New Year Resolution is still a craze since many believe “A new year must have new goals.” Honestly, it should!
For many of us, New Year goals are what we resolve to achieve and, regrettably, forget even before February hits our shelves.
Well, it’s different if you’re not serious about them — and mostly, we aren’t.
But then you have to change your ways sometimes, for good.
And what’s better as an example than the pandemic itself? Covid-19 shook the world with people suffering throughout the year. It taught us that planning and strategizing are, after all, not so cliche concepts.
They are iterated and reiterated because they do hold the glue to a good life.
Let me give you an example
People like Julia never thought they would have to use new lenses to see life once again. During COVID-19, she was stuck at her home in lockdown with her elderly parents.
They didn’t have much money to go about it because Julia never thought about saving it. She didn’t believe in being a goals-kind-of-a-person. Instead, she preferred every moment as it came to her.
Things became worse when she lost her job as the store manager in the month of May.
So, it was only in her lockdown days, during 2020, that she understood the real value of having goals in life.
She approached her friends, took advice from her peers and parents, and subsequently planned for the months to come. Soon, she landed a virtual gig in graphic design (thanks to her experience in the same) and started saving money.
By the end of 2020, she had saved $2200, which was $800 less than she had expected out of herself.
But we’ll excuse her for that since she tried hard and turned the fortunes in favour, isn’t it?
At present, Julia has mastered the art of planning for her goals. When 2021 arrived, she, like many others, took down a pen and paper and put down all that she wanted from 2021.
Now, let me tell you precisely how and what Julia did to help her through the tough times and how she envisions progressing in 2021.
Ways to help you achieve your goals for 2021
Like Julia, you can help yourself by understanding where you lack and setting up goals for achieving more than you usually expect out of yourself.
After all, at the end of the day, plans are made to be achieved.
1. Write down your goals
Begin writing down your goals. Writing down anything works as a command tool for the brain. Tell your brain to do it, and then it starts taking it seriously. Well, isn’t that amazing?
Make headings and subheadings for all your goals. With the help of subheadings, break down seemingly unachievable goals into smaller fractions.
Additionally, also write down a mid-term and a final date beside them.
Remember, if two family members or friends have the same goal, do not try to match another person’s pace.
If you and your friend thought of learning Yoga and if she goes for the classes five days a week, and it could be that you have time for just two hours a week. In that case, don’t try to match your friend’s schedule since that can disturb yours.
2. Create an action plan
Always remember that our brain is a compact and yet sluggish neurological circuit. If you do not have an action plan for your goals, your brain might not consider it essential and, thus, focussing on that particular topic might become difficult.
Like it was pointed out before, strategize your actions.
Say, for example, you are planning to learn how to keep the house in order.
In that scenario, remember not to ruin your one holiday thinking you could rest for the rest of the holidays.
Plan and prioritize your tasks. If the task at hand seems less critical, evenly space it on days when you see nothing else.
- Measure your goals
Do not try to create unmeasured goals.
Draw a scale upon your plans to keep your achievements steady throughout the year.
A good planner is said to keep everything in the calendar, including a tentative number of days when you could feel like doing nothing. Drawing out such days from your calendar means you have to revisit your past.
- Be specific
Anton Chekov, in Letter to Alexander Chekhov (May 10, 1886)
stresses more on specificity when he says that “when displaying the psychology of one’s characters, solving minute particulars of it are essential. God save us from vague generalisations!”
Specificity is crucial even from the perspective of making things work.
Be as specific as you can and keep improving your need to be more specific with each passing day.
So, instead of saying, “tomorrow, I will try to clean the lawn as much as I can”, say, “I will clean the west part of my lawn from the pole in the corner to my dog’s kennel.”
3. Choose highly impactful goals
Now comes the tricky part of the picture.
Choosing goals around those thoughts that seem right to you for long is one way to achieve them in the best possible way.
Most of us, while making goals, are lost. So, the right way to go about it is to connect back to that little voice within you which keeps telling you things you didn’t do.
You must also know which of your goals can be achieved stepwise and which can’t be.
For example, quitting cigarettes has to be done all at once. You can’t win it by reducing the number of cigarettes slowly.
But learning to walk can be a goal you can achieve in a stepwise fashion.
With our desk jobs, most of us know how much our body needs a good exercise to burn down the calories. Even the little voice inside us tells us the same.
So, when listing down your goals, choose goals that are on your mind for long.
- Target achievable goals
Demotivation comes fast. Most of us don’t know how to work with ourselves. Getting demotivated is, thus, easy.
Setting small and achievable goals and achieving them at the end of the day can make your life easy.
- Motivate yourself to achieve maximum results
As pointed out earlier, demotivation can set in anytime.
What do you do to stop demotivation from setting in?
- Praise yourself as soon as you see a blue tick beside your goal plan.
- Talk to people about your goals and be friends with people who can help motivate you.
- Talk to yourself, reiterate, “you can do it.” Always know that you are your best healer & teacher. What you say to yourself is what you see coming to you. Eventually, that is what happens to you.
- Schedule your goals
Put yourself on a timer. That is the only way to work it right. But remember, the timer should tick at your pace. If you are not a multi-tasker, don’t schedule your stuff altogether.
Take one thing at a time, and for God’s sake, don’t call yourself slow for that reason.
4. Arrange mid-performance indicators
The mid-performance indicators are a must. Never leave out a place where you can praise yourself.
Find those midpoints and mark them well to show yourself every small bit you have moved forward with your goal. Appreciate yourself!
5, Enjoy the change
Above everything else, enjoy the process.
Everything in this world is a process. Straining or stressing on it too much can disturb the overall nature of a process.
So, enjoy it more than anything.
Conclusion
Setting goals brings discipline and order into your lives, which creates enough space for you to explore what you’ve always wanted to. Well, that’s an added benefit.
Achievements can be any, and so can be the vividity of your goals.
Remember, it’s your life, so work on it to better it, and the best way to improve it is by setting goals.
Let me if this article helped you out. I’ll be happy to hear out your story and put it into words on this blog.
