How To: Plan Your Most Elegant Year Yet & Vision Board Guide
This post contains affiliate links and ads. Affiliate links and ads support my work at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your ongoing support!Like turning to the first page of a new book, turning the calendar to the new year initiates a sense of wonder and excitement of the adventure ahead. The new year brings with it twelve new chapters to write in a new installment of the series that becomes your life. How exciting it is that we get to be the authors of our story, to decide the main characters, the redemption arcs, the scenery and the solutions to the inevitable obstacles our protagonist will face along the way!
If you imagine your main character as an elegant, intelligent, charismatic quaintrelle, then you are in the right place!
Here you will find my tried and true strategies and secrets to creating your most elegant year yet and take the next step into defining what living an elegant life means to you.
Each year, I invite an intimate group of women from around the world to join me in the Elevate Your Everyday 31 Day Challenge and throughout our 31 days togethers, we work through a blueprint designed to help you create the elegant lifestyle you desire.
Today, I’m sharing the secret of that framework with you!
The Courtney Opalko Etiquette Method for a More Elegant Life is a 9 Step Framework designed to help you develop the big picture, create monthly milestones and help you fine tune your days so that the elegant lifestyle you seek can be experienced each day.
Elevate Your Everyday
The Courtney Opalko Etiquette Method for a More Elegant Life
& The 9 Step Framework to Make it Happen!
The Big Picture
Set aside time to let yourself dream about the person you want to be at the end of the year. Head to your favorite coffee shop, art museum, garden or create a relaxing space at home to let yourself dream big. Who does this person look like? What do they do? How do they dress? What do they talk about? Who do they surround themselves with at work and on the weekends? Use this time to visualize your ideal self. Write down words, collect images, and source inspiration to help you create a vision.
Define your personal values. Have you ever set a goal and found it difficult to reach it? Everything looks great on paper, but putting the work in feels off? Not because it wasn’t a noble goal, but perhaps there was something else holding you back. I’ve been in the same situation and it took me a long time to realize why, but eventually I had this *AHA* moment. The way I was approaching my goal did NOT align with my core values.
When you are in a position where you feel forced to comply with something that goes against your beliefs, or find yourself having to exert an abundance of mental energy and effort into goals that don’t align with your values, you will find yourself facing cognitive dissonance.
Cognitive dissonance not only drains your energy (our brains really don’t like it!) it also influences things like job satisfaction (career goals) and personal behavior (personal goals).
Recognizing this dissonance can push us to change our attitudes and beliefs, open our minds to new information and help us reduce conflicting behaviors... which, you might guess, leaves our brains feeling MUCH BETTER.
The average adult makes 35,000 decisions a day, and there’s no sense in making those decisions any more complicated than they need to be. Which is why defining our personal values is an important part of goal setting.
When our actions align with our values, we are better able to maximize our feelings of fulfillment and satisfaction. Our thoughts and behaviors will match, and that cognitive dissonance will dissipate.
We’re able to make more effective decisions with less effort, propelling us toward our goals with ease and momentum. It’s when things feel right.
Define 3-5 personal values that will support the life you want to create. You can find mine here.
Set SMART Goals. Did you know? Research has shown us that people who write down their goals are 42% more likely to achieve them. To elevate your aspirations from mere resolutions to meaningful goals, try using the SMART Goal framework. Each goal you create needs to be:
SPECIFIC: Define your goal with precision. Instead of saying “I want to read more good books,” make it more specific and try “I will read one book from my TBR list each month.”
MEASURABLE: Establish criteria for measuring progress. Instead of “I want to travel” try “I will save $100 each month to put toward a year-end vacation.”
ACHIEVABLE: Ensure your goal is realistic and attainable. While “moon shots” are admirable, your goal should stretch your capabilities without becoming overwhelming.
RELEVANT: Align your goals with your personal values and life purpose. In fact, before you set any goal, you should be crystal clear on your personal values. A goal that aligns with your core beliefs will inspire you and keep you motivated.
TIME-BOUND: Set a deadline to create a sense of urgency. “I will complete the final draft of my book by October 25th.” This will give you a timeline to work within and keep you on track to complete the goal.
Create a Vision. Now that you’ve defined your personal values and set your SMART goals, it’s time to revisit the inspiration you collected during Step 1. Create a visual reminder of the person you want to be at the end of the year, the goals you want to achieve and the values that will support you along the way. I love making a physical vision board, but I also find creating one on Canva and using it as the wallpaper for my phone is a great way to keep my vision close to me while I’m on the go.
