Your Best Year Ever

A 5 Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals
Michael Hyatt

Your Best Year Ever by Michael Hyatt

Michael Hyatt is a productivity expert. He has a lot of products that focus on productivity end discipline. I was interested to read this book at the beginning of my year to see what lessons I can learn from him.

He begins the book with a positive and upbeat approach to making this year your best year ever. In the planning phase, he will give you five steps through the whole book to set yourself up for success. He also gives 10 relationships that are all interrelated, so you you can improve in areas you are weak in say you can make progress this year.

Step 1 is two Believe the possibility. He says you’re beliefs shape your reality. Our beliefs can limit the possibilities we think we can achieve. Believing you can accomplish your goal is the first key to your success. He explains how you develop these limited beliefs and shows you how to change them.

Step 2 is to complete the past. He describes the essential process of thinking backwards. This is how you improve upon what you consider failures of the past. Looking at last year’s regrets he helps you to see where you can grow. Gratitude makes all the difference. He gives you an assessment that will help you evaluate your past so you can move on to a better future.

Step 3 is to design your future. He tells you to write down your goals which is a very important exercise. He guides you through seven checkboxes that make you have greater goals that are more reachable. They spell SMARTER. He also says that achievements and habits work together.

Hyatt devotes an entire chapter on why risk is your friend. He says that goals that are challenging often lead to discomfort – good discomfort – that shows you you are making an accomplishment happen. He explains how that is different than a delusional goal.

Step 4 is to know your why. Every project gets hardest in the middle to keep making progress. You need motivation. You need to remember why you started that project in the first place. Hyatt gives you five tools that help you succeed when the going gets hard. If you lose the reason why you started the project, you will never finish it. He shows you examples on how to increase your internal motivation to finish projects.

Step 5 is to make it happen. Planning is important, but if we don’t take action we can’t finish the project. The author discusses strategies for quick wins and sustained success. He talks about the importance of celebrating when you accomplish your goals. He finishes the book by talking about the LEAP principle. It encourages you to jump right in and start accomplishing your goals. If you don’t, you’ll never start.

I really like how he completes each step by reviewing the actions you can take. He also offers resources throughout the book. Everything in the book is very doable. You don’t feel bogged down in the process. You just take it one step at a time.

I recommend this book to procrastinators like me, people who like to see their goals reached without a lot of stress along the way. If you need help with making progress happen in your projects, this book will help you advance in your projects and finish each project successfully.

Jonathan Srock

Rev. Jonathan Srock is an ordained minister with the Assemblies of God since 2010. He received two Bachelor’s degrees in Biblical Languages and Pastoral Ministries, as well as a Masters of Divinity from Assemblies of God Theological Seminary. Jonathan was privileged to be the Lead Pastor of New Life Assembly in Shillington, PA for five years before suffering sudden paralysis in 2013. Jonathan has been a Christian since 1988.

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