New years are exciting. You get a clean slate to start all over again. We all go and take those gym memberships, sign up for courses, buy books we want to read but end up in the same state as previous years in a few months.
I was following the same playbook until I found out about Jesse Itzler’s process. Before we understand this method in detail, let me tell you who Jesse is so that we can establish some credibility. He is someone who has followed the idea of building a life resume containing incredible experiences, memories, and maxing out on doing things while you have the time. He has built and sold multiple companies like Marquis Jet (later sold to Buffet's NetJets), ZICO coconut water (sold to Coca Cola), published books like Living with the monks, Living with a SEAL (very interesting book), ran multiple marathons and ultra marathons, rode his bike across America in 2023 and a lot more. Not to forget, he is married to Sarah Blakely, the founder of popular women's shape wear company called Spanx.
There are 3 things that you should do to plan your next year. They are as follows -
Review the past year
Rate different aspects of your life from 1 to 10
3 things that will dominate the next year
Let us now understand all these three in detail.
Review the past year
This exercise does include reflecting on the past year but majorly its about clearing the clutter accumulated in the past year. Go through your desks, closets, car, and any where you store unused items and see if you want to keep them. Go through your inbox and delete your emails. Lastly, write a thank you note to people you think made a difference in the past year.
For us, all the cleaning happens during our annual Diwali festival. We do everything mentioned above. I did end up writing a thank you note at the end of 2024. While I Could not muster the courage to send out hand written notes, I did end up writing a thread on X thanking everyone there. You can read it here.
Rate different aspects of your life from 1 to 10
This one is a bit tricky and subjective. You can create a list of different areas of your life like family, time with spouse, time with kids, own health, hobbies, career, among other things. This list can be as long as you would like but I would focus on prioritising on the top 5 things.
Once you rate yourself, you will have a list of things to work on in the next year.
3 things that dominate the year
Kevins Rule
Kevin is Jesse's friend who told him about this rule. You have to take one day every 8 weeks and plan a mini-adventure. It can be anything. Take a day off and do something different. You end up doing mini adventures in a year. Try it. Its interesting.
In 2025, i have already done two half-marathons. Travelled for one of them. Took a holiday with my spouse. Ate one of the most expensive meals of our life.
Misogi
Misogi is a Japanese ritual which involves the process of cleansing the mind, body, and spirit through physical and mental challenges. Jesse has tweaked it a bit. For you and I, our Misogi is the one year defining moment.Its an event that makes you look back at the end of the year. It should be hard and challenging. You need to find something you are not comfortable doing. All of Jesse's adventures are listed here. This video explains Misogi very well.
If you have a list of things you want to do in your lifetime, let me know. I am excited to read.
Build a new habit every quarter
Instead of doing new year resolutions, you are better off finding one habit a quarter and working on them. For the first quarter, you only work on the first habit. This one is most exciting for me. I have started using a pocket diary and writing down the highlight of the day along with more details i want to capture about the day on another page. I started this in February and i can say that I am very well continuing in March.
What habits are you building right now?
Jesse explains the whole process in this video. Go for it you want to hear from the horse’s mouth.
I got the calendar for myself too. Not from Jesse. From good habits club. Here is a picture. My planning has just started. Let’s see how we fill it up by year end.
Thanks for reading. Kindly excuse errors, if any.
📚 My favourite books and gadgets
𝕏 Twitter
▶️ Youtube
📝 Sign up for my paid newsletter focused on credit cards and rewards