10 Ways to Achieve Your New Year’s Goals
Although they are not the first words you’ll have read on the subject, and certainly not the last, I hope that you find these ideas helpful in achieving your goals.
1. Set a Goal You’re 90 Percent Sure You Can Achieve
You’ll naturally want to be more ambitious, but if you’re the kind of person reading an article on how to “actually” achieve your goals, you should probably aim to get a win on your belt instead. Besides, studies have consistently shown a confidence bias that makes us overstate our odds—so 90 percent will be plenty hard enough for most.
2. Work on 1 Goal at a Time
Again with the overconfidence: Most people think that they can pull off more than they actually can, based on their own track record. Unless you’ve already achieved the past five goals you set out for yourself—in which case, maybe you should be writing instead of reading this article—then I would focus on one thing at a time and allow things to snowball from there.
3. Transform Your Goal Into a Daily Process
Once you’ve set your goal mentally, it’s time to stop thinking about it as a one-time outcome. Your goal might be to complete a 5K run in under 25 minutes, but now you need to focus almost exclusively on what that looks like day to day. Don’t keep thinking about the goal—think about the daily training.
4. Think About When and Where You’ll Make Progress
What exactly about the daily process should you think about? Focus on when and where you’ll do it. This is easier for positive goals and a bit trickier for goals that involve giving up a bad habit— you can adapt as needed. Half the battle is showing up daily. People typically don’t fall short of their goals because they didn’t make enough progress each day, but because of too many “zero” days, where they didn’t show up at all.
5. Be Ruthless About Removing Friction
Friction is now your sworn enemy. If your goal is to stop snacking after dinner, then consider brushing your teeth soon after that meal. Just knowing you’ll have to brush again is a surprisingly good deterrent, even though it’s small. Want to write in your journal? Lay it out on your pillow with a nice pen and a pleasant reading light already on—make it as easy as possible.
6. Don’t Treat Yourself Like a Drill Sergeant Would
One way you’ll fail at your goals is if you can’t get your future self to agree to stick to the plan. This kind of defection is common if you start treating yourself like a mean boss would. If you do, you’ll simply decide that you won’t put up with being miserable. So don’t do that. Set goals you care about, make them small, and leave plenty of slack and room for fun.
7. Think About How to Make Your Habit Enjoyable
Speaking of fun, you should try to make the new habit something you look forward to, using whatever means necessary. Obviously, this will be a challenge because if it were naturally fun and effortless, you’d already be doing it. Attitude has a lot to do with it, and so do expectations. Lower your expectations low enough that simply showing up is a victory. Don’t aim for quality—aim for consistency. Allow quality to come naturally over time.
8. Write Down the Obstacles You Think You’ll Face
Any plan for success needs to take full accounting of the fact that failure is possible, if we’re being honest. Imagine various scenarios in which you fail to achieve this goal, and think about why. Now take the obvious next step and think through how you might avoid those snares.
9. Track Your Progress Visibly
In order for a new habit to stick, you want it to be rewarding for its own sake. Especially in the beginning, the reward might simply be seeing your success streak get longer. That is perfectly fine, and even encouraged. The feeling of pride you’re experiencing here is a form of intrinsic motivation. You’re doing something because it feels good, and you chose to do it, and that is a recipe for greater motivation.
10. Consider Upping the Stakes
Both the carrot and the stick have a place in a good motivational scheme. In this case, it’s worth thinking through what that “stick” would look like for you. A good place to start is with two of the most powerful incentives known to man: money and status. There are various ways to set up “bets” with your friends so that you are forced to pay a penalty for not sticking to your plan. I recommend issuing many small penalties for the days you missed, rather than a single large penalty for not reaching your goal. Plus, you’ll have the added pressure of not wanting to look bad in front of your friends. You may as well harness these natural impulses for good, since we know how powerful they can be.
