We hear about everyone talking about resolutions — how and what they will be doing the upcoming year, only for it to be forgotten by the time it’s Jan 14. One of the biggest issues with most resolutions is how ambitious and impractical they are. You cannot expect a radical change because the calendar year has changed. This is especially true for a year such as this. 2020 has not been what any of us thought it would be at the start of the year. So, take this as a good reminder to slow down and rethink how we approach the goals we set for ourselves at the start of 2021. Having goals is a good way to guide yourself to lead a better life. If we can improve the way we approach the goals, we could all help ourselves lead a better life.
A very important step that people often overlook is tracking the goals. It is necessary for a successful experiment to have tracked results so that you can determine the rate of success, and how well you did, and what can be improved. I use Notion for tracking my habits with a simple database with check boxes for my habits. You can use a spreadsheet, or pretty much any other note-taking app. The only rule is that it should be easily accessible so that you can mark it off everyday.
Now that we have a tracking system in place, let’s look at some things to keep in mind while setting goals.
Setting better goals and achieving them -
- Have Specific Goals: Instead of “I’ll wake up early everyday” change it to “I’ll wake up at 6 AM everyday”. It’s less ambiguous and more actionable. It also makes it easy to track.
- Aim for small steps that do not seem daunting: If you’re used to going to bed at 4AM everyday and suddenly set a resolution to be asleep by 10PM, your body will not be able to cooperate with that. So, aim for small strides when it comes to goals. Try to go to bed by 3AM for the first 2 weeks, 2AM after and so on. This way you are slowly guiding your body and mind towards your goals without creating too much of a change in the system.
- Reward yourself for progress: It’s important to reward yourself plenty during the initial stages of any of the changes. This way you rewire your brain to associate doing the task to getting the reward, making it more attractive to do the task.
- Make notes of when you weren’t able to get it right: This is not doing to beat yourself up but rather it is to see what factors lead to it. This way you can aim to control what was causing the disturbance, or somethings are inevitable and life happens. For instance, if you needed to go get your mom from the airport at 11PM, it isn’t possible to be asleep by 10PM, and that’s okay.
- Always make it easier to get back on track: Do not punish yourself for derailing to a point where you are afraid of even trying to build the habit. Getting back on track multiple times can be extremely important to getting the habit set in. Nobody’s perfect, but I’ve heard practice helps.
Let’s aim to make this year good and peaceful. Spread love and do not leave hate comments on people, it’s easy to hide under the veil of internet anonymity and be mean, but please try to be nice to each other we are all struggling with something. Have a safe and a happy new year!
