Next Year Will Turn You Into Someone

How to Reset Your Trajectory

The road that grows you runs straight through the thing that scares you.

Don’t rush past that. Let it sit with you and sink in.

What scares you most right now?

Something changing in your life?

Or—worse—nothing changing in your life? That you’ll still be the same old version of stuck you experience today?

It is really common to spend more time worrying over what we will or won’t accomplish than over who we are becoming.

Consider this:

With no change in trajectory, who will be looking back at you from the mirror this time next year?

Our circumstances matter. Our achievements matter. But our character matters more. The outcomes and legacies of our days and years rest on our being and becoming more than our doing and achieving.

You see, character shapes our perspective and determines how we show up—to the world, and to the people we love.

So instead of rushing toward solutions, start with reflection.

Not to judge yourself, but to see yourself more clearly.

Here is a highly practical exercise you can use to clean the lens and arm yourself with the knowledge to make a lasting change.

Set aside twenty or thirty minutes.

Grab a journal.

And answer these questions as honestly as you can.

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Trajectory Reset Exercise

1. Examine Your True

You start with you. You are the project. Not the object. Not the ultimate point, but any meaningful impact you wish to have on the world begins with who you are.

So, what is True of you?

What is the character issue (or issues) you are most concerned about addressing in the coming year?

Sit with these questions:

• Where have I grown complacent?

• Where am I making excuses or lying to myself?

• Where do I feel defeated?

Don’t rush past this. Clarity begins with naming what’s real, not what feels “respectable.”

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2. Disrupt Your Autopilot

Most of our lives run on patterns we stopped consciously choosing a long time ago.

Ask yourself:

• Where am I operating on autopilot rather than focused intention?

• Where are my behaviors misaligned with my values?

• What thought patterns run like a playlist on repeat in my head? (Examine the nature of these thoughts. Where do they come from? Do you agree with them? And whether you do or not, are they healthy for you?)

• Where am I numbing—through distraction, busyness, or indulgence?

• What needed change always seems able to wait until tomorrow?

Autopilot is our brain’s way of conserving energy. This is a good thing, but not if we don’t consistently examine the operating system. An outdated mental OS can carry us further and further away from the person we desire to become.

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3. Reset Your Trajectory

Life is motion. Character is never static.

Your trajectory is not merely carrying you toward “more of the same.”

It’s carrying you deeper into whatever you’re on your way to becoming—for better or worse.

If you’re trending towards health, you’ll get healthier than you are now. If you’re trending towards lack of health, you’ll be worse off a year from now than you are today.

Reflect on these questions:

• If this pattern of thinking, speaking, or behaving continues for five years, who will I be?

• What specific habits or behaviors are directly contributing to a character issue in me?

• What specific habits or behaviors are taking me closer to who I want to be? How can I calibrate more of my life around them and double down on them?

• Who pays the cost if I change nothing about this path, and how much does it cost them?

We don’t stay the same by changing nothing. We become more like whatever our current trajectory is forming.

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4. Name Your Fear

Sometimes fear is about danger. Often, though, it’s about attachment. Some part of us is scared to lose what once made us feel secure (this is a prime example of an outdated mental OS: what once kept us safe now keeps us stuck).

Ask:

• What do I fear losing?

• What expectations—internal or external—feel too big or too costly to challenge?

• What hard feelings am I avoiding by continuing to ignore this pattern?

• Am I more afraid of disruption or stagnation?

• If I stay on this path, what will become harder to change later?

Naming the fear is your secret weapon. It shows you the door to walk through, the threshold where your comfort zone becomes a growth zone. Your fear, rightly named, gives you a map for your Brave.

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5. Aim Your Brave

Again, trajectory is the name of the game. Brave is less about effort and more about direction.

Passion and a commitment to change can pour rocket fuel on the pursuit of your purpose, but if your guidance system is off, you’ll launch a rocket in the wrong direction, and end up in the wrong place.

So, before doing the Brave thing you need to do, get clear on exactly what it is, what it will require of you, and which direction it will carry you.

Bring the reflection down to ground level:

• Now that I’ve named my fear, what is the simplest act of courage available to me right now to address it? (A conversation with a friend or loved one? Finding a fitness coach? Scheduling an appointment with a therapist, coach, or spiritual advisor?). Make it simple. Make it clear.

• What new commitment do I need to make, and who needs to know about it? (Your commitments have as much to do with why you’re making them as what they are. Adding a who to the equation is an incredible hack for helping you stick with it. Who is on your team to encourage you, hold you accountable, and remind you of who you are when it gets hard?).

• Which habit(s) need to be disrupted? (The repeating playlist in your head? The whiskey on a weeknight? What repeatable thoughts, words, and behaviors keep you showing up in a way you aren’t 100% proud of?)

• Which habit(s) need to take their place? (Humans don’t do vacuums well when it comes to habits. Don’t merely subtract. Substitute. If you tend to escape into your TV or phone at night, set an alarm that triggers you to turn off electronics, put them in another room, and keep the book you’ve been putting off reading right there on your night stand).

Small acts, practiced consistently, change trajectory faster than dramatic intentions.

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Don’t obsess over drastic character changes this year.

Get clear on the changes you want to make, and make a list of the small, simple decisions that will help you invest in the person you want to become.

Hold tight to a vision of the person you want to face in the mirror a year from now.

And take one Brave step on the Road that scares you each day.

The disruption zone you’re avoiding is the very place your growth is waiting.

Sincerely,

Karl

P.S. I did a deep dive in my Leadership Essentials Playlist on YouTube, to help you create a plan for your year that will help you become and achieve. It might surprise you how a Soulful Leader does annual planning. Give it a shot. Here’s the link.