Most of us come into the New Year fired up to make the new year the best year we've ever had. Often we're reflecting on personal and professional success and where we want to grow. The problem with this is — New Year's resolutions are wildly unsuccessful.
If you do nothing after reading this article, only 9% of you will achieve your goals and 80% will give up by mid-February. Often, we understand the life-changing practical steps that we need to take but more often than not, we fail to make the new year our best year yet.
This is because you are the same person on December 31 as you are on January 1. Many of us engage in tomorrow thinking where we believe that the person we are tomorrow is a different, more successful person with elevated energy levels. The problem is that you are the same person tomorrow, with the same limiting beliefs and with similar stressors to the year before.
To make 2024 your best year yet, you must change your mindset. In this article, I'll show you how how to develop a mindset to become successful and achieve the life of your dreams.
Six Questions to Become Unstoppable in the Next Twelve Months
Your personal and professional success is determined by your self-awareness. Something I've observed as a corporate executive and as a fitness coach is people lying to themselves about what they've achieved or their true dreams in an attempt to comfort themselves from a dismal reality.
If you want to truly level up, you need to work on a process of self-reflection. Journals with daily reflection questions are a great way to do this or you can start working on your self-awareness with some simple questions.
What did I Achieve in 2023?
Often, you've achieved more than you think in the past year. We are inherently hard on ourselves. Take some dedicated time by asking yourself a few simple questions about your past to understand the areas you may not need to prioritize in the coming year. This will help you develop a sense of satisfaction from the previous here making the big goals for 2024 seem less daunting.
What did I Fail to Achieve in 2023?
The chances are, you already know where you lack discipline and you're already beating yourself up about it. That's why it's important to dig deeper into this question and question your lack of success.
Losing weight is the classic and popular New Year's resolution. By January 2, the gyms are packed with new gym-goers hoping to act on their resolution. If you failed to lose weight in 2024, ask yourself why five times to conduct a root cause analysis. This will help you realize where you need to pay more attention to create more space for weight loss habits. Here's an example of a root cause analysis.
In this example, you can see that this person didn't go to the gym or eat clean. They know what they need to do, but after questioning it, the deeper cause is work that's draining that they're attempting to heal with a social life. In this case, I'd recommend they:
Analyze their options at work to see if they can become energized by the work they do
Diversity how they hang out with their friends — are big walks or dancing an option?
What are my Core Values?
A question I love to ask folks as a corporate leader is, "What are your personal values, and how do they relate to the company values." A successful corporate coach will often dig deeper into these questions because when your actions conflict with personal values it drains your energy and productivity. You can relate this to any of your goals outside of work too!
The strongest motivation you can have are goals aligned with your core values.
If you have no idea what your core values are, read this blog to start working towards discovering them.
Where am I misaligned?
After discovering your values, you can start reviewing your situation and start making life changing practical steps. This will help you understand what your most important goals are.
Some of you may uncover that you want to lose weight because of others, and not your values. They may also confirm that your core value of status is important and it's okay for you to lose weight because of the status of a healthy body.
Your values aren't wrong or right but they are a compass to help you understand where you need to place great focus and why.
What am I saying Yes to This Year?
Your "yes's" are one of the most powerful words you can use but some of us don't understand that and say yes to far too much. We often say yes the first time then regret it later when it conflicts with our goals, available time or values. Every yes adds to our responsibilities and can catapult or hinder our dreams.
If you say yes to working late, you're saying no to time with your partner, workout, or recreational activities. If you say yes to having children, you're saying no to your time which may include social events, a large chunk of your money, and potentially even your career depending on your situation.
What am I Saying No to This Year?
No's make your yes's stronger. After understanding what you're saying yes to, you will be able to understand your hard no's. You can practice this in any area of life. For example, a satisfying career to some is greater income while for others, it's learning opportunities or budget. Some will say no to a partner who is not six feet tall while others will say no to a partner who isn't kind to a server.
Get clear on what you're saying no to this year to help you create your best year yet.
