This isn't comfortable, but it'll make your goals happen

If you implement the key points I'm talking about here, you can actually set yourself up for success and get ahead of 90% of people within the next 6 to 12 months. Think of the last time your heart raced at something—talking to that girl, showing your work to someone, closing a sale. What did you think to yourself? If you're like me, a human, then this has probably crossed your mind.

Step One: Conduct a Past Year Review

To start, I want you to become radically aware of the things you did not want to do last year but had to do. That's step one—do a past year review. The ancient Romans used to say, memento mori, which basically translates to any year could be your last year. Think about this for a second. Do you really want to spend a year doing things you don't want to do or doing things that don't bring you closer to your ultimate goal? That is the point of a past year review.

I want to give a shout-out to Tim Ferriss here who came up with this concept. It's a very simple exercise. You basically just open a Google Doc or an Excel sheet with two columns. In the left column, you're going to write "Positive" and in the right column, you're going to write "Negative." Now, you just go through your calendar or whatever tool you use to track your appointments. Each and every item on your calendar over the past 50 weeks, you're going to categorize as either positive (things you enjoy doing) or negative (things you did not enjoy doing).

This ruthless categorization will open your eyes to the many things you were "forced" to do that you didn't actually want to do. To wrap up this exercise, take the bottom 30% of the worst things you did last year and aim to cut them out completely. Meanwhile, do more of the top 30% positive activities that you enjoyed this year.

Step Two: Define Your Ideal Self

Define your ideal self that you want to hit by the end of this year. Notice, I'm not talking about your goals, like making a certain amount of money, gaining clients, or increasing followers. No, it's not about that. It's about the person you're becoming—the character traits you want to have, the habits you want to form, the relationships you want to nurture. This is about being, and that is step two.

Step Three: From Being to Doing

You go from being to doing, which means you need to establish roughly four to twelve milestones. I want to quote Alex Ramosi here, one of my all-time favorite quotes: "The moment you do the things your ideal future self would do, you already are that person. It just takes time for the proof to show up." Shout out to Alex Ramosi. This mindset makes it okay to fail and puts focus on trying and learning in the process of doing, rather than merely achieving.

Step Four: Establish Micro Habits

Let's talk about step number four, which involves going from macro milestones to micro habits. What kind of habits does your ideal future self need to do every single day to hit those milestones? For example, one personal goal I have is to build a better, deeper relationship with my girlfriend of seven years. To do that, I need to hit milestones like moving in together and spending more quality time with her every weekend.

A habit I need to create is something as simple as scheduling time on my Trello card to turn my phone off and lay down my work at 9 p.m. every day to spend quality time with her. If your ideal future self is someone ultra-consistent at the gym and embodies a better physique with below 10% body fat, break that down into milestones and daily habits like tracking your calories and maintaining a specific intake.

Step Five: Build an Environment Setup

Build an environment setup where everything in your life supports the changes and habits you're trying to build. For example, my environment setup only allows four types of people in my life: people that support me, people that pay me, people I pay (mentors), and people I love. Anyone else is simply not allowed in my environment because they would make building these habits difficult.

This also applies to food. That's why I eat steak for breakfast every day and only eat fruits and vegetables, cutting out all the unhealthy stuff except for cheat days. Even relaxation should be intentional—engage in activities like meditation, sports, or video games with full intent.

Step Six: Face Your Fears Daily

Do something you're afraid of every single day. It's one of the most powerful habits you could ever build. In my first business as a dating and personal development coach, we used to say, "Use fear as a personal guide into freedom." Our relationship with fear is skewed—we think fear and discomfort should be avoided, but they actually show us the path to what we truly want.

Think about it: the most attractive person is usually the one who intimidates you. Your most intimidating goal is often the one that would be the most epic to achieve. Reprogram your relationship with fear and discomfort. The ideal version of yourself by the end of this year should be someone much more fearless, comfortable with discomfort, and actively seeking growth through challenges.

Conclusion: Embrace the Journey

Embracing discomfort and fear prepares you for the hard things. Remember, your journey isn't just about reaching goals, but evolving into your ideal self by the year's end.

You can do this! Start today and watch how these steps transform your life.