What’s one of the last thoughts that come through most people’s mind before the year ends? New Year’s Resolutions for the coming year! Until here everything seems and sound perfect and achievable. But guess what…It’s more complicated than simply making a wish or wishing for something to happen unless you have some sort of super power, which most of us don’t.
Making New Year’s Resolutions without a plan on how to achieve them is wishing for something to magically happen without putting the hard/smart work. Create short-long goals instead. Setting goals that are backed-up with realistic plans, strategies and timelines will allow you to reach your objectives and create a life habit as well, hopefully.
This year I’ve decided to learn new things and make them life-habits going forward. I’ve plan to achieve the following:
- I want to be physically stronger, healthier and injury-free; therefore, I’m exercising 3-4 times per week, eating well+clean, and trying to sleep 6+ hours per night. [Check out this awesome workout app: iMuscle!]
- I want to be better at yoga and read consistently and more than last year; therefore, I’m doing yoga everyday for 10-15 minutes and reading 2-4 pages or 10-20 minutes every night. [Check out this great yoga site: DoYouYoga!]
- I want to learn a new language; therefore, I considered learning Mandarin at the beginning of this year, but I’m now focusing on learning programming (HTML, CSS, JavaScript and others) for 30-60 minutes every night instead – they’re languages after all 🙂 [Check out this programming learning website: Codecademy.com!]
Start Small
Life is about creating habits and routines, so the idea here is to start small habits that will hopefully remain for a life-long time. For example, reading – instead of trying to finish a book in 1-2 weeks, read 1-2 pages everyday from a book you enjoy, so you can feel accomplished and satisfied on achieving your daily goal. If you decide to continue after this, you’ll go above your goal, which is something great! [I’ve found this Kindle Borrow Books from Public Library very useful!]
Create a Plan
Instead of wishing for something to magically happen, create a plan and go for it. What I’ve found useful is to add these daily goals to my calendar and set reminders, so I’m constantly reminded to go for them even if I had a long, busy and exhausting day at work, traveling, or simply running errands. Try sticking to your goals and making time to follow the plan you’ve created. It’s very useful to write down your accomplishments in a book or journal as well, so you can take a look back and connect the dots when the year ends.
Do Things You Enjoy
I think the most important thing about building habits and routines is that you should do things you really want to do; learn things you really want to learn; and start doing them 2 or 3 times per week, then maybe speed up from there to every day when you feel comfortable. Don’t feel like you have to follow what people are doing, reading, or learning – remember that we all have different paths and interests. Choose what’s best for you and start now!
As a final note, we all have 24 hours per day (sadly!) – the difference between you and other people is how differently and efficiently you guys use your time.
Let’s all create habits and routines that will make us a little bit better and wiser everyday.
rich
Richard Chan 