A Simple Strategy to Keep Your New Year's Resolutions

Achieving your New Year's goals shouldn't wait until January 1st; start today.

Niklas Goeke

Blogger, summarizer of over 400 books, and personal effectiveness coach.

There's a popular saying online: “In school, you attend lessons and then take a test. In life, you get a test that teaches you a lesson.”

What I dislike about this quote is the idea that you must wait for the test. In reality, you can start facing your test any day of the week, and the results will follow promptly.

At the end of 2015, I created a personal challenge: to learn something new from a book every day and write about it daily for the entire following year. The moment I committed, I had already taken my first step.

The New Year Starts Today

Don't prepare endlessly. Begin now. Remember, the enemy isn't lack of preparation, project difficulty, market conditions, or insufficient funds.

The enemy is Resistance. It's the noisy mind inventing excuses and reasons why you can't, shouldn't, or won't do what needs to be done. So start before you feel ready.

"Do the work!"

— Steven Pressfield

92% of people fail to keep their New Year's resolutions largely because they believe something magical happens on January 1st. The truth is, nothing magical occurs; you can change anytime. The New Year can begin any day because you are a person, not a calendar.

Starting in December might not yield massive results by January 1st, but it eliminates the need for false motivation to keep going.

How to Fulfill Your Promises to Yourself

Set a Simple Yet Ambitious Goal

While discussing cryptocurrency investing with a successful friend, I asked what goal he would recommend for the upcoming year. Without knowing my finances, he said, "One million dollars."

He explained, "Last Christmas, I set an utterly unrealistic goal—not because I needed the money, but just for the challenge. I didn’t achieve it."

You must understand this truth: to achieve a result ten times greater than your usual goals, you must radically change your approach. The path to a big goal will be tougher and less obvious. Many will think you're crazy, but fewer will stand in your way.

Detach Completely from Your Goal

My friend set an unattainable goal easily because he knew he couldn't control its outcome. He just did his best with what he had at the time.

If your first thought is "I want a million dollars," your second should be "I don't need a million dollars," neither now nor ever.

Focus Your Energy on 2–3 Core Strengths

Short- and medium-term projects can be broken into parts, but serious long-term goals are more complex.

Ask yourself: which skills can you sustain and excel at for a long time that will help you succeed? Choose 2–3 main abilities and find ways to reach your goal through them.

Try to identify how to use these skills as often as possible. That’s enough—you don’t need to overhaul your entire life.

Ignore Distractions

I write, save most of my income, and invest it wisely—these are my three core skills. Since the approach is simple, the specifics of what I write, how much I save, or where I invest are secondary. By consistently doing these actions, I will ultimately achieve my goal.

As someone who usually succeeds in completing tasks, this concept is hard to digest. Even with a clear step-by-step plan, you’ll likely get bored halfway through. Yet, this tunnel vision not only removes distractions but also opens new opportunities.

Start Before You’re Ready

You're probably not ready to pursue your goal, right? That means now is the perfect time to begin.

What is your goal? Can you make it more meaningful? What skills can you apply to achieve it? What small distractions can you eliminate?

Don’t wait for life to test you. Create your own test and start it now. If not now, then when? The New Year begins today.

Only postpone what you don’t want to finish before you die.

— Pablo Picasso

Artist

Discover the latest news and current events in Motivation as of 25-09-2021. The article titled " A Simple Strategy to Keep Your New Year's Resolutions " provides you with the most relevant and reliable information in the Motivation field. Each news piece is thoroughly analyzed to deliver valuable insights to our readers.

The information in " A Simple Strategy to Keep Your New Year's Resolutions " helps you make better-informed decisions within the Motivation category. Our news articles are continuously updated and adhere to journalistic standards.