Maintaining your New Year’s resolutions might be really difficult. Eighty percent of people forget their New Year’s resolutions by January 12 and only eight percent of people accomplish their goals by the end of the year, according to University of Scranton academics in the United States. In his podcast On Purpose with Jay Shetty, well-known life coach and author Jay Shetty discusses how he learned all of his lessons from Hindu monks while spending three years living in a monastery. “Every new year represents a new chapter that needs to be written,” he shared. “If you write it unconsciously, you end up living a life you don’t really want to live. You have to create something new, without perpetuating what has failed in the past.”
1. Concentrate on the skills you wish to learn
“The first question to ask yourself once you’ve set a goal is: what do I need to learn to achieve it? The intention here is to know what to focus on, and to think about the learning behind the goal. What skills do I need to acquire? What qualities do I need to develop? What habits should I change? For example, if you want to create more creative content on social networks in 2024, you need to learn about storytelling, editing, publishing… If it’s eating more healthily, you may need to develop mental skills to lift certain blocks. Simply saying ‘I won’t eat sugar anymore’ won’t work if you don’t have a concrete vision of the self-development process needed to get there.”
2. Enlist the exceptions and channelize priorities
“If we generally don’t achieve our goals, it’s because we accept too many things that aren’t our priorities (and vice versa). We need to clarify the criteria on which we say “yes”, “no” or “maybe” to the opportunities that will arise this year. If your good resolution is to do more sport, you can say to yourself that you decline all proposals that take place during the time blocked for your session. For me, my “workout time” is every day from 8.30am to 9 am. I’ve identified one and only one reason why I might miss it (apart from family emergencies or personal problems): a press interview opportunity (which is an exception). Everything else is non-negotiable. If your priority is to get up earlier, you must decline invitations to late-night parties. By not clearly defining these criteria, confusion takes over. If you’re confused in your choices, you often end up lost and achieve nothing. And since we don’t do it consciously, we need to set rules for ourselves.”
3. Keep your customized plan of action
“Minute by minute, skill by skill. It’s like climbing a ladder. The goal is at the top, and the action plan lies in building each of the bars to get there. A common mistake when making good resolutions is to focus only on the last step of the ladder. However, you need to build the 1,2,3… or even 7 intermediate steps to get there. If you want to find a new job, we tend to think that you should immediately start looking for other job offers. But that’s not enough. You have to ask yourself: how? “I’ll talk to people who are in the industry”. And here again, how? “I’ll ask my friends for their contact”. How? “I’ll text them now”. If your ladder doesn’t start with a step/activity you can do right away, it’s not an action plan. I’m going to the gym 3 times a week is not an action plan. I’m going to the gym to do such-and-such exercise(s), at this very moment: that’s an action plan. The action plan can be broken down as such: when I’m going to do it, what I’m going to do, how I’m going to do it, with whom and (very importantly) why?”
4. Integrate your permanent keyword within the action plan
“Like the Chinese calendar, which associates an animal with each year, it’s important to determine the leitmotif that will qualify 2024. For me, 2018 was the year dedicated to social networks, 2019, the year of my podcast, 2020, the year of my book. We need to point out what will guide our year, devoting all our attention to it and making it a priority. It can also be the year of your family, your passion, or the creation of your business. It has to be something simple. And then there are the 3 Ls to integrate into the next 12 months:
- Learning: educate yourself on something specific, like parenthood for example. With the intention of being well prepared. Andultimately, by exploring and developing your creativity, to be happier.
- Launching: whether it’s a book, a relationship or a career, the idea is to find a reason to be passionate and enthusiastic about, one that requires full concentration, new skills and talents.
- Loving: this could be podcasts, videos, stability, constancy…
The 3 L’s are about self-fulfillment, feeling fulfilled and providing new energy that will set the tempo for 2024.”
