It’s the first month of a fresh year and I think there’s a good chance your to-do list could use a makeover.

In fact, I personally threw out the traditional to-do list altogether and it’s led to extraordinary outcomes in my own life + business.

In today’s post, I’m not giving you another project management tool, but rather an impactful mindset shift that will lead to better alignment and profitable results.

Read on to find out how to swap out the language and underlying direction of your current to-do lists to take your 2022 to the next level.

Death to the To-Do List

It's official. I’m hereby declaring to-do lists dead. That's right. They are so over and done in my world. And you know what, by the end of this post, you may decide that they're over for you, too.

Oh, but Jen, I have so many things to do! I need a to-do list.

Not to worry. This is about throwing away the traditional to-do list for something better - something that's going to create even more impact in your life and business.

First and foremost, I believe to-do lists need some wordsmithing.

How about instead of calling it a “to-do list”, we pop in the word, get. A Get To-Do List.

You see, by leaving out the word “get” as we normally do, the word that’s not said but implied is, “have”. A Have To-Do List. And energetically, it doesn’t feel good when we have to do something, does it? By adding in “get” instead, your tasks transform into items that sound more like opportunities, rather than responsibilities.

Here’s how I translate this into my own projects: I have a daily planner where I write down my tasks and at the top right section, there's an area for my “to-do” list. And everyday, I add in “get” before it. I then make all of those items my opportunities for the day. I consider myself fortunate to GET to do them.

This even works for items that are less exciting, or things you might be naturally dreading, such as calling your cell phone service provider because they had the wrong charges on the bill. That's never a fun phone call, mostly because it's time-consuming. But you know what? When I see it as something that I get to do, it changes the energy around the task. I remind myself that it's a privilege to have a cell phone. And so I see it as an opportunity to make that call and keep this service that is ultimately a major bonus in my life.

Shifting how you view & prioritize your tasks in your business

Once you’ve made the shift from “have to” to “get to” when it comes to your to-do lists, it’s time to determine if the items on that list actually belong there or not.

You need to view this list as the CEO of your business - the CEO who has a forward-thinking perspective.

What are your goals? What will your next level self view as a priority? And what won’t she?

Some other questions to consider when looking at your typical to-do lists:

If there are items that my next level self wouldn’t be doing, how can I shuffle things around?

Do these things truly need to get done? Or am I doing them just because I’ve always done them? Could someone else do them? What can I outsource to free my time for next level tasks?

Stepping into your Next Level Self

One of the things I focus on in the Breakthrough Babe Mastermind is on really determining who you want to become. This is because once you can step into your next level way of being, that's really half the secret to success. Once you start living from this place of whoever it is that you want to be, you'll make decisions from that place. And then you'll take action from that place. And then all the things that are on your Get To-Do List will all of the sudden seem to just fall into place and become more aligned, because you're already being the person that you want to become.

Switching the energy of your tasks from HAVE to-do to GET to-do means you begin to embody whatever it is you need to embody in order to be the person you want to be, in order to have the things you want to have and do the things you want to do. It's basically an exercise in flipping the script: starting backwards, or beginning with the end in mind.

Instead of saying, I want to do all these things this year, ask yourself, Who do I want to be this year? What does my next level self look like? Your most important task at hand right now is to figure out who you want to become and how you can begin to live in that reality. If you can dream it, it's possible.

Get specific.

When thinking about your Next Level Self, dig into the details of who that woman is and how she lives her life.

How does she enter a room? What does she look like? How does she carry herself? What kind of energy does she bring to the table? What type of leader is she?

When you can start to picture the specifics of this person down to the clothes she’s wearing, you can really begin to step into that next level version of yourself with familiarity and confidence.

Investing in your Next Level Self

You are the most important person in your business. So in order to best serve the future of your business, you’ve got to invest in being the best version of yourself.

What kind of coaching are you receiving? What kind of groups are you entering into? What kind of support are you making sure you have for yourself?

While you may be tempted to put these types of self care off for some later date, the time to do so is now. Step into the kind of commitments to your own growth that your next level self would be committed to. Invest in your success through masterminds, coaching, collaborative support, breathwork, yoga - anything that you can picture your next level self thriving with. Be her now. Live her life. Once you can envision it and embody it, your entire business and life will transform for the better.

Once you can look at the work you do as work you GET to-do, as work that supports the next level version of yourself, you can make decisions from that place of trust, knowing that you already are that person.

Wake up everyday and ask yourself, Who do I get to be? Then… watch out world. That next level version of you is already more powerful and profitable than the one that you looked at in the mirror last year. And think about all the good you can do with that.

Here's to stepping into that new next level version of you. If you want my help doing so, please DM me on Instagram or apply to join the mastermind while applications are still open.