Start Setting Daily Habits Now to Help You Meet Your New Year’s Goals
Achieving your goals requires important prep work.
Picture yourself. It’s December and you are rushing to finish the goals you set for yourself this year. Accomplishing those goals is going to take repeated, intentional daily action. Maybe you’re going to be writing or pitching to new clients every day to get there. But when January hits, the crunch of the year end is gone and so are these daily intentional habits.
In September, I quit my full time job to do contract work and be home with my newborn daughter. By the first of December, I was finally hitting my groove with a full plate of projects to complete before the end of the year. As I start to sketch out my goals for the next year, I don’t want to lose steam, but instead, capture as much of this momentum as possible.
Here’s the approach I’m taking to start off the new year with a bang.
1. Brainstorm New Year’s Goals
On a recent episode of the Serve Scale Soar podcast, host Brandi Mowles suggests starting your goal planning with a brain dump of ideas. List all of the things you might want to accomplish in the new year before identifying your ‘Big 3’. This process allows you to pinpoint the end goal, but also catch some of the actions that will get you to that final accomplishment. For instance, here some of the ideas that came up on my brain dump:
- Make a six figure income
- Launch my second business
- Publish three scholarly articles
- Read 25 professional development books
- Increase my hourly work rate
- Develop three self-paced courses
- Write three blogs per month
- Post daily on social media
2. Identify the Game-Changer Goals
What are your big three goals that will make a difference in your life? Are some of the ideas you listed simply tasks that will help you accomplish your big goals? Which goals are you setting based on others’ expectations rather than your own?
In the new year, I want to set goals that will truly make positive change for my family and the people around me. For my family, bringing home a six-figure income will help us tremendously to create a beautiful home for our growing family and have financial stability. Launching a second business pursuing my passion for growing my own food and sharing good healthy produce with others will be personally fulfilling and bring additional income to my family. Finally, reading professional development books will help me gain skills and perspective to make these first two goals happen.
3. Focus on the Habits
What are the actions you can take throughout the year to accomplish your goals and prevent the end-of-year crunch that you’re feeling right now? Small daily habits are a proven way to set yourself up for success (Atomic Habits by James Clear is my favorite reference guide on habits). As you plan for the new year, think about your daily routine and the habitual actions that need to be incorporated to meet your Big 3 goals.
After sketching out my ideas for the new year and then prioritizing my top goals, I identified some of the actions it would take to help me accomplish my goals by year end next year.
- Write — blogs and academic articles
- Read — professional development books
- Post Content — website and social media
- Track — hours and finances
Great! No fail plan. Except when I get busy, I likely won’t write daily or remember to track my hours. If you feel the same way about your action list, go one step further to incorporate these actions into your daily routine.
- Write for 30 minutes when I lay my daughter down for her morning nap
- Read 10 pages when I first lay down in bed at night
- Post on Instagram while I’m eating lunch
- Balance my business books on the last day of every month when I balance my family’s finances
According to James Clear in Atomic Habits, pairing the new habit with another concrete habit in your schedule is better than trying to create an entirely new component of your daily routine and will lead to greater success.
4. Test it out in December
This month, you’re likely developing some sort of routine that is working. You’re finishing up the end-of-year work and feeling momentum going into the new year. What a perfect time to test out your new habits.
Try to incorporate the daily actions you just identified into your routine. Can’t seem to read before bed without falling asleep? Consider another time of day when you may be able to pick up a book. I have trouble identifying a time of day when I can consistently write, so I am taking this month to try out some different times to see what works best for my schedule.
In summary, create daily habits to help accomplish your new year’s goals.
Don’t let the enthusiasm for your new year’s goals fade by the end of January. By structuring your daily, weekly, and monthly habits around actions that will help you to achieve your goals, you can make sustained progress that leads to success. Use the little habits you’ve already developed to incorporate new habits into your day-to-day routine. Test out your new habits in December to see if you can actually squeeze them in, rather than waiting until January and being frustrated when things don’t go as planned.
Finally, give yourself some grace! If you’re reading this, you’re likely an ambitious person who sets goals to push yourself to new levels. How does the saying go? Shoot for the moon, and if you miss, you’ll still land among the stars. Happy planning!
