IMMEDIATE SOLUTIONS
REAL Way to Accomplishing Your Goals for the Year
Okay, the first week of January is over now. Are we all finished failing at our New Year’s “Resolutions” yet? Yes? Good.
Safe to say this is the third year in a row you’ve decided to lose weight, exercise, or eat healthier so you can get that dream body. When you know darn well that cake batter ice cream is still sitting in the freezer ready to be eaten while binge-watching Netflix movies until sunrise again.
Honestly, New Year’s Resolutions are a waste of time. You set your mind on one accomplishment, are late starting to work on it, do it one day, skip the next few days, then say “I’ll just do it next month”. Next month comes, and still nothing.
There are reasons why you don’t stick to your resolutions. And honestly, you shouldn’t set them at all.
If you want to accomplish a lot this year, there’s a smarter way to go about it than just saying your goal once after the ball drops.
And I’m going to explain to you the right way to reach your dream body (or whatever other goals you have in mind).
Realize That a Year is A LONG TIME
When we set these New Year’s Resolutions, we have an ENTIRE YEAR to achieve the goal. Do you know how long a year is? It’s:
- 12 months
- 52 weeks
- 365 days (except leap years)
- 8,760 hours
- 525,600 minutes
Yeah. That’s a lot of time.
And that’s why we hardly stick to long term goals. How many times have you thought “I have an entire year to get this done,” or “there’s no rush to start now”?
Then as more days pass, you never actually get started. Sure, you have random days where you remember your resolution(s) and try to start back up again. But then the discipline isn’t there to help you stick to it.
Instead of Setting One Year-long Goal, Set Multiple Mini-Goals Spread out Over the Year
Some of us wait until the last second to get things done. *Reflects on the all-nighters pulled throughout college*.
And when we rush to get things done, one of two things happen; it either 1) doesn’t get done or 2) you poorly finish it. Neither result is a good one.
To avoid that, set your eyes not on the goal, but on the time you have. In a sense, your time is much more important than your goal. That’s not to say your goal isn’t important, but the time you spend on the goal matters more.
This is why I broke down the actual length of a year. Once you realize how long a year is, you can make use of every single minute to achieve your goal.
So instead of setting one giant goal for one long year, break that big goal and length of time down into parts.
Start by Writing Down the Ultimate Goal
Before breaking it down into simpler steps, you need to make sure the big picture is clear.
When I say clear I mean to be as detailed as possible. Use the S.M.A.R.T method to help with that.
- Specific: make the goal as detailed as possible
- Measurable: make the goal trackable so you can tell whether you’re making progress or not
- Attainable: always shoot for the stars, but don’t set goals that you know good and well can’t be reached
- Relevant: keep the goal related to what you want or need
- Time-bound: again, don’t focus on the fact that you have a whole year to get it done. Set deadlines and checkpoints within that year
To help you get an idea of how you should write it, I’ll share with you two of my S.M.A.R.T goals for 2021.
This is the vague version of them so you can understand the transition from a vague goal to a specific goal.
- Make money as a copywriter and freelance writer
- Spend more time in my religion/faith
SPECIFIC
Losing weight, eating better, and working out are goals but how do you expect to do that? There are many ways to get a better body but that doesn’t mean all those ways are ideal.
You can lose weight by eating less, but that can translate to eating half a meal a day. That’s not good because you’re not gaining the necessary nutrients your body needs. You can eat better, but do you honestly expect to eat only fruits and veggies and give up on junk for the ENTIRE YEAR? You can work out, but the gym has 50 different kinds of equipment; it seems like a time waste to try to use them all.
With my goals…
How much money do I want to make? How do I want to devote more time to my faith?
The objective with the “specifics” is to be as detailed as possible. Leave no room for vagueness in the goal.
Don’t worry. When you work on the other four elements, it’ll help with making things more specific and detailed.
MEASURABLE
When you set a goal, you need to be able to track your success progress. Hopefully, you wrote down what you consider to be your definition of accomplishing the goal in the previous step.
For the weight loss squad: how much do you weigh now, and how much do you want to weigh? With whatever technique you’re losing weight with, are you writing down the progress of your weight shedding?
My way of measuring my goals is to set a minimum “quota”.
For the copywriting thing: I need to average $1,300 a month to reach my minimum goal for the year. For the faith thing: I need to set aside at least 30 minutes a day doing something to strengthen my faith.
ATTAINABLE
Like I kind of said before, don’t be afraid to shoot for the stars. But at the same time, PLEASE keep it realistic.
You know your work schedule, you have to get to/from work, you might have a family, you have friends you want to hang with. Don’t spend so much time on the goal that you sacrifice other important elements of your life.
Doing so not only makes you feel lonely, but it also doesn’t contribute to your mental health. The other important things in your life need your attention, too; not just your goals.
You can reach your goals without drastically working on them.
Personally, I have already been freelance writing for a few years. I just do it whenever I feel like doing it. I let my actual job be my primary source of income. With my faith, it’s not hard to implement into my daily routine. At the time of writing this, it takes me almost two hours to get to work (hooray for crappy public transportation!). I can easily bring a journal and/or a book for me to write/read during my everyday travels.
RELEVANT
The goal needs to make sense. Don’t just set a random goal that doesn’t have anything to do with your current lifestyle (unless you’re purposely making a life change).
If your diet is already great, trying to eat better doesn’t make much sense. You need to enjoy a Big Mac at least once in a while. If you already work out, working out more doesn’t make sense; just optimize your workout routine.
The reason I want to be a copywriter is that I finished college three years ago now with a degree in technical writing. To this day, my degree hasn’t gotten me anywhere (but that’s a topic for another day). So I want to make this degree work for me, especially since I went into WAY TOO MUCH debt to get it…Plus I hate my job, I like writing, and would rather get paid to do what I like.
TIME BOUND
Yes, a year is a long time to get something done. But it’s a long time to push something to the side until the last minute. Greatness can’t be achieved by starting the day before your deadline; my grades sophomore year are a painfully good example of that.
The reason I set a monthly goal of $1,300 is that it only takes me one writing piece for a company to make money. My goal isn’t accomplished because I did it once. I need to keep doing it. And if I keep going at it for X amount of time per month, I can reach that goal.
What Your Goals Should Really Look Like
If you took the time to jot down what you want to reach, your goals should look something like this:
“I currently weigh 240 pounds. I want to weigh 180 by the end of the year. I’ll do this by reducing how much I eat out, increasing my fruit and veggie intake, and work out to lose up to 5 pounds a month.”
Or…
“I eat too much junk food. I’ll use the money I usually spend on unhealthy foods to go to the grocery store and get healthy foods. I’ll make it a habit to meal prep so I always have a meal ready to eat so I’m not tempted to order delivery.”
And mines would be…
“I’m already doing freelance writing on the side. I’m going to increase it by pitching potential clients and applying to relevant jobs 15 times a week. When I’m not at work, pitching/applying, or spending time with loved ones, I’ll be aiming to write articles that earn me $325/week. I’ll also be learning new techniques to help me charge potential businesses more for my services.”
Final Thoughts
As tedious as it may seem to get the nitty-gritty of it all, it’ll help you so much in 2021. Your resolutions won’t just be a desire; it’ll become a reality.
Remember to stay motivated. Keep telling yourself that you can do this. Nothing is impossible. Just believe in yourself, fight through the difficult moments, don’t quit if you slip up, get back up, and keep going.
Make 2021 your year!