Select Your Eight Goals for Next Year
There are a few core categories that people usually set out to achieve in the new year. According to Forbes:
48% want improved fitness
38% want improved finances
36% want improved mental health
Health and finances weigh heavily on people's minds as they make big changes and set out to accomplish new goals. While these are excellent goals that require discipline, they don't encapsulate the full picture of life. They're goals that others can see externally.
The wheel of life is a technique that a cognitive behavioral therapist or successful corporate coach use to help put values and priorities in perspective. The eight categories for you to reflect on are:
Finance
Career
Personal Growth
Spirituality (or Community)
Recreation
Love
Friends
Health
You will continue to hit brick walls with your goals unless you begin to understand ALL the misaligned areas, not just the external areas like health and finance.
Finance
Finance isn't necessarily just greater income, but all facets of your financial health. Expert, Jacqui Clarke spoke about expense creep on The Holistic Fitness Podcast. One of the big challenges or an increasing salary is using it effectively. Often our expenses creep up on us and we need to learn to save with our current income rather than relying on a greater income.
Financial health is ensuring your outgoing expenses are lower than your incoming salary. It's essential to stability and building generational wealth.
Career
One-third of your working days are spent at work. Putting your career goals off is placing one-third of your life on hold. Unfortunately, most of us are disengaged at work resulting in procrastination, lack of fulfillment, and leads to burnout. As an executive leader, I notice limiting beliefs are in the way of most people going after their dream careers.
To evaluate this area of your life, ask yourself if you are energized or drained at the end of your work day. Your professional life can be a huge block to you achieving your goals if you are exhausted by your job. This results in you needing to generate extra energy to get anything else in your life done.
Personal Growth
Having a growth mindset is one of the most essential elements to having your best year yet. So many remain stuck in life because their mindset is fixed. They do not question life and they do not stretch themselves for many reasons. The personal growth category is quite broad. A few examples include:
Learning a language
Reading books
Studying something different
One of the big challenges is finding time to grow personally. Something that I do is read for 15 minutes each night on a subject I'm interested in to contribute to continuous growth and curiosity.
Spirituality (or Community)
While spirituality is a key part of life for some, many are missing this element of their lives. No matter who or what you believe in, having faith in something greater than you can drive you towards big things. Building a virtual or in-person sense of community can help you have your best year yet because you have someone or thing to work towards.
Recreation
Play is something we tend to lose as adults. We love spending time around small children due to their unfiltered sense of curiosity and ability to play. When was the last time you spent two or three hours simply allowing yourself to have fun without a hidden agenda?
Recreation is a key goal that many don't think about that's important for us to create sustainable habits.
Love
Our relationship can make or break our success without us realizing it. The people closest to us can build us up or break us down. Personally, I remember telling my then-partner that I was starting a podcast, and he said "I'll believe it when I see it." I'm naturally entrepreneurial and I love to share ideas which was in conflict with who he was. As a result, my new ideas about the future were met with skepticism.
Which brings me to you. Is the love of your life supporting your progress or hindering it? If the latter, what are the steps you need to take to get the best results possible for yourself?
Friends
Similar to your love interests, your friends are your circle of influence. It's often quoted in sales and development books that you become the five people you spend the most people with. Look at the average of your five closest friends and decide if you want to be the average of them.
Sometimes this is tough because we're taught to value the length of time as a marker of a close friendship. But one of the biggest disappointments is keeping friends who are not contributing to your happiness, goals or success.
Health
Without your health, you have nothing. Some will spend years building wealth and becoming a successful person only to have it all stripped away with one life changing health event. Your mental and physical wellness is the foundation of any habit, yet so many of us struggle to implement sustainable habits.
Now you know the other elements that may be contributing to your past progress, you can focus on the future. Success stories don't just happen. Incredible health takes time, a strong network, and mentorship.
How to Make 2024 Your Best Year Yet
It's important to rate each area of life because this will give you direction about how to make this next year your best year yet. Sometimes poor health or finances are a symptom of something deeper. For example, stressed parents often indulge in sweets for comfort after a busy day. Online shopping or ordering takeout can also be a vice for many contributing to poor finance.
In summary, if you want to make this year your best year yet:
Get clear on your core values
Revise what you're saying yes and no to
Reflect on your wins and successes
Evaluate the eight core areas of your life
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