NEW YEAR, NEW HABITS
Creating new habits takes time and energy. A new behaviour won't become automatic overnight, but you may enjoy some of its benefits fairly quickly. Also, as you start to take walks regularly or engage in stress-soothing practices frequently, you'll find you won't feel quite right if you stop. That's a great incentive to continue. So, keep nudging yourself in the direction you'd like to go. And try the following seven tips to help you create long-lasting change.
Lead-in
“Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did.” —H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
- How far do you agree with this quote?
- Do you tend to regret doing or not doing? Why do you think this happens?
Read the article, complete the activity and check them with the answer key:
Experiencing the best year of your life won’t happen accidentally.
Successful companies take the time to create business plans, and top performers take the time to set a course for their lives.
This section will show you how to decide on what you truly want to accomplish this year, set goals and action items to support those goals, install systems, and measure your progress to stay motivated and on track the whole time.
Step 0: Create Space
I block January 1st, 2nd and 3rd in my calendar for this Yearly Planning exercise.
Three days may seem like a lavish expenditure of time, but protecting 0.8% of my year makes the other 99.2% of my days exponentially more productive and fulfilling than it would be if I’d started my year watching movies on the couch.
If you can’t find three days, that’s fine, but you’ll need one full, uninterrupted day, minimum.
On the morning of January 1st: find a quiet space and close the door. Disconnect from the internet, and leave your phone in another room.
Step 1: Review the Previous Year
On a sheet of paper or blank Word document (I use Evernote), list these headings, and write your answers:
1. What were my goals? Did I achieve them or make progress?
Maybe you didn’t set explicit goals for yourself last year. Maybe you only made a casual resolution. That’s OK—do this exercise and next year you’ll have new benchmarks to build on. Even if you didn’t write down any goals, you were surely working on some things. What were they?
On January 1st, I list every goal and sub-goals from last year and make a yes/no determination. Did I hit my targets? If not, why? Did I make progress? I make no value judgments yet, only observations. The answers help with the next question.
2. What worked well?
Here we pat ourselves on the back, shelling out well-earned credit for our positive outcomes. This is not a list of detailed accomplishments (that comes later); we’re looking for themes and trends.
For example, at the start of 2020 I gave myself credit for writing at least one hour each morning because it allowed me to publish 19 articles in 2019; and for cutting alcohol to near zero for six months because I saved more than a few pennies and had much more time and energy on the weekends.
When we identify what worked well, we can double down on these actions.
3. What could you improve?
This exercise is less fun because it shines a light on all the broken, rust-covered parts of our year that are strewn across the front yard of our life.
Don’t fear this! Facing reality, even the uncomfortable parts, is the first step in creating a better one. I have two caveats:
- Many things that are missing or messed up in our lives are outside our control. Sometimes you make all the right moves, and fate still lands you in Monopoly jail. Make peace with that.
- Even when the failure is clearly yours, beating yourself up will not help. Guilt should be used like a spare tire—only when you’re forced to, and for as little time as possible.
Despite amazing progress overall, last year I listed many areas to improve: I did not manage money, and I could have, took on far too many projects in January and had to admit that my business model was not producing results.
But hey! Once I admitted these things, I was able to prioritize fixes for the next year.
4. How do I feel about last year?
The danger in listing goals and making yes/no appraisals about them is that it’s almost a purely “head” centred exercise.
Sure, you’ll get a factual report of how effective and productive you were, but this can’t tell you whether all of this frenetic activity is having the desired effect. In other words, are you happy?
The best way to answer this question is by writing in a stream of consciousness—no bullets, no overthinking, no censoring—have the courage to be brutally honest with yourself in answering the question: Am I fulfilled?
After all, that’s the whole reason why we set goals and chase accomplishment: to feel good! If the answer is anything but “heck yes,” take it as a blessing; a signal that you need to work on different priorities.
Your heart will respond by the end of this exercise. Don’t be afraid to write pages and pages here.
5. What are all the things I accomplished?
This part’s my favourite! It’s an excuse to spend a few moments in pure celebration, something none of us does often enough. Here you can list all of the notable, amazing things you did and that happened to you between January 1st and December 31st.
Where can you find items for your list? Go back through your calendar week by week, look at your journal, or ask your partner or family members to remind you about the good times.
This is not just some indulgence: Listing the positive experiences helps us relive them, which releases happy hormones in our bodies, like dopamine and serotonin. Associating our accomplishments with feeling good helps drive us to more accomplishments. It creates a healthy addiction in us; something resolutions don’t do.
6. The financial snapshot.
No annual reflection would be complete without a clear understanding of the state of your financial affairs.
Start by listing the value of your current assets: cash, stocks, bonds, real estate/equity, pension, insurance policy, the wad of $100s under your mattress. Then, tally your liabilities: credit card debt, mortgage, car lease, student loans, what you owe to the Latvian mafia.
Subtract liabilities from assets to calculate your net worth. The first time you do this might be a shock—good or bad. At least now, you know. Plus, next January, you’ll be able to see whether this figure is moving in the right direction or not and calculate how much money you’ve squirrelled away.
This part of your Yearly Plan is also a good opportunity to see where you can cut the fat on your budget. I use Mint.com, which gathers account data into a single dashboard and helps me understand where every dollar is going.
?Vocabulary Activity:
Choose the correct definition for the underlined word or fill in the gaps with the missing words.
1) Also, as you start to take walks regularly or engage in stress-soothing practices frequently, you'll find you won't feel quite right if you stop.
a- tending to calm the emotions and relieve stress.
b- tending to generate more stress.
c- playing sport
2) This will show you how to…….goals and action items to support those goals, how to install systems, and measure your progress in order to stay motivated and on track the whole time.
a- establish
b- put
c- set
3) On January 1st I list every goal and sub-goal from last year and make a yes/no determination. Did I ……. my targets?
a- hit
b- overcome
c- get
4) This is not a list of detailed accomplishments (that comes later);
a-Things we need to work on
b-Things you are stuck with
c- a thing done successfully with effort, skill, or courage
5) Many things that are missing or messed up in our lives are outside our control.
a- to make a mistake: to do something incorrectly
b-confusion
c-big problems
6) Even if you didn’t write …….. any goals, you were surely working on some things. What were they?
a- up
b- down
c- out
7) Sure, you’ll get a factual report of how effective and productive you were, but this can’t tell you whether all of this frenetic activity is having the desired effect.
a- strongly wished for or intended
b – achievement
c - believed to be going to happen or arrive
8) This part of your Yearly Plan is also a good opportunity to see where you can cut the fat on your budget.
a- a plan to show how much money a person or organization will earn and how much they will need or be able to spend
b- money already spent
c-a plan to show how much money a person or organization will earn and how much they will need or be able to spend:
Answer key:
1a, 2c, 3a, 4c, 5a, 6b, 7a, 8a.
Have a great new year and always keep moving forward! :)
Activity created by Comfy Languages Team
Article adapted from: https://www.success.com/beyond-resolutions-the-complete-guide-to-achieving-your-new-year-goals/