Make reflection a part of our life ritual if you want to take your life to a new direction. So take out your journal and reflect on your previous month by asking and answering precisely these 5 questions: <ul><li>How did my previous month go? </li><li>What happened on the previous month that I am grateful for? </li><li>What didn’t go so well? why? </li><li>How can I do better this time? </li><li>What did I learn last month? </li> </ul>

1. Reflect on your previous month

Setting goals on a monthly basis puts you forward in the right direction towards your major goals. Write down these goals. I repeat, WRITE.DOWN.YOUR.GOALS where you can regularly see. Don’t just have them in your mind. I cannot explain but there is something very very powerful about <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/markmurphy/2018/04/15/neuroscience-explains-why-you-need-to-write-down-your-goals-if-you-actually-want-to-achieve-them/?sh=62fb572d7905">writing down your goals </a>and regularly seeing them. It makes your goals 10x achievable than if you don’t. Also don’t have more than 3 goals because you want to keep your focus narrowed.

2. Write down your goals

As you begin with a new month set out and create a plan. This plan must consist of actionable things that will move you towards reaching your goals. You can keep an app as a planner but personally I prefer a handwritten planner. I have a notebook for this.

3. Set your planner:

You might think what you should invest on? Well there are two things you can invest <ul><li>First, your time </li><li>Second, your money. </li> </ul>If you don’t have money, then you can always invest your time in learning or doing something which will benefit in future.

4. Make one investment for yourself

Never leave your bills due. Pay them right at the beginning of each month or schedule them so you won’t forget it. This also clears huge amount of stress and is really essential if you want to simplify your life.

5. Pay/schedule your bills

Most people have huge debts and are constantly stressed about how to improve their financial condition but do nothing to keep a check on their financial situation. They think that someday money will just come and they will have all their loans and debts paid off. But it really does not work that way. You need to know exactly how much money you owe to someone or something and how much you are left with after your savings and after all your expenses.

6. Check your money situation

Start off your month strong by picking a book or books you want to read at the beginning of each month. Even if you aren’t much of a reader if you actually just pick a book to read every month you are more likely to read and in 12 months you will have read 12 books!

7. Choose a book to read

You can keep track of any of your habit or start a 30 day challenge and track it down in a wall calendar.

8. Mark events/meetings on your calendar

Another thing to do on a monthly basis is to make/ update your lists. Keeping lists help you to be organized and have everything in one place so you don’t have to keep looking time and again. Here are some lists to make a beginning of every month <ul><li>Your to-do list for the month ahead </li><li>List of pending things from last month </li><li>List of books you want to read </li><li>Shopping list of things you need to buy </li><li>List of meetings for the month ahead </li> </ul>

9. Make/update your lists

Keep the first week of each month for cleaning and decluttering purpose. Decuttering at the beginning of each month makes you actually feel like you are starting your month ahead in a clean slate. Here are some major things to clean and declutter on a monthly basis probably at the beginning of every month to give you the feels of a great start of the month. <ul><li>clean your fridge </li><li>clean your purse and bags </li><li>clean your car </li><li>Clean your closet </li><li>Declutter your phone </li><li>declutter your files </li><li>Declutter your inbox </li> </ul>

1o. Clean and Declutter

With all the things that you contantly do for others, don’t forget that it is you who has the greatest part to play in your life and hence you deserve to treat yourself. At the beginning of the month choose how you would like to give yourself a treat. Maybe it is buying something you have been wanting to buy, going out to your favourite restaurant, enjoying a nice spa or anything as such. For this, keep atleast 10% of income for your fun expenses and you can use this to treat yourself and doing whatever you wish guilt free or without any worries of overspending.

11. Choose how you want to treat yourself

Prayers are simply inner determination and your inner resolve. You can pray for anything. I hope you pray for strength, pray for courage, pray for patience and pray to have enthusiam to make all your dreams come true.

12. Write down your prayers

Want to know how to make your new month stronger? Here are 12 major things to do at the beginning of each month to start your month right.

12 things to do to start your new month strong

Mai Nader