I’ve done some version of annual review and planning every year since I can remember. When I was growing up, on December 31st my family would sit in a circle on the living room floor on sofa cushions. We would turn out the lights and my mom would put on some of her woo-woo chanty music (which, of course, I listen to now in adulthood.)

She had a huge book with a soft leather cover that looked like she got it off the shelf at Hogwarts. Our New Year’s Eve ritual began by lighting a candle for the year past, a candle for the year to come, and a candle for the present moment. I remember sitting across from my sister watching the light flicker on her porcelain moon face as we set our intentions as a family.

We each went around and shared completions from the previous year: things we wanted to acknowledge that had happened. For my sister and I they included things like taking our first ballet class or sticking with soccer for an entire season. For my parents they included trips they’d taken or career related accomplishments. My mom would write them all down in the sacred Hogwarts book as we spoke.

Next we shared our intentions for the new year. My dad would voice a yearning for more time out on his sailboat. My mom would share something about the book she was working on. My sister and I would talk about play dates and adventures in the woods.

Each intention was uniquely our own, distinct by stage of life, proclivities, and soul qualities. Each one was recorded in the Hogwarts book for posterity. As a little girl the fact that my dreams were being written down in a big leather bound book made them feel important. It made me feel magical. It wired into my psyche that I can have what I desire. But first, I have to speak up about it.

This past Saturday I sat with a group of women at an event called Radical Sexy Self Care that my friend Thea cooked up. We started the morning going around the table sharing a brag (something we wanted to celebrate about ourselves), a gratitude, and a desire. What struck me the most was that before stating her desire, almost every single woman at the table said, “Wow. This is hard.”

At what point in time did we let it become hard to desire?

When I was a little girl peaking across our little family candle lit coven at my sister it wasn’t hard for me to say what I wanted. I didn’t judge myself for wanting a pink tutu, to play fairies in the woods, or to take a trip to Disney World. I didn’t censor my words. I didn’t put a lid on my glitter and ribbon little-girl desires. My mom wrote my annual desires in her big leather book right next to her financial goals, intentions to deepen her relationship with my dad, and career aspirations. They were important, valuable, and most significantly, right by sheer virtue of the fact that I’d dreamed them up.

Listening to the women on Saturday struggle to state their desires was sad at first, but immediately liberating as soon as they gave themselves permission to say them out loud. My little girl did a twirl each time one of these women let themselves want what they want.

If you don’t have an annual review and planning practice, I invite you to do one this year. Nothing compares to the feeling of being well digested after acknowledging everything that happened in the previous year. And if you have even one creative cell in your body that wants to set something in motion, whether it be a business, a relationship, or a new spiritual practice, you have to let yourself want it first.

Creating a safe, loving container where you’re allowed to want what you want may be the most powerful thing you could ever do for yourself.

When setting goals, laying your intentions, or writing your 2013 desire list (however you want to say it), here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Make it a ritual. Light a candle. Get out some glitter and crystals. Play some chants. Find a Hogwarts book of your own. Make it sacred, like you.

• We tend to over estimate what we can do in a year but under estimate what we can do in a decade. What would it feel like to intentionally leave white space this year?

• Let your little girl come to the planning party. She’s unabashed about her desires. She’s playful. She’s wise. And she hasn’t yet forgotten who she is. Listen closely to her and weigh her desires for rainbows and unicorns just as heavily if not more so than your profit margins and client counts. (My friend Nisha Moodley wrote beautifully about exactly how to include your little girl in the planning party here.)

• Remember that every goal or intention we set is based on some way that we want to feel. Focus on the feeling more than the thing. There are a million ways to create the feeling of freedom that you crave. Releasing your grip on exactly how that feeling will come to pass is one of them. (Danielle LaPorte’s Desire Map drops today. This guide will teach you exactly how to chart your life to feel the way you want to feel more often.)

• Include the people in your life who are most important to you. Plan with your hubby. Ask your daughter what she desires for the next year. At the end of your life you’ll probably remember your candle lit New Year’s Eve with your partner and your kids more than some of the stuff you manifested. Share the love.

Do you have other annual review or planning tools that you love?

Is it hard for you to state your desires? Is it easy? Why?

How do you want to feel in 2013?

Share your thoughts in the comments below!

I find that when I skip the digestion step of everything that’s happened, I get cranky. I forget my blessings, I start finding myself wrong, and things kind of go bland. But when I take the time to notice all the good (and some of the challenges, as well) that I’ve just experienced, life gets back to its usual sparkly sheen.

