Well, it’s that time of year again. It seems like everyone is talking about goals and resolutions for the new year. Except, this time, we’ve upped the ante and are not just talking about what we’re going to do in the new year, but what we’re going to do in the next decade.
I wasn’t going to write a new years resolution post for you, but lately I’ve been thinking about what my goals were at this point a year ago and how happy I’ve been from small progress.
At this point last year, I had decided that I really wanted to start a blog.
Deep down, I’ve always thought that it would be really cool to be an author, but that path seemed so unrealistic. I remember having some ideas that I wanted to write about even in high school, but how do you become an author?
That didn’t seem like a very practical path.
I definitely didn’t think that anyone could just up and decide to do it. Writing is for people that have ideas.
If only I had an idea.
When I think back to last year, I wanted to start this blog, but was terrified to put myself out there.
Over the past year, I’ve spent a lot of time looking at what other bloggers do and learning from them, but didn’t actually publish my own website until April.
At that point, I was excited that I was actually writing and creating, but still wasn’t really telling anyone about it. In July, I finally created my social media accounts, but felt embarrassed when my friends started finding my instagram account and following me. Did you know that if you log into your business account on the same phone as your personal account that your business account will show up as a suggestion to your friends?
I was terrified to put myself out there, but you know what? It was absolutely no big deal. Something that felt so personal and risky just wasn’t that big of a deal to others. In fact, I got a lot of great feedback from my friends who support me and think that my idea is cool.
Now, I feel great about the work that I’m doing. I’ve pushed past those boundaries that had me afraid and wanting to play small. The biggest obstacles I faced where the ones I placed in front of myself.
Even though it’s not the progress I had in mind at this point last year, it still makes me feel proud. And that’s really want I want you to take away from this article.
Your goal doesn’t have to be perfect to count.
I wasted a lot of time last year and had many times where I should have moved faster or where I slowed my own growth down.
I want you to think about where you could be in a year if you made steady progress towards your goals.
Even if it’s sloppy, even if you don’t make it the whole way, even if you start and quit, start and quit, all year long.
What if you don’t even make it halfway there?
If your goal is to lose 45 pounds in 2020, how great would you feel if you were 20 pounds lighter? Guys, 20 pounds is a lot of weight.
I’ve lost 20 pounds before. That wasn’t my goal, I didn’t make it, but I can tell you that at losing 20 pounds, I feel way better, people can tell that I look trimmer, and my clothes fit better.
The question I want to ask you is where could you be in a year?
- Even if you don’t quite make your goal.
- Even if progress doesn’t look the way you’d like.
- Even if your real fear is that you’ll be made fun of for trying.
I feel proud of how far I’ve come this year, even though I’m not as far along as I’d like.
I have real tangible progress to show for my efforts.
More importantly, I’ve set the skills and habits in place to be able to make 2020 even better.
Why does 2020 have to be perfect if this is the year that you set yourself up to live better for the rest of your life?
Reaching your goal is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter if you make it.
What matters is putting habits in place that change your life.
It doesn’t matter if you lose any weight at all in 2020, but it will matter a whole lot if you learn to workout and move your body each day.
Learning to workout sets yourself up for a healthier lifestyle for the rest of your life.
It doesn’t matter if you completely blow your budget the first 3 months that you try.
But it matters that you’re learning about your spending habits and you’re starting to see where your issues with money come from.
Focus on Actions
Ok, so the thing that I got caught up with on my blog was planning on writing a blog. I’m a great planner, but can sometimes have a hard time executing. I made good progress from a mindset perspective during those months from January to April, but had very little to actually show for it.
I can tell you that you need to focus on taking action.
I have learned more from taking action and experimenting than from thinking through my plan.
There are a few actions that I took with my blog that I think really gave me good results.
The first was writing really crappy content. No, seriously.
When I was finding out what you have to do when you’re trying to write, I discovered that you can’t try to be good. You just have to write. Just write. And it’s so true. So now, I don’t focus on trying to make it good, I just focus on trying to sit down and write something really crappy. It completely takes the pressure off and I can just write.
If you think about it, no matter what your goal may be for this year. Just writing could be applied to any situation.
- Keep budgeting, even if your money situation is a mess and you keep having trouble deciding how much money to assign every category.
- Keep running, even though it could best be described as walking, and your pace is terrible.
- Keep making the decision to eat well, even though you haven’t been perfect and you’ve had some moments this week where you’ve just destroyed your diet.
- Keep going for that job promotion, even though you had an embarrassing failure at work this year.
It’s going to look ugly, and that’s completely ok.
You also have got to believe that you’re capable of figuring it out. Remember to have a growth mindset, which will tell you that you are capable of improvement.
I love how Tom Bilyeu talks about adding the word yet to every sentence that describes how you can’t do something.
- I’m not disciplined enough to eat well, yet.
- I’m not good enough at math to be in control of my finances, yet.
- I can’t create a blog or write a book, I don’t have any original ideas, yet.
Taking Small Steps
When you’re taking action, I want you to focus on taking steps, no matter how small.
I think that we all get caught up in making big changes in our lives that would move us massively toward the life of our dreams, but it’s the small every day progress that actually gets you there.
I learned a lot about how important it is to build systems and habits from the book, Atomic Habits, by James Clear.
It’s more important that you get out the door for a 5 minute run every day than to lose a single pound that month.
The difference is that now you’re a runner. Runners run. Now every day you get out the door and you run because it’s something that’s a part of your identity and it’s who you are. Even though you haven’t lost a pound, the hard work has been done.
Now all you have too do is to slowly increase the amount you’re running and start making wiser food choices and you will see results and it’s way more likely that they will be results that stick compared to someone who did a crash diet one week and quit.
With your goals this year-
- Be the type of person that achieves your dream. Be the runner, the writer, the good student, the person that is responsible with their money. Own that identity.
- Work on things that are satisfying to you. I really like writing for this blog. The project itself is satisfying and fun for me. This isn’t a get quick rich scheme or someone else’s dream. This is the thing I love to do, which will mean it sticks for me.
Focus on one thing at a time.
At this time last year, I wanted to run, and eat healthy, and start a blog, and learn to meditate. I was wanting to make great improvements to my life, but it was too much.
I still want to achieve all of those goals on my list, but now I’m doing one thing at a time. I’m focusing on consistently writing and creating for my blog.
I will add new goals and systems and routines to live my best life, but I now believe we have to really focus on doing one good thing at a time.
No matter what goal it is that you want to accomplish this year, focus on making small progress. Don’t try to do everything at once and please don’t try too be perfect.
Just start, taking small steps toward your dream. Keep in mind that it won’t look perfect, but it’s amazing to think of the progress you can make if you only make it halfway.
How great would that feel to be in that spot a year from now?
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