How to Make 2021 Different Than Previous Years

Do you want to leverage the motivational boost of the new year to enact a lasting behaviour change? Here are some fool-proof tips to help you achieve this new year. 

When setting goals, we may get overly confident believing that "future me would be okay doing something that current me is not okay with." 

To bypass this, set no more than two to four "big" goals to start off. The more goals you have, the more your energy is likely to be diluted. Remember this fact about "trickle-down behaviour changes" - a habit change in one domain often results in downstream behaviour changes. For example, becoming consistent with eating healthy may result in increased motivation to exercise, even if exercising more was not one of your "big" goals. Forging discipline in school or work (for example, training yourself to be less susceptible to reaching for your phone when you should be working), may lead to greater discipline in waking up on time without hitting the snooze button. Becoming consistent with cooking more of your meals instead of eating out may lead to better spending habits elsewhere. You may end up thinking, "well, I didn't buy lunch for the past week... I don't want to kill this momentum by spending my saved money on a lipstick I don't need." 

Declutter your social media 

I know you've felt the importance of decluttering your physical space such as your bedroom, your kitchen, your office ... don't you think it's just as important to declutter your mental space? Filter the accounts you follow. Also, if you receive ads that, for example, make you want to purchase something you know you don't need, filter the ads as well. Most social media platforms, even your Gmail, allows you to pick the option of "don't show me ads like this." Remember, it takes actual energy to scroll down your feed or view stories. Your social media space should contain people you care about, and at the very least, people who don't affect you negatively. You should even go as far as to eliminate viewing pages that elicit negative envious feelings in you. If you have no chance of going on vacation any time soon but really want to, don't view the page of an influencer who's jet setting around the world. Actions like this evoke sadness or longing that you can in no way argue is productive or healthy. 

Most importantly, quantify your goal 

This is very important in order to a) actually get closer to your goal, and b) keep track of progress. Let’s say that you want to drink more water. Quantify this with “I'm going to drink eight glasses of water out of this mug every day," or "I'm going to empty this water bottle four times a way."

Write down the actions that will allow you to achieve your goal. If you want to have at least 100 000 visits to your blog every month by next year, the proper actions may be to upload a new post twice a week, and share each post on your social media. If your goal was to learn how to play the guitar, your action may be to play for 30 minutes every two days. Let's say you want to become more financially successful. A possible plan could be to invest $50 every month. Let's say you want to take control of your finances to curb your spending. A possible action would be to build a savings fund in which you would deposit the money you would otherwise have spent on clothes and food you don't need. Maybe you opt to deposit 10% of every paycheque. Harness the compounding effect. Compounding is notable in the investing world, but it is also very significant in another aspect of your life. Can you guess where? 

Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement, and the actions you take to build positive or negative habits impact you greatly a year later. A 1% improvement each day yields... a 37x difference in 1 year (1.01^365 = 37.78)! Imagine being 37x better at eating healthy, 37x more likely to get an A or a promotion, 37x better at cooking, 37x more knowledgeable about stocks... you name it!

Additionally, what lessons have you learned this pandemic? Read my article on how to improve your post-quarantine life with the information you learned during quarantine . The pandemic posed a unique opportunity to learn about oneself and the world. Don't let this negative phenomenon be just that - "negative". 

Best of luck!

Sincerely, 

Annesa