5 Proven Ways To Achieve The Goals You Set For The New Year
We’re all guilty of this at some point.
You set a few life changing goals before the start of the new year, get yourself all excited, swear you’re doing it right this time. This year will be your year. Then by Mid February, you can’t rememebr the last time you put on your “workout” clothes, or had something healthy to eat that wasn’t just some lettuce in your crunchy burger.
Truth be told, a lot of the goals we set for ourselves were not enough to drive us to actually DO IT. Writing it down in a cute notebook isn’t gonna be enough. Trust me on that one!
Here are a few things you might wanna consider that could help you get back on track.
1. Don’t Wait Just For A New Year To Set Your Goals.
What many people seem to forget is the value of time and the amount of progress you can make in a short amount of it.
It really doesn’t need to be the start of a new year for you to start working out, or start saving, or being a generally better version of yourself.
Every day is a fresh start – yes, that cringy quote is relevant here
But seriously, even if you need a fresh week to restart, or a completely fresh month, try that, instead of waiting a whole year to do what you set out to do.
Maybe one of your New Year’s goals can be to stop waiting for a new year. Utilize a fresh month and challenge yourself to keep going.
2. It’s Not Just About The Goal – It’s About The Systems.
What the heck does that mean?
Well simply put, setting your phone alarm for 5am, and leaving it next to your bed or under the pillow is NOT working out how you expected. As soon as that alarm goes off, you’re startled, quickly hit snooze, and roll over for another 10 minutes of blissful sleep.
The system that you set in place should essentially be the driving factor that pushes you to get out of bed and be conscious enough to realize you’ve gotta start your day.
It took me a few years back to figure out the smartest way to avoid hitting snooze was to leave my phone on the opposite end of my room, or in another room altogether. That way i HAVE TO get out of bed and walk myself over to it, perhaps buried under the gym clothes i need to put on shortly after.
Setting up subtle and indirect reminders like leaving your gym clothes on your pillow, or prepping your meals the night before can make the world of difference, one day at a time.
3. Time Block Your Day
It’s not enough to journal your goals and highlight them with your favorite highlighters. You’ve gotta break them down into bite sized tasks that you can complete everyday.
For me, one of the goals i set for myself this year was to blog more often.
I broke that down into frequency, how often i wanted to blog, duration, how much time i’m willing to allocate to it, window, the ideal or opportune time where i can do it with no distractions.
Based on the schedule of my workflow for the day, i block out a specific time in the morning when no one in the house is awake yet, and i can just place all my focus into compiling my blog drafts bit by bit every day so i can publish once a week.
4. Have A Schedule For ‘Off days’ & ‘On Days’
Your off days are days that your workflow is lighter. You have a bit more time on your hands, you can get a few light things done without feeling overworked.
On these days, it’s good to have a schedule of light tasks that you can do with very low intensity. Things like clearing out your phone gallery or organizing your downloads folder, things that don’t really require much movement but still allow you to feel somewhat productive and closer to accomplishing a task you set for the day.
Your on days are gonna be the opposite. These are days that you have a lot of productivity happening. You’re focused, you’re in the zone, you’re making stuff happen. These are the days you’ll put most of your higher intensity tasks on your list of things to get done – but keep in mind not to overbook yourself. Too many tasks on your list with not enough time will just leave you feeling unaccomplished at the end of the day.
Focus on the time sensitive ones, prioritize your workload. It’s not ALL urgent. Just make sure you’re prepared to get the rest done when you say you will.
5. Document & Track Your Journey
There’s nothing more satisfying than seeing the progress you’ve made on a goal you felt intimidated by.
Whether it’s getting fit & eating healthy, growing your blog or socials, or learning a new skill, tracking and documenting your journey is a great way to not only see the progress you’ve made but also hold yourself accountable.
Consider having a group of friends with similar goals that you can share your progress with and you’ll be more inclined to keep going.
Or maybe even sharing your progress on your platform. You might feel so proud of inspiring others that you keep going, not just for you, but also for them.
Bonus – remember why you’re doing it!
If it’s important enough to you, you’ll work on it. If it’s for the right reasons, you’ll work on it.
It’s not enough to set it and forget it, you’ve gotta be tough enough on yourself and commit to the end game.
Why do you want to be fit? Why do you want to eat less junk? Why do you want to wake up earlier.
As long as your WHY is strong enough, there’s nothing to stand in the way of you getting where you want to be.
Anesa Devi 