My friend’s elegantly simple New Year’s plan

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Let’s call it the Gil Vega Plan. He’s not a household name (yet) but his is the most elegantly and profoundly simple plan I’ve come across for addressing goal setting for the coming year.

Here’s his two-step plan:

  1. Fast for a week, the first week of 2013
  2. Make a plan for the year while doing so

This way he sidesteps trying to make decisions in the midst of the holidays. With family about, activities, the festive eating, he feels free to not think about a single thing. He gets to enjoy the season.

This means no muddled decisions. No jumping to grand conclusions about his life while immersed in the holiday hubbub. No trying to sequester himself away to draw out his canniest thinking.

By giving himself a week to purify body and mind he’s opening up space to allow his deeper urges to let themselves be known. It’s mental percolation of the highest order.
Your personal Axial Age
The essential question for 2013