New Year, New Me…
We’ve all heard it. Hell, we’ve all said it; New Year, New Me… I’m just as guilty and to be honest, it has typically only lasted a few weeks, maybe a month or two for me. I know I’m not the only one, because I see people complaining about it often.
Here’s the deal, in order to actually hold yourself accountable, you have to understand that the WANT, or the motivation, will eventually go away. At some point, you won’t be motivated to do what you said you would do, anymore. You have to fight through the “pain” and continue on your journey. Like I said, I’m just as guilty of this as the next guy (or gal). So here’s some ideas of what you can do to stay on track, and yes, I’m following my own advice and will be doing the exact same thing this year. Let’s try it together!
1.) Decide what it is that you want to change for the new year. This can be one thing or multiple things, doesn’t matter. Just be realistic with yourself and set reasonable expectations. The saying “shoot for the moon, and you’ll land among the stars,” doesn’t apply here. Be reasonable with yourself and understand that you’re trying to change old habits.
2.) Create a list of things that you are going to do, no matter what, every single day. I usually like to stay between 3 and 5 items per day. For example, if your goal is to lose weight and exercise more, maybe make one of the items walking 5,000 steps every day. You can always change these later, in fact, as time goes on, you SHOULD change these up. Maybe you’re like me and you want to do more Podcast interviews. Well, add an item to your list that says you’re going to reach out to X amount of contacts each day. Maybe you want to improve your education on something, whether it’s learning a foreign language, or just overall knowledge on a certain subject. In that case, put an item down that says you’re going to study for 30 minutes every day, or read 10 pages of a book per day. Whatever the case may be, set realistic expectations and adapt overtime. After a few weeks of following and completing this list consistently, then make adjustments to make the list more of a challenge. If your goals change slightly, change the list up. Regardless, your goal should be to check each item off of the list every day. Now, since we are being realistic with ourselves, there are times where you aren’t going to check every item off of your list every day. That’s ok! Because at the end of the week, when you review your lists, if you had more crossed off days showing that you completed those items, you’ve won the week, then the month, etc!
3.) Be honest with yourself. Don’t half-ass reaching your goals, and don’t half-ass yourself on setting your goals either. If you’ve noticed after a few weeks that you are checking off each item consistently day after day, then maybe your goals aren’t challenging enough. Likewise, if you aren’t consistently checking off each item and aren’t winning the week, then maybe you need to lower your standards a bit, or reevaluate your daily routine. Regardless, nothing is set in stone, and everything can be changed if needed.
4.) Don’t overthink shit; just do it! I’m just as guilty as the next guy on this. I get a plan in my head, and then I want to overanalyze EVERYTHING. I watch Youtube video after Youtube video on how to do something, or the best way to do this, or don’t do that. Who cares! The best way to figure out if you’re doing something correctly, is to just get started! You’ll learn as you go, and you can always do research as you go. But you first have to get started or otherwise you’ll continue to say “well I’ll start on Monday.” The problem is Monday never comes when it’s time to start this journey.
5.) This is probably the most important step out of all of them so please PAY ATTENTION! Don’t tell ANYONE what your goals are and what you are trying to achieve. Keep that shit to yourself. No one needs to know everything that’s going on in your life. People don’t give a shit that you want to lose 10 lbs, or that you made some fancy salad with 20 calories that tastes like shit. People want to see results. It’s easy to talk out of your ass and say I’m going to do X, Y, Z. Obviously that’s easy because this is the time of year where everyone says that shit. Don’t believe me? Go on Google and look up “Top 10 New Year’s Resolutions.”
Like I said, I’m going to practice what I preach. I have a list of things that I want to do differently this year. A list of things that I want to improve on. But I’m not telling a soul what those items are, and I’m not going to start posting all over social media the “look at me” type posts. Hold yourself accountable and push forward towards the goals you want to reach. If you need someone to hold you accountable, or someone to provide some type of motivation to you, then you clearly don’t want those things bad enough. At the end of the day, this is your life you’re trying to change. Only you can understand the need for this change, and only you can provide the motivation to complete this change.
Happy New Year and I look forward to writing more in the future, including the end results of my goals!