Happy New Year! I can’t believe it is 2021.
In the spirit of the new year and goal setting, I wanted to take the time to tell you why I don’t make goals for the new year. You can also read about this from my blog post in January 2018 on Why I Don’t Believe In New Years Resolutions.
Nothing special happens on January 1st or on Mondays.
The people that wait for these times to start their goals are wasting their lives away. When I think of something that I want to do, I start progressing towards that goal then and there. For example, if I feel like I want to eat healthier, I will go to the grocery store that day and get the items that will help move me closer to my goal. If I don’t have time for that, I will make the grocery list and go the next day.
People fail at their goals, because they either lack discipline or passion.
Discipline: There is no excuse for not being able to take baby steps in the right direction towards your goals. If you find ourself saying you “don’t have time”, you’re wrong. You have the time but you don’t value that habit or goal enough. If you are catching yourself saying you don’t have time often, I challenge you to start switching “I don’t have time to __(workout)__.” to “I don’t value __(working out)__ enough.” If you start to cringe at that switch, that means you need to find a way to do 5 mins or 1 small task to move you towards your goal, so you drop the excuses.
Passion: If you made that switch and you really don’t care about not valuing your goals anymore, maybe it wasn’t the right goal to make anyway. Sometimes we chase the end result and aren’t flexible with our journey to get there. Or, sometimes we set goals because we think we need to loose weight or eat healthier when in the end, it’s societies goal for us and not our own.
Goal setting is not a linear path either. There are many dips in progress but it’s the net result that matters more than the daily ups and downs. When (not if) you struggle to stay on track with your goals, check in with yourself and ask “do I really want this?” and “am I on the best path towards my goal for myself?”