What Will Your Life Look Like One Year From Today?

What will your life look like one year from today?

Time seems to pass quickly working 9–5. Sure, the hour between 4pm and 5pm slows to a crawl, and on Monday the next weekend seems ages away. But it’s also easy to wind up in January wondering what happened to June.

So it’s easy to look back 6 months or a year and wonder: how has my life changed?

It’s also easy to come up with a depressing answer: it hasn’t. Of course, that doesn’t have to be the answer.

By gradually changing your habits, you can look back 6 months or a year and realize that everything is different — even though the change was so gradual that you barely even noticed it.

In fact, you have probably already had experiences like this.

Ever think back to the “you” from five years ago and think “man, that guy was an idiot?”

More or less what I was doing 5 years ago

Or look back further, to your teenage self. Haven’t you made an incredible amount of progress since then?

That’s the level of change that I’m talking about.

What are simple habits that will move you towards your goals? What kind of results can you achieve in a year? How would that change your life?

If you want to write more, where could you be at in a year? You could:

• Write 250 pages, by writing just 200 words a day
• Publish articles online to get feedback (and hopefully praise)
• Feel a little more fulfilled each day, because you’re doing something that matters to you

If you want to read more, how many books could you read? Just 10 pages a day is 18 books a year.

You in one year (probably)

If you want to start exercising, where could you end up? In one year, you could:

• Look fit, trim, and muscular (or more than you do now)
• Have people gravitate towards you and actually listen when you speak
• Look in the mirror and feel confident in what you see

For each of these, I know because they happened to me.

And the lifestyle you live to get there doesn’t have to be crazy. You don’t need to work out two hours a day and eat nothing but dry chicken breast.

You don’t need to have your nose buried in a book every minute of the day.

You don’t need to lock yourself in a coffeeshop with a moleskin notebook.

Take working out (my specific area of expertise) as an example. With gradual changes, you could reach the point where you:

1. Work out 45 minutes to an hour at least 3 times per week like clockwork, with a specific routine you understand well and confidently perform in your gym
2. Have a mental menu of healthy meals that you know how to make off the top of your head — and keep most of the ingredients on hand
3. Be able to spruce up leftovers or even make entire meals with ingredients you have lying around in your kitchen
4. Keep a couple of quick meal options in reserve; things that you can make quickly and with low effort
5. Accomplish all of this without sacrificing the things you enjoy doing (because it’s all rolled up into systems that get things done as fast as possible)

Right now, some of that probably looks lofty. But it IS possible.

I definitely feel where you’re coming from. You’ve got stuff to do! Games to play, Netflix to watch, and friends to hang out with. Not to mention work.

And sometimes all you want is sleep

When you’re done with work, you’re tired and ready to relax. It’s easy to think ahead to a 2 hour workout or a writing session and imagine how awful and grueling it will feel.

To think of the fact that you still need to cook dinner and do laundry when you get home.

It’s easy to think of those things and think “I’ll make this one up tomorrow.”

It’s even easier when you aren’t sure what to write about or what workout to do.

Plus, sometimes life gets in the way! This week I had to reschedule a workout because it clashed with a cool psychology lecture, and a friend hit me up wanting to play chess after work. You don’t want to miss out on those opportunities.

But again, it is possible. Overnight change is a myth, but incremental change is almost inevitable.

How to Start

You’ll never work out if you never go to the gym. You’ll never have a book if you don’t write.

For both goals (and most others) the hard part is not actually working out or not writing. It’s not going to the gym and not sitting down to write.

It’s key to set foot in the gym, even if you don’t actually work out!

It’s important to write something, even if it’s just one word.

This is important for a few reasons:

• It get you in the habit of starting. Once you’re used to starting, it’s easier to have a good workout or crank out pages.
• It makes you more comfortable with the action. Things can be new and scary when you’re just beginning.
• It’s easier to start when there’s no pressure. Your work doesn’t need to be perfect; you just need to do something.
• Once you start, chances are you’ll continue and get something done.

If you go to the gym and read a book in the lobby, great! If you write one sentence or read one page, good for you.

Building this base lets you scale up. You don’t need to do every lift right away. Your prose doesn’t need to be packed with insight.

Over time, as you get more comfortable and confident, you can up the intensity.

What About Imposter Syndrome?

I used to feel out of place in the gym. The grunting and banging and squatting and chalk dust everywhere — it felt like I didn’t belong in the gym because I wasn’t already a super fit person.

“What if they realize I have no idea what’s going on?”

I wrote this post on Mind Body Green about my experience, but the gist of overcoming these feelings (for the gym or anything else) is this: poke holes in their logic. For example:

Original thought: “I don’t belong in the gym because I’m not already fit and in shape, and I have no idea what I’m doing”

Battle that thought, on paper:

• Who says I don’t belong? Aren’t gyms for people trying to get in shape? I’m exactly the kind of person who should be here!
• I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I can learn! I can find something simple to do and do it. That’s manageable (I later learned that other people don’t know what they’re doing either!)
• I want to be in shape, and this will get me there. It’s silly for me to give up on that.

The important part about this is doing it on paper (or a computer. Outside your head). It makes it easier to expose thoughts as inaccurate.

This technique is straight out of psychology. I didn’t invent it; it comes from cognitive behavioral theory and is some of the most effective psychological treatment out there.

It isn’t the only way to overcome imposter syndrome either. As you learn more, do more, and get better, you will naturally become more comfortable and confident.

But it starts with action.

A version of this article initially appeared on Routine Excellence.

Take the first step

What’s the first step? How do you get started? Where are you going?

If you want to learn more about creating habits (especially the psychology of working out), check out my free 5-step guide.

You’ll learn how create a habit that sticks and moves you towards your goal.

Make the last time you gave up the last time.

Also…

If you’re a fan, hit💚 to make sure other people get to see this too :)