The big New Year’s resolution is usually: this year I’m going to organize myself better. But the main question also comes up: what can I do to be effective? The answer you need is in the lines below, check it out!
The new year arrives and we start with all the excitement in the world, which usually gives us that feeling of having another 365 blank pages ahead of us. We set resolutions that we swear to achieve, goals that challenge us and plans that perhaps we wouldn’t dare to do until now – but that this year we want to make happen.
And this is great because we need this renewing energy to stay connected to our endeavor, so that it isn’t just resolutions written on paper. It seems, then, essential that we organize ourselves to actually make it happen.
Setting goals that we haven’t achieved so far and keeping everything else the same is an unrealistic bet. After all, to achieve something different, we will have to do something different. All the more so because they also don’t have a very promising success rate: 80% of New Year’s goals fail by the first week of March.
This type of planning has something in common: New Year’s goals are very ambitious and require drastic changes all at once.
But what are New Year’s goals?
Goals are objectives that we set for ourselves, our professional career, our family and other possibilities.
The difference between New Year’s goals and other resolutions that we set over the course of the 12 months is the symbolism behind each decision.
When the current year ends and a new one begins, we have the feeling that we are starting almost like a “new life”, with new and better opportunities.
The name of this feeling is the fresh start effect. It is based on the human tendency to think of new beginnings based on symbolic dates, such as starting a diet on Monday because it is the beginning of the week, for example.
To do this, use organizational methodologies to create possible goals. The main one is SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-based). Check out each of the SMART stages:
(S) Specific – These are goals with starting and ending points. Unlike general goals, such as “eating less sugar”, a specific goal has data to help – “reducing sugar intake from 2 to 1 spoonful per cup of coffee”, for example.
(M) Measurable – Basically, it is possible to measure the result over time. Continuing with the sugar example, if the goal is to reduce sugar intake from 2 to 1 spoonful in each cup of coffee, keep a daily record of how many cups of coffee and, consequently, how many spoonfuls of sugar are used until you reach your goal.
(A) Achievable – The goal needs to be easy to visualize, without involving great efforts that end up making it impossible. Cutting sugar out of your diet completely may not be feasible, but reducing the daily amount is possible.
(R) Realistic – What do you intend to achieve by reducing your sugar intake? Health goals? Aesthetics? Reducing sugar in your diet needs to have an honest purpose.
(T) Temporal – The goal is to reduce the amount of sugar in each cup of coffee. And this will happen daily, regardless of the amount of alcohol consumed. Reducing your daily consumption provides a time frame that helps you define a schedule for implementing your New Year’s resolutions.
Types of goals
There are 3 main types of goals that are generally used by companies to define their objectives for the coming year. They are: outcome goals (where you want to go), performance goals (what you want to achieve) and process goals (the paths to achieving the goals).
These same goals can also be used to establish New Year’s goals for your personal life, as well as your professional life.
So now that you understand the process, it’s time to prepare your New Year’s resolutions. Take advantage of these 6 tips and stay focused!
1. Write your goals down on paper
Visualizing your goals is essential for your brain to work better. Use a diary or notebook to write down everything you want to accomplish in the coming year and write down your goals in as much detail as possible. Set aside some time to do this, as it is important to reflect on the past year and the year that has just begun calmly and peacefully.
2. Create schedules
Having a schedule is important for monitoring the progress of your goals and works as an action plan. List all the resources and information you need to make your goal possible, listing the steps for each stage so that your goal becomes a reality. You can define how many days a week you will go to the gym and how many pounds you want to lose per month, as well as set a deadline for achieving the goal on your list.
3. Count on the support of technology
If you always have your cell phone with you, you can use digital tools to record your goals and monitor their progress to achieve success. There are several online platforms and apps to help you organize and detail your New Year’s resolutions, including Google Calendar, Asana, Notion, Trello, Todoist and Google Drive. Just create alerts about appointments and activities. In other words, there are no excuses!
4. Find a support network
Finding other people willing to embark on this journey with you can be a great source of motivation, whether it’s making your resolution public or going to a class with a friend. This is because when we make our projects public, we’re more likely to follow through with them. Therefore, involving other people can be the key to success in achieving specific New Year’s goals.
5. Be disciplined
Organize your routine with a focus on your goals to know if you’re wasting time or if you’re on track to achieve them. If your goal is to save money, start with small savings from day to day. This can make a big difference in the end. Or, if your goal is to get a raise or a promotion in your current job, find out from your leadership what can be done. After all, without dedication, discipline, commitment and consistency, achieving the goals set for the next year can be more complicated than it should be.
6. Track progress
When we set goals, with execution schedules and steps to be taken to complete the goals, it becomes easy to visualize how to “get there”. In order for the results to be perceived periodically, recording progress is also important. This way, it is also possible to understand what can be done to speed up or change the course of the plans, if necessary.
Bonus tip
Closing one year and starting another can sometimes be difficult, especially when we feel like we haven’t achieved all the goals we had set. But it can also be an opportunity to sit down and calmly review what we really want to achieve in this new era that is coming.
And although we know that life can be unpredictable and that what we plan doesn’t always turn out as we hope, we believe it is important to set aside time to create an action plan to achieve our goals and objectives. It is essential to keep our expectations under control, especially because flexibility is also part of planning, since things don’t always go as we imagine.
That said, Founder and CEO at Axon Services LLC, Sirlei Stocchero, presents 6 more simple steps to plan your next year:
1. Plan your professional and personal goals separately
Each decision involves different elements. Therefore, it is up to you to organize your routine so that both areas work well.
2. To plan your next year, take stock of everything you achieved in the previous year. Don’t be negative when you start to evaluate the past year. You’ve certainly learned something valuable. 3. Plan your next year by defining steps that will enable you to achieve your main goal. Write down all the phases of your planning, define all the activities that will help you achieve your main goal, and finally, list all the obstacles and challenges you may face. 4. Make a list of things you shouldn’t do. Highlight everything that distracts you or reduces your productivity, and set a goal of not repeating these attitudes. 5. Be aware of your behaviors and actions. Your attitude determines everything, so don’t let unexpected events keep you from your goals. Keep a positive attitude and see the good side of every bad event. 6. Commit to celebrating small victories. All your victories are important. Be prepared to celebrate them without thinking about their size or how much they contribute to your main goal.
Ultimately, it’s up to you
What price should you pay to achieve your best year yet? The price of discomfort. Yes, you want something that you haven’t achieved yet, and the way things are is the only way to go – our growth zone is far beyond our comfort zone.
Don’t look for the end of the road or absolute clarity about your results. Don’t look for a foolproof plan. The only certainty you need to move forward is knowing which step you’re going to take next to get closer to your goal. Define that step, take it as quickly as possible, and trust that by doing so, you’ll gain the clarity you need to take the next ones until you reach where you set out to.
The true success of this new year won’t just be in achieving a certain goal, but in who you become at the end of the journey.