Your vision board should reflect our high-level goals and inspire us to take action toward those dreams everyday!
Courtney’s 2026 Vision Board
Monthly Maintenance
Now that you have a clear vision for the year, it’s time to sprinkle in a bit of elegance by elevating your social calendar with events and experiences that will help you to create the elegant lifestyle you desire. Now, these events can be as simple or as extravagant as you wish! In fact, I like to make sure to have a bit of both scattered throughout the year. Think about experiences you’d like to have such as attending the opera or a ballet, visiting a museum or traveling somewhere new. Perhaps there’s a new hobby you’d like to try or a skill you’d like to learn. Do some research and find local classes or groups that might interest you. If you can bring a friend along that’s great, but don’t be afraid to go on your own. You may just meet a new friend!
Schedule an elegant event or experience each month. Try a new hobby, take a class, do something new! Plan a party, invite a neighbor for coffee, meet a friend for a walk at a botanical garden, travel somewhere new!
Determine to read, or listen to, at least one book each and to learning one new vocabulary word each month
Check in on your goals. Set aside an afternoon or weekend morning to check in with your goals, identify obstacles and change strategies if necessary, but don’t give up!
TIP: Create a Note on your phone and jot down your plans and ideas for each month!
The Daily Details
“After all, how we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” – Annie Dillard
This is one of my favorite quotes and I keep it in my planner, referencing it often. It’s a poignant reminder that our life is not made of only highs and lows (although those are certainly impactful) but our life is also determined by the way we go about our daily routines. It’s found in how we treat the small moments, make the most of what we have and live with the spirit to make each day enjoyable in its own way.
Create an elegant morning & evening routine. The quickest way to achieve an elegant lifestyle is to bookend your day with an elegant morning and evening routine. A few simple adjustments in these precious moments can set, and reset, our mindset and energy to reflect the elegance we seek. It could be as simple as choosing to wear only your best pajamas or beginning each day by enjoying your favorite warm morning drink in your favorite mug instead of on the go. If you’re looking for more ideas, you can find my checklist for a more elegant morning and evening right here.
Schedule 10-15 minutes in the afternoon to reset. Whether you are pouring yourself a cup of tea, taking time to meditate or going out for a brisk walk; it’s so important to take 30 minutes in the afternoon to rest and reset.
Creating an elegant afternoon ritual you look forward to helps to break up the day - and when we take a break we are better able to reduce stress, reset our mood and improve our mental health.
Taking healthy breaks like this also improves our mindfulness and being more present is crucial to good manners.
How? Taking time to reset along with a few mindful moments helps train our brain to focus on one thing - or person - at a time. It doesn’t need to be extravagant, it just needs to work for you! The important part is to schedule it into your daily routine. Make this reset nonnegotiable!
Determine what it means to show up as your best self. Dressing, grooming, food, exercise, environment… What does showing up for your best self look like each day? Take time to determine your nonnegotiables and make it part of your daily routine. When we feel our best, we’re able to truly be our best!
The Courtney Opalko Etiquette Method for a More Elegant Life will help you build a framework designed to encourage new habits and help support you as you work towards your goals for the year. By holding tight to a vision of what you want your life to look and feel like at the end of this year, you will build the confidence to show up as your most elegant self each and every day.
You must remember that true elegance does not require a certain amount of money, a laundry list of items or a team of professionals. It’s not a specific look or size or location.
The Oxford Dictionary defines ELEGANCE as the quality of being pleasingly ingenious and simple. Elegance is a quality you embody by editing your days, months and year to reflect the life you wish to lead!
SIMPLE. INGENIOUS.
Who wouldn’t want those words to define their everyday life?
As you work through The Courtney Opalko Etiquette Method for a More Elegant Life 9 Step Framework, keep these words close to your heart. When you think about what an elegant life means to you, when you think about your daily routines and who you aspire to be - how can those choices be simple, yet ingenious?
I hope this month sets the tone for your most elegant year yet. I hope you create a vision for what this year will look like, and I hope the tips I shared help support you in making that vision come true.
I’ll be checking in at the end of each month to share my own journey with you, and I hope you’ll continue to stop and share your progress with me, too!
