How will reversed planning and mini habits help you achieve your New Year's goals?

Hi, this is Wojciech,

The end of the year, aside from recaps, is also the time for planning new year goals. Some want to improve their finances. Others want to exercise more, improve their health, lose weight, break up with addictions, learn new skills. The new year is supposed to be the perfect start. However, not everyone manages to stick to their New Year's resolutions. Research shows that only 19% of people can stick to their New Year's resolutions. There can be many reasons for this:

• Overly ambitious goals
• Quick boredom and discouragement
• Lack of motivation and a real desire to make a change.

Today, I will show you two simple techniques to help you achieve your New Year's goals.

1. Mini habits

Even the longest journey begins with the first step. This maxim perfectly captures the idea of the mini habits method that Stephen Guise promotes. It is very effective in building new habits. Instead of throwing yourself in at the deep end, you should start with an effortless element. A good example is an exercise. Getting down to several minutes of workout is not easy for everyone. But what if the training came down to doing just one repetition? Want to do push-ups? Start by doing one push-up a day. Then, repeat it every day. When I first heard about this method, it seemed absurd to me. But interestingly enough, it works very well, as you can read about in the book written by its creator.?

By boiling down a new habit to an elementary activity, it's hard to find an excuse that you don't have time. After all, doing the push-up takes a few seconds. Therefore, making the mini habit part of your daily routine is crucial. Repeat it every day and start adding more repetitions. You will quickly get to the point that what was just one push-up will become a longer workout. You will also add other exercises. From my own experience, I know that about 14 days is enough for the habit to become established. Thanks to the mini-step method, acquiring new patterns will be a piece of cake for someone like you.

2. Reverse goal setting

On the other hand, this method will be helpful for big goals. It involves visualizing what our ultimate goal is. It can be implementing a large project, career advancement, obtaining a round of financing, or acquiring a new skill.?

• You start planning by describing your ultimate goal and when you want to achieve it.?
• Then, you describe the last step you need to reach that goal.
• In this way, you describe each earlier step on the way to the goal.
• Finish by describing the first step you must take.

It is good to define the steps easily verifiable and place them in time. Making a list in this way allows you to visualize your ultimate goal and imagine what it will be like to achieve it. Imagining a new, better version of yourself stimulates your appetite to achieve your goal. In the context of business goals, it also allows you to visualize what your team/startup/company needs to become to move to the next stage of development. As you prepare your list, you may find that you need to add a few more items to it that you hadn't thought of before. Reverse goal setting will also allow you to break down goal achievement into much smaller pieces and well-defined intermediate goals to achieve the ultimate goal.?

If you know any other New Year's goal-setting methods that have worked for you, feel free to share them in the comments. In the meantime, all the best and much perseverance in the New Year. Of course, I didn't forget about the interesting links you'll find below.

Links of the week

Corporate world news:

3-min read -?CVC as a Motor for Impact Investments.?Learn how Corporate Venture Capital Funds?incorporated ESG data into their investment process, with the aim of having a full understanding of the companies in which they invest. ???Read full story >>

Business Development:

5-min read -?How to Help Set Your Business Up for Growth in 2022.?As we look ahead to the new year, now is an opportune time to create your business goals. But perhaps more important than the goals themselves are the tactics to accomplish your goals.??? Read full story >>

Startup news:?

5-min read -?The 15 ultimate tips that startup operators shared this year.?Here's what Sifted learned?about working with superfans, running offsite, and hiring the first developer in a startup company. ???Read full story >>

Book of the week

???Mini habits: smaller habits, better results?by Stephen Guise is a?worldwide bestseller, which?explains why most of the popular personal growth strategies don't work. It's better to try a?mini habit -> very small positive behavior that you force yourself to do every day. Its?"too small to fail" nature makes it weightless, deceptively powerful, and a superior habit-building strategy.

Thanks to Mini Habits you'll learn:

• Why does doing a single push-up a day will help you to develop a better version of yourself
• What mini habits are and why science says they must work
• How to make the first step

We are glad that you are a part of our Business Development Club and?we hope that the following information will help you grow.?Feel free to share this newsletter with your community and invite your friends to subscribe!