10 Things You Must Do Now To Achieve Your Goals In 2023

Every year around this time, many people have started to implement their new year's resolutions. Some will start to work out in the gym, some will meditate more, and some will just try to be more mindful in every situation. Though recent studies have shown that by the end of January, 43% of all people will have already given up on their resolutions*. Why is that? Now science suggests that for one, just saying that we're going to do something alone is not enough to keep us going. Another important reason is that we are prone to quickly lose the initial motivation throughout the way, so we quit.

So why is it each and every year the same old story? Well, it doesn't have to be this way. Here are 10 things you can do to reach your goals in 2023, and in every upcoming year, for good.

1. Start With Your Dream

At the beginning of all life paths, there’s a dream. Every person has something that they want, and something that they are afraid of. Everything you see out there has been someone's dream - the house you live in. The building you love. The city you live in. Without a dream we don’t exist, without a vision, we perish. Dream as big as you can, and forget about what’s possible and what’s not.

A good way to know what your dream is is to ask your inner child. Close your eyes and go back to when you were 5 years old. Or ask a family member. What was your dream? What did you wanna become? Whom did you look up to? Although we change drastically throughout our life, it is always a great idea to connect with your inner child. Your inner child is nothing else than your subconscious self, your true “I”. It’ll tell you where you’re naturally inclined to be headed, way before your mind got primed by your surroundings, which made you deviate from what you initially wanted to do.?

2. Capture The Vision

Translate your dream into a vision. What I mean by that is that you start describing your dream in the most specific and accurate way possible. Describe the colors, describe shapes, describe sizes, and forms. Put numbers on your dream, aka when you want to achieve that dream. What exactly does it look like? How does it make you feel? Who will be with you? A good way to figure out what your vision is, is to ask yourself “How would I want to be remembered after I die?” What legacy do I want to leave behind? A good way to visualize your dream is to use a dream board /vision board or to do dreamlining on a piece of paper. The main idea here that you can see your dream every day, that you can literally step into it every morning you wake up. And dreams and visions are basically worthless, unless you convert them into goals.

3. Set Your Goals

Transform that vision into goals. Again, be very specific when you go about describing them. If your vision is to have a really great life, then your goals might be a big house with a nice car and an amazing spouse, and wonderful kids. Put each one of these as a goal in itself. If your dream is to travel the world, then your vision is to see yourself traveling the world. If you see yourself traveling the world, then your goal is to travel to a certain set of specific countries defined by you. Write down at least a hundred things that you want to achieve before you die. Personally, professionally, in your relationships, emotionally, intellectually, in your health, in your well-being, in your finances, with your family, etc. Invest an hour to write them down on a piece of paper, and keep that paper close and visible throughout the entire year.?

4. Prioritize Your Goals?

Once you have that long list of goals, you need to prioritize them sharply. And the way you do that is by asking yourself if I could swing a magic wand and make one dream come true now, which one would it be? Usually, it’ll be the one that will make your life significantly better now, and typically it will pop up and jump into your eyes immediately. Do it again for three to five top goals and highlight them, because we’re about to set up a solid…

5. Set Up Your Action Plan

This one is quite simple, do it one step at a time: take one goal that you’ve written down. Let’s start by imagining having already achieved that goal. Now let’s go backward. Ask yourself, in order to be where I am now - that is to say, having achieved this goal - what steps did I take before getting here? What did I need to do before that? Start going back until you reach your situation now. Then write down what you need to do now - aka the first step you can take today - that will get you 0.1% closer to reaching your goal.?

6. Schedule Your Action Plan

Now that you have written down all the necessary steps to get you where you wanna be, we need to attach the time component to each move. A goal in itself is only useful when you poke a time slot into it. You say you gonna do this, ok, but when? “Someday” is not a day. You either gonna do it on Monday, or Tuesday, or on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. You get to choose when. Write down a timeline. It can be daily or weekly, but it can also be monthly, it depends on the nature of your goal and much it takes to get there. I recommend a weekly action plan. Pick a day and time, so you can hold yourself accountable. Use google calendar on the digital side, or if you prefer handwriting, I recommend this fine timer/notebook. This way, you’re being deliberate, you’re being specific and you’re being accurate and exact, which are extremely important attributes to adopt for yourself if you want to achieve anything worthwhile in life. After you all of this, let’s move on to the next crucial thing, one on which all high achievers in history put great emphasis.

7. Create Your Daily Habits

In his book “Atomic Habits”, James Clear talks about the magic daily habits can have on your life. He specifically describes how creating a habit doesn’t necessarily give you tremendous, immediate changes that you can see. However, small habits executed on a daily basis will make you get better 1% better every day, and that accumulation of small improvements will add up to a significant amount of positive change in your life by the end of the year. Knowing this, you might now ask yourself “In order to be able to easily stick to my scheduled action plan, what daily habits do I need to engage in? It might be waking up early. It might be going to bed at a certain time. It might be daily meditation to put you into the right mindset. It might breathing exercises. It might be daily pushups. It might be your daily coffee before you start. Whatever it is for you, write down what daily habits you need to engage in, so you don’t have to motivate yourself all over again each and every time. Your daily habits are supposed to make it easy and fun to stick to your action plan. Again, your daily habits are merely just habits, unless you attach the time component to them. Which leads us to the next leap.

8. Schedule Those Habits?

For example, I scheduled prayer/meditation time every morning at 7 am. I also put in my schedule to call at least one family member every Friday after the Muslim Friday Prayer, at 2 pm. Another habit I've been hoping to adopt is learning a new skill, so I put aside one hour every day to watch videos, read a book or listen to a podcast that helps me develop a certain skill, which is part of my action plan, which again is part of my future vision of my life. And apart from that, I've also consecrated one day during the week for doing exactly nothing. It's called downtime for me. Don’t forget to schedule downtime for yourself, cheat days, and days in which you don’t take yourself too seriously. Because human nature is made in such a way that you can get easily overwhelmed by being too disciplined, so you wanna anticipate that and prevent any significant downtime by giving yourself some space up front.?

9. Take the first step today

Now that you have dreamt it, visualized your Don’t wait until tomorrow. Take the first step today and start building momentum. You’ll be surprised at how good you’ll feel about yourself. You’ll have paved the way to success.

10. Stick to your habits through thick and thin by being disciplined and patient

Life is gonna get in the way. Things are gonna happen. Some days you’re not gonna feel like doing it. That’s why having your dream in front of your eyes is so essential. That's why stepping into your vision every single day is so imperative. That's why having a clear action plan is so vitally important. If you look at the entire process from above, you'll see an interconnected chain of things where each one affects the other. Nonetheless, even if you do everything according to your plan, never forget that great things take time. The best tea is the one which lasted the longest on the stove. The best Turkish coffee is the one that cooked the slowest and longest. The path might be long, and it might be bumpy, but with continuous discipline and patience, there's nothing that you cannot achieve.

Finally, Your Attitude Is Everything

All this being said, here’s the most important one of all: your attitude. The ONE THING you need to work on is your attitude. Your dream is what inspires you initially. Your vision is what gives you the thrive to keep going. Your patience is what makes you get over obstacles. But it’s your attitude that’ll give you that edge that you need when the going gets tough. Because eventually, on your way to achieving your dreams and ambitions, it comes down to how you respond to the challenges that you will face throughout the year. That will determine whether you’ll be successful or not. So no excuses, only adjustments.?

Let 2023 be your year.

What is your dream for this year? Share with us in the comments. Thank you for reading.

*Source https://insideoutmastery.com/goalsetting

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