What is the main message of Your Best Year Ever?

The main message of Your Best Year Ever is to set and achieve goals that align with your values and priorities.

How long does it take to read Your Best Year Ever?

The reading time for Your Best Year Ever varies, but it typically takes a few hours. The Blinkist summary can be read in just 15 minutes.

Who is the author of Your Best Year Ever?

Michael Hyatt is the author of Your Best Year Ever.

Money & Investments

Your Best Year Ever Book Summary - Your Best Year Ever Book explained in key points

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Your Best Year Ever summary

Name: Your Best Year Ever
Rating: 4.1 (401 reviews)
Author: Michael Hyatt

Michael Hyatt

A 5-Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals

4.1 (401 ratings)

18 mins

Brief summary

Your Best Year Ever by Michael Hyatt is a guide to setting and achieving goals. It offers a research-backed approach to intentional living, and practical advice on defining, planning, and taking action towards your goals.

Topics

Success

Table of Contents

Your Best Year Ever
Summary of 7 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 7

What’s in it for me? Make your New Year’s resolutions stick.

Every year we make New Year’s resolutions, but by February we’ve usually abandoned any efforts toward change – either because they seem impossible to achieve or we’ve simply forgotten about them.

Improving your life isn’t as simple as staring up at a firework-lit sky and whispering a couple of sentences to yourself. Sure, the intent is there, but you also need to follow up on your verbal promises with some solid planning and action.

This is where these blinks come in: Michael Hyatt guides you through the necessary steps to make your New Year’s wish a tangible reality, so you’ll never spend another year regretting all the things you could’ve or should’ve done. Full of historical examples and personal anecdotes from the author, Your Best Year Ever will show you that reaching your goals is never an impossibility.

In these blinks, you’ll discover

why it’s good to develop an addiction;
the author’s greatest failure; and
who was first to run a mile in under four minutes.

Your life is made up of ten areas that need to be worked on simultaneously.

Let’s start by picturing where you want to be in 12 months. What do you see? Some of the more common desires are to be free of debt, physically fit, a happy family life, a good relationship, master a hobby and feel spiritually well. The good news is that you can have all of this.

Measuring your progress in ten areas of your life will allow you to see what you need to improve.

These interrelated aspects are mental health, physical health, spirituality, intellectual life, marriage or partnerships, parental life, friendships, job, hobbies and personal finances. These components are key to living a fulfilling life, which is why it’s important to work consistently on improving them.

To begin, rank yourself from zero to ten on each of the aspects previously mentioned. This way you will be able to identify the areas in greatest need of improvement and regularly mark your progress by comparing the results. Moreover, it will give you a clear indication as to where you should be focusing your efforts.

These ten aspects are connected to and influenced by one another, and therefore improvements in one area will most likely result in growth in other areas as well.

For instance, a relaxing home life will allow you to concentrate better at work, while a rich social life will lead to a higher chance of meeting a partner.

Likewise, performing poorly on certain aspects could have negative impacts on other areas too. You may lack energy in the workplace if you’re not physically healthy, while not having any hobbies could negatively affect your marriage.

Working on all these aspects might seem like a daunting task, but the following blinks will show you how to overcome your worries and devise a practical plan to bring about change in your life.

Mental blocks may stand in our way, but we can learn to overcome them.

Most of us lug around a lot of baggage, or mental blocks, that determine what is and isn’t possible for us to achieve.

One such mental block is false assumptions. Humans continuously make assumptions about the world and themselves. These are often wrong and create a barrier to our progression. These assumptions can be thoughts, such as “You’re not the creative type,” “You’re ugly,” “You can’t hold down a job,” or “The recession means nobody will buy your product.” These are almost always self-inflicted and objectively untrue in most cases.

Instead of letting past failures derail you, learn from them and grow.

It might’ve been a primary school teacher who told us we’re hopeless at art, or it could’ve been last month’s failed attempt at dieting. Whatever the case, past experiences can contribute to our negative thinking and keep us from moving ahead.

A bad experience in the past can affect our confidence in future circumstances.

Set challenging goals, but keep them realistic.

Some targets that we set for ourselves are so unrealistic that even the world’s greatest geniuses wouldn’t be able to attain them. On the flip side, sometimes the goals may be so easy that we lose motivation to try and achieve them because so little effort is required.

The key to ensuring high enthusiasm levels is striving for a goal that’s within your capabilities, but one that also requires a reasonable amount of effort.

Work until you become addicted to “little and often” tasks, and you will accomplish more.

Imagine you had to read a long book like the Bible. That’s almost a million words – a rather daunting task. To make this a more attainable goal, break up the task into 20-minute chunks every morning, and you’ll have read the entire Bible in a year.

When you split up mammoth tasks into short-term goals, the rewards can be very satisfying.

Identify and remind yourself why you’re doing something to stay motivated.

To stick to a task and remain positive, you need to form an emotional attachment to it. In other words, you need to understand why that task makes you a better person.

Start by identifying your main motivations.

To experience your best year ever, you need to have good allies.

In addition to identifying your primary motivations, one key factor to living a successful year is having a good group of people around you. This means finding individuals who can support your goals – either those who have the means to see them come to fruition or those on a similar path who can offer encouragement and advice.

People are a readily available source of knowledge and experience that we can tap into. They could be a member of a community or a mentor, and many are more than happy to pass on their skills and lessons to those who seek it.

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What is Your Best Year Ever about?

Your Best Year Ever (2018) provides clear and easy-to-follow instructions on what to change in your life – and how – so that you can reach your full potential. It identifies key areas for you to work on, as well as barricades you must conquer before you can start improving yourself.

Your Best Year Ever Review

Your Best Year Ever by Michael Hyatt (2018) is a guide to setting and achieving goals that will make your year truly extraordinary. Here's why this book is worth reading:

It offers practical strategies to help you clarify your goals, overcome obstacles, and create a clear roadmap for success.
With its emphasis on scientific research and proven techniques, the book provides a solid foundation for making positive changes in your life.
Through compelling stories and examples, Michael Hyatt keeps the book engaging and inspiring, ensuring that it's anything but boring.

Best quote from Your Best Year Ever

Unless we learn from our experiences, we cant grow.

—Michael Hyatt

Who should read Your Best Year Ever?

Individuals who want to change their lives but don’t know how
People who let negative thoughts prevent them from acting
Those who lose motivation easily

About the Author

Michael Hyatt is the author of many best-selling books and has designed several mentor courses, including Five Days to Your Best Year Ever and Free to Focus. He was the former CEO and chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers.

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Money & Investments Personal Development Career & Success

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