Three guidelines that will help you achieve your goals in 2022
The year is coming to an end, and articles titled every possible version of “X things to do in order to have a successful year” are being published. Here are the things I think is important to think about when reading these articles.
There are no “one fits all” solutions
What makes the author happy/fulfilled/successful/etc. will probably or most likely not be the same for you.
We can all force ourselves to read 50 pages from any book every day, but it will not do much for you and will not work long-term if you don’t find your reason to read.
Too many things
Most lists consist of 10+ things you “should” do. Not sure if there are that many in order to get a longer article, or if the idea is to give options to choose from, or if the idea is actually to do all of them. All I know is that if you:
- Go from waking up late to waking up early
- Go from eating “bad” to “good”
- Go from not working out to working out every day
- Go from not reading at all to reading 50 pages every day
- Go from not meditating to meditating every day
- Go from drinking a few days every week (or smoking daily) to quitting cold turkey
all at once, you will most likely fail. That’s too big of a change to handle. It might work for a week or a month, but it will not be sustainable long-term.
My three guidelines
Use these as guidelines to achieve your goals.
1. Start with what you want to accomplish
If waking up early doesn’t fit your lifestyle, then it shouldn’t be on your list. That doesn’t mean that you can say “it doesn’t fit my lifestyle” and don’t even try it because you’re too comfortable sleeping in the morning.
Find a real reason why you want to do something. There’s a difference between “being healthy” because you want to live longer, look better, have personal experience from people in your family being unhealthy, etc., and “being healthy” because you read in an article online that being healthy makes you successful. The stronger the why, the easier it will be to keep going when things get tough.
2. Focus on one main thing at the time
I’m a big advocate of listing all the things you want to achieve in the upcoming year. However, on that list, there are most likely some things that don’t need your daily attention. And even if there are, it doesn’t mean you need to start doing all of them — at least not if you’re starting from 0. The longer you’ve been doing the list / improving the things you want to improve in your life, the more things you can take on at once. Remember that it’s a one-year plan, not a one-week plan. So starting doing certain things after 6 months is perfectly fine.
I strongly suggest starting by focusing on one thing. If nothing else, that gives you the confidence to stay consistent with something. Usually, that one thing makes you do other things “automatically”. For me, this one thing was working out. I started doing it (at first without a plan) to not gain too much weight, as I was overweight already. After doing that for a while, it made me feel good and I saw some results. That gave me the inspiration to make changes to my diet, to see even more results. From there, it changed my whole life:
- I quit smoking
- cutting down on alcohol
- focusing on better sleep and recovery
- having more energy to put into my business
- being more goal-driven
- looking better and being more confident
The thing is, all these things move over to other areas of your life. Being fit gives you confidence, that can be used in your business and love life. Sleeping and eating better don’t just make the workouts and recovery better, it makes you do everything better because you have more energy and are more focused. Not to forget, the chance of living a longer and healther life is a lot higher.
3. Start now and stay consistent
Why do you have to wait until the new year? If you really want to do something, you should start immediately. Not because a couple of weeks make that much difference in either way if the goal is e.g. to lose weight. It’s about the mental aspect. Putting words or thoughts into action immediately. Besides that, I think if it’s a “New Year’s resolution” it’s totally fine to give up at any moment because it’s such a taboo. If someone tells you their New Year’s resolution, you just laugh and say “ok” — knowing that it will not last longer than a few weeks. This shouldn’t be confused with the previous point where I said you shouldn’t do everything at once. If you have a lot of goals, it comes down to prioritizing.
Staying consistent is just as important as getting started. It will be difficult in the beginning, but after a while, it will become a habit. Don’t over-analyze things, it’s totally fine if you don’t know everything immediately — you will learn along the way. Just get started and stay consistent!