In no particular order, here are the significant things that happened in 2011:

• I got rid of most of my stuff and left my home in NYC and hit the road on The Freedom Tour. (34,000+ miles by car, 30,000+ by plane, over 60 beds, hundreds of hours spent looking out the car window)
• I fell in love.
• I started and ended a business partnership with grace and love.
• I ended another business partnership that was a little tougher to unravel with just as much grace and love.
• I learned to say no far more often and with far less angst.
• I bought my first car.
• I sold my first apartment.
• I reached a level of financial abundance and consciousness I’ve never achieved before. (This manifested as making, giving, and saving more money.)
• I explored what freedom is and is not to me.
• I spoke in 18 cities in North America to hundreds of different people.
• I spent time with people, like my aunt and uncle Penny and Phil and my Granny, who I haven’t ever spent as much quality time with.
• I got a book deal.
• I individuated from my mom financially, business-wise, and emotionally. We are both all the better for it.
• I realized how much open space there is in this country. Having lived on the tiny island of Manhattan for 6 years this awareness calmed me down in a way I found surprising and refreshing.
• I gave myself a demotion and stepped down as the CEO of Team Northrup so that I can now focus on running my own show instead of other people’s. I’m now the co-creator which feels much more expansive.
• I was invited to become a part of Hay House’s new Ignite initiative, which is focusing on attracting a new generation of authors, speakers, and audience members.
• I started and maintained a 6 days a week meditation practice.
• I started teaching yoga at Yoga Shanti.
• I received profound support from friends and family on The Freedom Tour as Mike and I traversed the country. Thank you to all of you. You know who you are.
• I made new friends.
• I got better at doing nothing.

Some things that didn’t go as well as I had thought they would:

• I thought The Freedom Tour would be better for building my Team Northrup business but given my lack of strategic planning around this and my burn out early on in the trip, it wasn’t. That’s okay. It was really amazing for a lot of other reasons.
• I wanted to document The Freedom Tour more. I had visions of daily videos, more pictures, more updates, and more transmitting my adventures to my readers. But instead, I enjoyed a lot of adventures and precious moments that went undocumented. And because I was there in the experience instead of capturing it for the future I suppose this is really a good thing.
• I wanted to do more connecting with people I didn’t know on my travels. I had visions of tweetups, donation yoga classes, and meeting people at coffee shops to talk about freedom. That kind of conversation only happened once and I wrote about it here. It was enlightening, but not exactly what I had imagined. It turns out I’m scared to talk to strangers and sometimes I have social anxiety. Another lesson in learning that sometimes it’s okay, and even necessary, to do less.
• During The Freedom Tour I didn’t take that great care of my body and I ended the year with about ten extra pounds on me. Ooops! A reminder to prioritize self-care in 2012.

Luckily, far outnumbering the things that didn’t turn out the way I thought they would were wonderful things I hadn’t even thought to think up (like falling in love and getting a book deal!) So, overall the year ended significantly on the upside.

Taking everything I learned from 2011, I spent some time focusing on how I’d like to create 2012. I still have some more refining to do (using some of the tools recommended below). But I’m sharing my 2012 creation plan with you now, even though it’s not complete, because the idea that I could create the perfect 2012 plan and control how the year goes is not only absurd, it’s also exhausting.

Here are my 2012 intentions/goals/desires/creations:

• Tighten up my brand to clarify and expand upon my message of financial consciousness as an inroad to spiritual and emotional freedom.
• Write my first book.
• Launch my 2012 Mentoring Program.
• Take a tropical vacation with Mike.
• Follow my inner compass as my default setting instead of checking outside myself to see if I’m ok.
• Launch two or more digital products.
• Rock the stage at the Hay House I Can Do It Ignite events.
• Increase my USANA business revenue by 100%.
• Spend more time alone and more time doing nothing.
• Get better at asking for what I need/want.
• Continue to say no more often and with more grace.
• Dance more.
• Intentionally align with organizations that uplift and serve women such as Women For Women International.
• Prioritize self-care.
• Create The Freedom Family. (More on this soon and NO, I’m not planning on getting pregnant this year.)

Tools for 2012 Creation

Something I’m adding to my planning of the year this year that I’ve never done before is assigning measurable goals to each intention and then tracking them through the year. This is inspired by Chris Guillebeau’s Annual Review. I’ll also be scheduling specific events, actions, and goals into my calendar and breaking them into action steps using my new Getting Things Done system a-la David Allen.

Lastly, as I’m going through my intentions/desires/goals for 2012 I’ll be creating a list of things that I’ll be delegating to the universe. For example, if my goal is to enroll twelve people in my mentoring program, I may write down that I’ll be personally responsible for attracting six of them, and I’ll ask the universe to attract the other six. This will act as a reminder to myself that I’m not responsible for everything, that synchronicity and magic abounds, and that there’s help for me (and you) available at all times if I’m simply willing to ask.

If you’re wanting to some guidance in your 2011 review and 2012 creation, I recommend the following resources:

• Creating Your Magical Year by Molly Mahar (Molly interviewed me about how I wrap up the year and plan out the next one and I gave her some juicy, honest answers including sharing the family New Year’s Eve ritual we started when I was six. Click the green and yellow button on the right to get access to it.)
• Marie Forleo’s Free Planning Tool To Set & Reach Your Business Goals
• Chris Guillebeau’s How to Conduct Your Own Annual Review

What were some of your best moments of 2011?

What did you learn last year?

What are you thrilled to announce that you’ll be creating in 2012?

What do you think about doing a year in review and planning out your year in general?

Leave a comment!