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The week between Christmas and New Year's is always my fave. After a couple of days of rest, I'm usually flooded with new ideas and motivation.

Here are some journal prompts you can use to reflect on the past year and gear up for the year ahead.

• What was awesome and not-so-awesome about this year? (Take a look at your planner or Google Calendar and make a list of +'s and -'s.)
• Looking at my highlights of the past year... What themes emerge? What goals/habits can I set around these themes to create more highlights next year?
• What advice would my 80-year-old self give my current-day self? (Inspired by Susan O’Malley’s Advice from My 80-Year-Old Self)
• What were the biggest lessons I learned this year?
• What made me uncomfortable this year that turned out to have a big payoff? (This one always reminds me that challenge = growth. At the end of the year, I'm often most proud of the things I did that were the scariest at the time.)
• How can I make the world a better place and help others this year?
• At the end of this coming year, what would I be super psyched to have accomplished?
• What monthly goals would help me get to those accomplishments?
• What daily habits would help me get to my January goals?

There are lots more questions like this in our the Habit Brainstorm Guide of our Habit Calendar. After you figure out where you want to focus this year, you can track the small habits that can add up to some big goals.

Do you have any other prompts that you use to wrap up the year? Let us know on Twitter!

Have a great year!

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"Find ways to automate your behavior beforehand rather than relying on willpower in the moment."

-James Clear (via)

This is one of my favorite pieces of advice for keeping my goals on track. Examples from my own life include:

• Not having the Facebook app or games on my phone
• Paying for a class to learn a new hobby (instead of saying that I'll teach myself... because I won't!)
• Schedule reoccurring Craft Nights with my friends for the year. I love hosting craft nights. Setting them in advance takes any decisions out of the equation.

"It’s important to plan in advance to fail. Perhaps we should call failure something different – a moment of indulgence, a moment of rest, a saving of willpower."

-Rita Coelho do Vale (via)

Success is often a result of committing to the fundamentals over and over again.

-James Clear, How to Stick With Good Habits Every Day by Using the “Paper Clip Strategy”

• Have a “shutdown ritual.” Write down worries and make a plan for tomorrow. Work is over.
• Turn weeknights into weekends. Weekends are happier because of time with friends. So see friends. Not hard.
• Mastery, not TV. Hobbies make you happier. Spend nights getting awesome at something.
• Wind down, don’t collapse. No screens. No coffee. No skydiving.
• Never go to bed angry with your partner. Kiss and make up. And kiss. And kiss some more.
• Write down the good stuff that happened. Force your brain to think about the good and life will be good.
• Schedule something to look forward to. Anticipation is like 401K matching for happiness. Double the happies.

Read Eric's full article here.