start over; you just need a new day. May I add that you don’t need another January 1 to start anew, you need another birthday? So I know I’ve given you a host of things to think about.
Don’t let someone else’s version of finishing the year strong stop you. I had to check myself. Last year, I said, “Let’s finish 2017 strong and start 2018 stronger”, so I have to change my own mindset. For some of you that are August babies, your New Year has either already started or, like me, you’re coming up on it. With that, I will leave you…
As always, God bless. Godspeed in all that you do! And, if today is your birthday, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I’ve got work to do! Look out for the SOON coming release of the BOOK, which will be entitled, “New Year’s Starts on Your Birthday!”