Are you over last year already but not sure how to make sure this year is your best yet? I have just one tip for you.

Begin with gratitude.

Gratitude is an immensely powerful force that can expand your happiness, create loving relationships, and even improve your health. Many scientific studies, including research by renowned psychologists Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough, have found that people who consciously focus on gratitude experience greater emotional well-being and physical health than those who don’t.

Sounds like a perfect way to start the new year eh?

No matter what happened in the past, today is a fresh new day and you have the power to completely change how your life plays out in 2017. Each year I undertake an annual ritual of reviewing my current year's ANNUAL GRATITUDE LETTER on New Year's Eve and reflecting on all I am grateful for. If you want to try this too then start with reflecting on all the people you are grateful in your life, the experiences and the growth and learning you've had as well as the missteps and mistakes.

I then start the new year on New Year's Day by penning my new year's letter of gratitude, putting out into the future all I want to feel, think, see and do. If you're keen to start the year of well and want to have a go at writing your own Gratitude Letter for 2017 then begin with asking yourself questions.

FIVE powerful questions to focus your year

Each year when I sit down to pen my annual gratitude letter I start with my five questions - I hope they inspire you to think bigger and to bring about expansion in your life:

  1. How do I want to feel?
  2. What learning and growth do I want to experience?
  3. What do I want my relationships to be like?
  4. How do I want to contribute?
  5. What is my unique intelligence I can bring to life?

Go on have a go and write your answers to the 5 questions, it will help you get laser focused for the new year.

You can read Heidi Alexandra JOY's Annual Gratitude Letter for 2017.

Happy New Year!

Author's Bio: 

Keynote speaker and workplace futurist, Heidi Alexandra is without a doubt a leading authority on the topic of the power of unleashing individual’s unique strengths and power so they can volunteer their best work every day. Obsessed with helping leaders, organisations and entrepreneurs to create companies that balance people, planet and purpose with profit, she founded UQ Power – an executive development consultancy dedicated to rethinking and reimagining the workplace. You can download her free report Unleash Your Future Potential Now at www.UQPower.com.au