Business Post Contributor
The beginning of a new year is always a special time when people are energized and excited to make resolutions and come up with ideas on how to make the year a great one.
Most would agree that it is a perfect time to celebrate your wins and reflect on your low points – a time to plan for the future and begin implementing positive changes in your life.
At the start of the year, anything and everything seems possible. And although many of us pursue new plans and goals with eagerness and vigour, somewhere along the line, the list of things we want to achieve feels too difficult, perhaps due to getting caught up in the all-too-familiar daily grind, or our schedules becoming too busy.
However, making your plans work doesn’t need to be difficult and stressful. The most important thing is to set yourself up for success. Here are tips that can help you:
Start with smaller goals
To have a greater year ahead, start your implementation plan with small goals. There’s nothing wrong with having small goals. Though they may not be as impressive to talk about, they’re much easier to stick with and see real results from. They are also easier to achieve on a regular basis, which means you can set them more often, build off them and constantly see yourself getting better.
Become inspired
Are you starting a business, or trying to further your education, or venturing into something new? It is key to learn how to inspire and motivate yourself. You need to approach each day in a positive way so that you can achieve. Get the right motivational tools such as books, videos, and documentaries that align with your plans and inspire you positively. Being inspired is one of the best ways to have a kinder year.
Live a healthy lifestyle
A healthy lifestyle simply means doing things that make you happy and feel good. Most successful people understand and live by this important principle. It’s a pointer towards having a great year as this will allow you to perform at a high level on a consistent basis. You can start by getting into a normal sleep routine, allocating as much time for sleep as necessary to feel refreshed and rejuvenated.
Exercise is also fundamental to your overall health and wellbeing. It is an investment in your health, life, longevity, and productivity. You need to make time for regular exercise to provide yourself with strength, energy and vitality to be more effective as you pursue your goals.
Acquire new skills
Every goal and plan requires new actions, which typically require new skills. To achieve some of the plans you have set for yourself this year, you need to take a moment to examine yourself and identify those skills you would like to acquire. Skills are learnable, so once these skills have been identified, start sourcing people and resources that can help you to acquire those skills. The only people who become old-fashioned in business are those who stop learning new skills.
Don’t get distracted by chores
We all have those areas in the house we know need a really good clean, like windows, the shower walls or kitchen cupboards. You may not have the time or energy to tackle those chores, but having a list of tasks that never actually gets done is akin to having unfulfilled goals, and can make you feel demotivated. A study from Wake Forest University in North Carolina showed that, while tasks we haven’t done distract us, just making a plan to get them done can free us from this anxiety. This weekend, take a walk around the house and make a list of things you’d like to get done, then hire a domestic worker through SweepSouth Connect’s app to come in and help you. It’s amazing how just being in a cleaner, fresher space can make us feel instantly more positive.
Drink a toast to small successes
Big wins are great, but they’re rare and can take a long time to achieve. We often focus more on the big goal rather than the small and significant steps we need to take to get us there. Celebrating and acknowledging our small wins is a great way to motivate ourselves and garner the strength to keep pursuing the bigger picture. We need to realise that our big goals aren’t going to happen overnight, which is why we must celebrate our small successes as we achieve them.
Spend quality time with friends and family
One of the ways to have a great year is to be full of happiness all year round, and spending quality time with friends and family makes a big difference when it comes to happiness. According to Professor Daniel Gilbert, a Harvard social psychologist, “We are happy when we have family, we are happy when we have friends and almost all the other things we think make us happy are actually just ways of getting more family and friends.”
So, while money can’t buy you happiness, spending time with the ones you love is always a good investment!
