So- the 2020 has started, you have some ideas in your mind what you would like to do with those next 365 days and kind of feeling like you can do it, but somehow the goals itself can feel little too far away to actually reach. Either they are something you don’t know about yet, such as starting your own business; quitting your job and going to travel around the world or something what just needs to come with time- like losing those extra kilograms on your body.
The good news is- whatever you wish for, it is absolutely doable, reachable, it’s almost already yours! Where it gets little bit trickier is that to get those goals successfully done, is that it does take some time and planning. Great things take time, they say. But the good news is, that it takes less time, when planned wisely.
Focus. Pick only 3 main goals
Focus. Decide what you really want to work with. You should have one really important goal that you're going to achieve no matter what. Therefore, you can set two other goals to work toward as well. Just remember to decide which goal is your "main" one.
Why we insist to be so restrictive? Because if you try to do more than three things at once, there is a great change that you'll get lost. Wise men have said, that focus is one of the main keys to get things successfully done. If focusing in more than 1-3 things, you'll lost track of what's most important. You'll start to neglect one of your goals, and then you'll feel guilty about it. And then soon you'll start to lose confidence in yourself, because everything is half-done and nothing fully.
So, stick with one main resolution and two secondary ones. Once when you feel comfortable of doing them and they come rather naturally, such as they are part of your lifestyle or a habit, you can add up more. But to start with- stick with 3.
Write down your resolutions.
Think of a single word to represent each of your resolutions. And then take them down into few smaller ones. So, for example:
2020 main goal going to be your physical health. You going to take it down into few smaller sub goals- taking vitamins, preparing your food, working out at least 30 minutes five times per week, researching and getting new knowledge about physical health at least 15 minutes few times per week and so on.
So, suddenly your goal of getting bigger, smaller, stronger, healthier is not that one huge goal, but few little ones what will naturally lead you there. Actual physical actions to take daily. Not plus/minus x kg to reach who-knows-how to the due date.
Turn each resolution into a habit
Now that you've chosen a goal, find something that you can do every day to work toward it. Working on your resolutions every single day is very, very effective.
Let’s stuck with the physical health example, as it might be one of the easiest to understand. Let’s say you want to gain some muscle this year. To really bring that into your lifestyle and making it as your habit, the best way to do it, is to add it everywhere you can. So, start following some people on your social media who you admire, so you will see their tips and hints. Research about exercises, learn the science how muscle gaining works.
Meal-prep your food every night or every other night, do some physical exercise every day, take your vitamins every day.
If you do something every day, it becomes a habit. Soon you won't even think about it; you'll just do it naturally, like brushing your teeth.
One habit per month
So, to achieve your one main goal, you'll probably need to pick up several good habits. For example, when focusing on your physical health, you'll need to exercise, cut down on your drinking, drink more water, eat more full foods and so on with all the true and great cliché’s.
If you try to pick up a lot of good habits at once, you're probably going to fail. It's just too hard to focus and can get really overwhelming really fast. It’s easy to start with a big hooray and being pumped up, but in the end, we all need some sort of routine, something what feels somehow familiar and comforting and if we break it down once entirely, it’s hard to stay focused and not get lost. Changing and adding little things once at the time, will make it so much easier and changes they will stuck, is so much higher!
Instead, I suggest focusing on one good habit per month. After you've gotten used to the first one, you can then add the next one, and so on. So with the physical health example, let’s say
January: Learn more about the science about muscle gain, losing body fat, what food does what etc.
February: Make your own lunch each day
March: Wake up every morning before work/school to exercise and so on
...and on.
Use a planner/calendar (obviously)
It is scientifically proven, that writing down our goals, plans, responsibilities and tasks increase the percent of actually doing them. And absolutely smashing them. Write down to a calendar, what is your daily tasks for that day (recommending to do it even the night before, so when you wake up, you already have set a focus for the day and don’t need to wander around how and what to do).
Then, every day that you keep up your good habits, get your to-do’s (mostly) done, mark the day with an "X" on the calendar. Then try not to miss any days.
Seeing all of the hard work marked on the calendar will motivate you to continue working hard every day. Psychologically we don’t want to break a good chain with good habits. So once we get that ball rollin’, it’s more likely we don’t want to break it. And this is usually the take it or leave it part, where half of us give up and half of us keep going. Having something like this in front of you, being able to see the exact progress, makes it easier for us to keep going.