“Every year is yours to shape. Make New Year's Day yours to celebrate, whether solo or social.”
You've got two ways you can play January. One is to sit around on your butt and make new year’s resolutions you don’t intend to keep, the other is to be intentional and get yourself in gear for the rest of the year.
You don't need much to accomplish the former, but here are 7 things to do on the first day of the year to make sure your whole year is set up for success.
1.Start setting goals with the intention of focusing on the process.
Achieving a goal only changes your life for the moment. But the real miracle is the new person you become along the way.
If you go on a crash diet, you will most likely lose weight but the results won’t be sustainable. You will go back to your old habits, continue eating unhealthily and gain back all the weight.
Many people will have the same goals but only some of them will achieve it.
The goal is not the problem. The process or the system of achieving it is what we need to review.
For the past three years, I have all been about achieving location independence and becoming a digital nomad.
During the entire journey, I was sold on the idea of SMART goals, that they need to be specific and measurable.But the problem with this method is it fails to consider that people’s feelings and emotions are not linear.
And so, instead of focusing on the destination, I focused on the process.
I became completely immersed in what I was doing, that I started to forget I was doing this because I had set a certain goal.
And, there is one interesting thing that came out of this experience - even if I forgot my goal, but continued with the process, I was still able to achieve my goal.
2. Start some atomic habits.
Towards the last quarter of 2023, I became obsessed with a book called “Atomic Habits”. It is a book that talks about the power of small actions done consistently everyday, and how these small actions can change the trajectory of your life.
Everybody talks about that “one defining moment” in our lives, that one great success or achievement that made us who we are.
However, nobody talks about the tiny gains or losses that led to the big success.
If you want to predict where you’ll end up in life, all you have to do is follow the curve of tiny gains or tiny losses, and see how your daily choices will compound ten or twenty years down the line.
Are you spending less than you earn each month? Are you being physically active everyday? Are you reading books and learning something new each day?
Tiny battles like these are the ones that will define your future self. Time magnifies the margin between success and failure. It will multiply whatever you feed it.
Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy
3. Write a personal mission statement or mantra.
Words have power.
This is something I’ve always believed in and this is why I am intentional about what I say, especially to myself.
Having a personal mantra is like having a personal compass.
It is said that an average adult makes 35,000 decisions a day, and we don’t really sit down to analyze each one. Many of the things that we decide to do or think are on auto-pilot, based on a predetermined program.
I don’t know about you, but I want my brain programming to be that which leads to success.
And so, on a daily basis and before I fall asleep, I repeat to myself several times, “Here, now, this is where my power is.”
This has become the program in my brain for the past few years, and the instruction that runs most of me on autopilot.
And because my brain believes all my power is here in the now, I rarely worry about the future and I don’t live in the past. I have no power there.
This is what my brain knows. This is my mantra.
4. Learn something new.
I have made it a habit to ask myself everyday, “What did I learn today?”
I recently learned that the physical brain is malleable and that it actually keeps changing throughout our lives. How strange and wonderful at the same time, don’t you think?
Imagine, we can actually change how we perceive things and ideas, we can choose to think differently and become a new person if we wanted to.
And this is why learning is great for the brain. As you take on a new skill, the mind begins to reshape itself.
The brain can keep changing throughout our lives and for the better, so you have fewer fear responses and a more positive mindset.
Learning something new everyday makes us excited about the endless possibilities, it makes us see the world in a different light, that there’s so much more out there than we can fully understand but which makes us want to find out even more.
5. Make travel plans.
I have a strong bias towards travel and have always preached spending on travel over spending on “things”.
Now, whether you feel as strongly as I do about travelling or not, the experience of going out of the country is something that words cannot describe.
I have been making travel plans for over a dozen times in the last three years and there is one interesting fact that I cannot help but notice- the planning part is as exciting as the actual destination itself, at times even more exciting.
This is part of the reason that I have never sought the assistance of any travel agency for any of my trips abroad.
Each of my trips have been carefully curated, meticulously planned and relentlessly reviewed. There is a certain high in being able to see what’s possible.
Making travel plans at the start of the year helps you to become more intentional about the work you want to accomplish at any given time especially if you’re employed and vacation leaves have to be relayed to your superiors ahead.
Incorporating travel plans into your annual goal planning gives you something to look forward to, that it’s not all work and no play.
6. Plan a Feel-Good Day.
Productivity is not just about the things you do at work, that gets reflected in your annual performance report.
There are things not related to your employment but are equally important if not more important than making a living.
Doing creative work, dancing, hanging out with friends, getting a massage, and anything that makes you feel good is a very productive way to spend your day.
Planning feel-good activities and prioritizing your mental health is one of the best ways to start the year right.
Most of the creative ideas that lead to success often come from having a sound mind and body.
For me, meditating, doing yoga, eating slowly and enjoying my food, dancing and writing are my go-tos for a feel-good day.
7. Start a journal.
If there’s one single habit that’s most changed my life, that habit is journaling. I’ve been journaling since 2020 and I can attribute so many good things happening in my life as a result of journaling consistently.
But why exactly is journaling worth doing, and how is it a powerful tool for achieving goals?
First, it’s a nice way to look back at memories.
Second, journaling helps you take control of your own thoughts and your own mind, especially if you’re prone to worry, stress, anxiety or fear.
The third and the most important thing about journaling is that it can completely change the way you approach your life.
So, how does this work?
Actions done consistently lead to results. Consistent actions come from a decision. But before you can make a decision that leads to consistent actions, you first have thoughts and feelings.
And, this is where journaling comes in.
Journaling allows us to understand our thoughts and feelings, to become more intentional about them.
I tend to read back all the things I wrote on certain days and I can see that there is a story, my version of the story of my life. I can choose to write whatever story I want about my life.
The brain can only handle so many thoughts at any given moment.
Writing down thoughts can lift the burden of carrying them and you can make space for creative thinking.
In conclusion, the first day of the year can be a good day to make a fresh start. The idea of a clean slate makes us hopeful, that we have a second chance.
But, whether it’s January 1 or Dec. 31, each day can be new.
I don’t recommend thinking of the past year as something that we should look
back on and regret.
Instead, the first day of the year is a chance to make new plans and see beyond what’s possible.
One can set new goals, which can get us a newer and better version of ourselves by the end of the year. Additionally, it also gives us 12 months to accomplish certain goals.
Comments