Happy New Year! For many, we look up to 2020 with a renewed hope for our careers, relationships, and our lives in general. Some have started this year by writing down their New Year’s Resolutions. If you are one of them, that is great!
Some, however, have grown tired of the disappointments tied to missing the mark on their resolutions, and there’s at least one study that proves how poorly we follow through with them.
This article is meant to rekindle your self-improvement spirit, instead of being caught up in other people’s whirlpool of regret. If I tell you that you can accomplish the changes you want in your life given the right process, wouldn’t you try them out for yourself?
And that is the key: having the right process. Many come up with New Year’s Resolutions with just a blind hope that they will commit to it. They often never leave the “want” stage because, while they have thought about what they want to have, they did not think hard about how to get there. More importantly, they were not very clear on why they want any of those.
To make your desired changes or goals this year attainable, first set your mind to why these goals matter to you. Without a solid anchor that gives purpose to your goals, you wouldn’t feel incentivized to follow through. Here are five steps to make actionable New Year goals:
1. Connect to your ideal self
Decide first what the best version of yourself looks like. Who do you want to become? Is there someone you are aspiring to be? Or, are there values and traits from different people whom you admire that you want to have as well? Design this version of you in your mind and writing.
2. Have a clear vision of what you want to achieve
What you want must be very clear to you, and should align with the image of your ideal self. This gives you a reason why this is something worth achieving. Come up with goals that lead you towards your ideal self, and not just what others want for themselves. Why are you aspiring to that goal? How do you see yourself once you achieve it? What are you going to do once you own your goal?
3. Anchor your goals to what your vision is
Does your goal resonate with your ideal self? It better be, otherwise, you will find that it may not be worth doing. Taking on goals that are contrary to your grand self-design is not just a swim against the current, but may end up as a waste of time and effort for you.
4. Break down your goals into realistic tasks
Here’s the execution part: given the very specific outcome of your goal, what are the steps you need to undertake to achieve that goal? Be clear and detailed, without making unrealistic expectations of what you can accomplish at each given day. Stretch yourself by making sure you move things along every day. When necessary, find a mentor who has already achieved what you are aspiring to have, so he or she can guide you on which actions will help you progress.
5. Treat failures as milestones, not conclusions
There will be times when your attempts will hit a wall, or simply fall apart. While the first reaction may be sadness and despair, do not fret. Failure is a state in which you have reached a certain limit. Failure is a good thing because it informs you that there is something more you need to learn – you are not growing if you are not failing. Evaluate your situation, seek help, and educate yourself from this situation. Do you need to change direction, recalibrate, or simply become bigger than your obstacle? Failures teach us how to do things better, and is not a judgment of who we are as people.
If you plan your year out well, you should reach your goals through continuous grinding of your daily tasks. Keep at it and results will come to you. Suppose you don’t, well, it should not be a reason to stop the grind. With a mindset to arrive towards your ideal self, continuing your work each day will be a habit that you take on until you achieve your goals, or surpass them
