Plan ahead for the next year to achieve your goals
We are now in the middle of November and the end of year is at sight. While normally I wait to the last week of December or first week of January to decide my goals for the next twelve months, a.k.a. New Year resolutions, this time I feel like planning already while I am in a calm state.
Having a certain peace of mind is quite important when making more or less thorough plans for the future. Why? Imagine yourself during the Christmas season: there’s gifts to buy, cards to send, parties to attend, people to visit and people to receive, plus decorations, traffic jams, cooking and the rest of regular everyday tasks. You don’t even think of what you want to achieve until December 31st 0:00 trying to decide in 10 seconds what to wish for the incoming year. So, you resort to the standard bucket list: losing weight, travel somewhere, saving money and then maybe finding a partner, quit smoking, landing a better job or position… Some have just one item on their resolutions list, others have five or more, but what I’ve recently learned is that none of it matter if you don’t take the right action.
There are many reasons why we drop our resolutions in February (or sooner), but I think that one of the most important are that we are not clear about what we really want. Instead, we formulate vague goals or worse, we fall into the trap of the “should want”. For instance, “losing weight” is a very typical New Year resolution, but it is not a very effective one, because it doesn’t tell you how much weight you want to lose, over what period of time, whether it’s dieting or exercising… and above all, why do you want to do it.
“I want” vs. “I should”
Sometimes it’s hard to know whether you actually want something or you just think you should do it. In our losing weight example you may want to drop some kilos because you want to look better or you are concerned for your health. That’s all right. But what if what is on your mind and in your heart is “I should lose weight because everyone says that it’s good for your health” or “I should lose weight because you look more fashionable at a size 36”. Do you see where I am going with this?
No good comes from setting our goals based on another person’s view of the world. Even if you realize the importance of not being overweight, perhaps right now you want to focus your energy somewhere else, like fulfilling your dream of becoming a singer. After all, you can always set a secondary goal that allows you to tackle your bodyweight with a gentler approach (i.e. have 1 portion of bread per day instead of three), but the focus must be in achieving those things that are meaningful to us.
Therefore, I believe this is a good time, without the fuzz of the holydays, to reflect about what we want to accomplish next year. That way we will be able to set meaningful goals and design plans for them so that when November 2018 arrives we won’t have to regret any opportunities missing.