12 surefire ways to not achieve your 2018 goals
It’s December. The time of year when everyone starts talking and thinking about goals for the upcoming year. “My 2018 goals are…..” Resolutions, goals, commitments…call them what you will, I don’t see what all the hype is about.
What’s the deal?
Why set goals? Why make changes? Isn’t life already good enough?
To combat the craziness of all these people and their goal-setting, I’ve designed a perfect strategy to help you avoid achieving your goals for 2018. Put the below tips into practice and I guarantee that 2018 will be a year of unmatched complacency and ambivalence!
1. Don’t establish any goals
Why would you even bother? Setting goals takes time and energy that could be better spent eating Christmas cookies and binging on your favorite holiday movies. If you want to take this a step further, consider putting in place some anti-goals to aim for.
Anti-goals are the opposite of goals. To identify them easily, ask yourself this: What would my worst possible day look like? If you’re reading this, it’s probably things like being productive, changing your life for the better, or mastering new skills. Once you’ve established those things, you can then create some specific habits in your life that will make sure you never get anywhere close to them.
2. Fill up your day with busy work
Achieving goals requires being strategic. To make sure you don’t accidentally slip into strategy-mode, do everything you can to fill your days with tasks that take a lot of time but don’t produce much value. What’s the least important thing you can do today? Put it at the top of your to-do list.
3. Forget about how you’re wired
So what if you’ve got certain periods of the day when you’re more productive? It’s not important if you’ve got unique skills or abilities you can use to make an impact. Do your best to make sure that you stay far away from anything that even looks like reflection or a self-assessment.
4. Be as vague as possible
You’ll often hear goal-setters talk about things like SMART goals and being “specific.” That’s insane. You can’t predict the future! Why would you ever try to set a specific goal that says, “Six months from now, I’m going to be _______ (fill in the blank).”
Maybe Miss Cleo could do this, but us average folks? No way. It’s better to avoid it completely to minimize any risk or uncertainty.
5. Wait for the perfect time
This is closely tied to the last point. You can’t predict the perfect time for something to get done, so your best option is to keep waiting until that time comes. It might be tomorrow, or it might be ten years from now. Either way, you’ll know it when you see it.
6. Only think about the big picture
Sometimes goal-setters like to break things down into “bite-size” chunks. Why would you do that? It’s mental to take one goal and turn it into 100 smaller goals.
What’s easier, one goal or one hundred goals?
And do you realize what that does to your to-do list? There’s no way you could ever accomplish all those things!
It’s way better to only consider the big picture. Focus on the fact that you only have one thing to do and you’ll be way more motivated to complete it.
7. Indulge your desire for immediate gratification
There are a lot of smart people out there, like the people who invented Netflix, Grubhub and the microwave. Talk about geniuses! Once upon a time, you had to wait to get what you wanted. You were forced to wait until next week to watch the next episode of your newest show. You had to cook (which can take hours!). If you wanted to avoid cooking, it meant leaving your house to go eat at your favorite restaurant.
Thank God those days are behind us. On-demand is the way of the future! Never tell yourself no and you’re sure to enjoy life more than the next guy.
8. Keep everything in your head
Some people advocate for things like lists. Richard Branson carries a notebook everywhere he goes so that he can write down business ideas, suggestions and important reminders.
That seems foolish. What if you lose your notebook? Then you’re really screwed. You relied on that thing so that you wouldn’t have to remember stuff, and now it’s gone. And even if you use an app, what if your phone breaks? What if the internet crashes? You’re toast.
Keep it all in your head. Trust yourself. You don’t need to write things down.
9. Avoid failure at all costs
No one likes a loser. If you fail at something, everyone is going to think you’re a big joke and your reputation will be totally shot. Don’t take risks. Play it safe!
10. Don’t make a big deal out of success
Success is like a virus. It’s contagious. If you happen to slip into it and achieve something by mistake (which shouldn’t happen, thanks to this guide!), minimize it. Keep it quiet! The more you talk about it and celebrate it, the more likely you’re going to make the same mistake again.
11. Just be quiet
God forbid, but imagine with me for a second: Something pops in your head that resembles a goal. What do you do? How can you shut that thing down for good?
The best way to quickly kill an idea like that is to keep quiet. Don’t share it with anyone. They might encourage you. And definitely don’t publicize it widely — you don’t want to risk creating any sort of momentum or accountability.
Simply keep quiet and turn on the next episode of Stranger Things. That’s the ticket.
12. Don’t go changing
Despite your best efforts, sometimes it’s hard to be totally immune to the seductive messages of the goal-setters. As a final suggestion, make sure you never, ever change. Maintain the same approach you’ve always taken to your life. It’s gotten you this far, right?
That’ll show ’em.
Summary (or how to actually achieve your 2018 Goals)
Hopefully you’ve recognized that this article is intended to be tongue in cheek. In no way, shape or form do I actually recommend you follow the above suggestions.
Instead, consider these:
- Make time to set clear goals that will get you where you want to go
- Be strategic, not reactive
- Grow in your self-awareness
- Be specific and try to anticipate challenges ahead of time
- Be proactive and create opportunities for yourself. Default to action.
- Break big goals down into smaller goals
- Do the work and be disciplined
- Write things down
- Take calculated risks when the reward justifies it
- Celebrate your wins
- Publicize your goals
- Build new habits that will help you succeed (whatever that means for you)
If your hope is for a productive year and to accomplish all sorts of 2018 goals, then these tips will put you on the road to success. I’ll be publishing more on these specific items in the weeks to come, so consider signing up for my weekly email with my best content for more!
And if you know anyone you think would really benefit from this, please spread the word!
Originally published at lawrencebarker.com on December 4, 2017.
