It’s now a new year and the time where most people have started the 2023 goals and resolutions. For some 2023 will be a great year and they will achieve most or all of the goals or resolutions. For others 2023 will be another lost year, another promising year was wasted and you are back at the drawing board.
It doesn’t have to be this way. With the right set up, planning and structure 2023 can be a great year and for some the best year of their life. Below we go through 5 tips to reach your 2023 goals.
1. Set realistic goals and resolutions
One of the most important development steps you can take is to set goals or create a plan. A well set out plan or list of goals can put you on the fast track to success and set your life up the way you want to live.
On the other hand, setting impossible or unrealistic goals or resolutions can also do the opposite. It can stop any positive momentum you may have, put a dent into your hopes and dreams (at least for the year) and you will likely drift through another underperforming year.
So how do you avoid this?
Set realistic and achievable (yet challenging) goals.
Look at the various areas of your life that you want to achieve something great in 2023 in, this could be career, health/fitness, financial, family or even a personal goal such as wanting to learn a new skill.
Find a goal (or several goals) in one of these areas and challenge yourself. However, make it achievable.
For example if we use fitness as an example. For someone who hasn’t trained or really exercised in years, setting a goal to run a marathon in just 3 months is highly likely to end badly.
On the flip side, if you are fit and have been training for some time and can easily run 5km in 25 minutes, setting a 5km goal of 24 minutes and 30 seconds doesn’t exactly scream “challenging goal”.
When setting your goals, if you aren’t being pushed out of your comfort zone then you need to raise the bar higher.
2. Make sure you check in regularly
The easiest way to make sure you are on track to achieve your goals is to check in regularly. For example if your big financial goal for the year was to save $10,000 for the year to fund a luxury holiday by breaking this amount into months (ignoring the fact that expenses aren’t linear) in theory you should have saved roughly $835 per month.
If you logged into your online banking and didn’t see nearly $2,500 saved after three months then (assuming no one off planned expenses) something isn’t working. This could be that you didn’t take into account your budget, that your living expenses are too high or that you need to find additional income to reach this savings goal.
Regular check-ins (ideally with an accountability partner or coach) can help keep you on track, give you the ability to change course or even higher help to get you to your goal.
3. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself particularly if you slip up
One slip up shouldn’t end your goal pursuit and should not give you thoughts of giving up. In an article on his website, Atomic Habits author James Clear writes “The most successful people in the world slip up on their habits too. What separates them isn’t their willpower or motivation, it’s their ability to get back on track quickly.”
A perfect example is setting a fitness or weight loss goal. Let’s say you want to lose 15 pounds this year and part of your plan is changing your diet. Let’s say that for the first 15 days of January you stuck to this plan however on the 16th you slipped. Too many people give up if that happens thinking they;ve failed. If they get back on the path and keep going for the next 15 days then assess how the month has gone.
Compare that to how your previous months have been and I’d say that your January month (even after your “slip up”) was a raging success! Keep that up (even if there is another “slip up” or two) and you will crush your goals!
If things don’t go well, stop, breathe and assess! Don’t go straight to a dark place, where you want to quit and go back to your bad ways, turn any negative self talk around and focus on what you didn’t achieve, not a minor “slip up”.
In the above example see that your January was a success as for 30 of 31 days you did exactly what you set out to do and in my book that is an awesome near 97% success rate!
4. Invest in yourself to achieve your goal
Aside from planning out how you will attempt to achieve your goal, you should also be setting aside a budget for training or equipment to achieve your goal. This could be anything from purchasing new shoes and training gear for a fitness goal through to finding a personal coach to help you with the intricacies of your chosen endeavor, ie guitar teacher when learning the guitar.
Now if your budget doesn’t allow much to be invested this isn’t the end of the world however it will likely take longer to get to where you want to go with your goals. If you can spend money on quality coaching in the area you are trying to achieve this should be high on your priorities.
Get the best equipment you can afford (relative to your budget).
The same approach should be applied for quality training and coaching. Let’s say you are trying to learn a new hobby such as kite surfing or a musical instrument (i.e piano). Yes you can try this on your own or search for YouTube videos to try and help however your progress will likely be stunted (definitely don’t try kite surfing without a qualified instructor!)
There is a reason why professional athletes hire coaches, it helps them achieve peak performance!
In person training with some qualified and experienced will likely produce the best results however your budget will determine how likely this can be achieved. If this goal is important to you it might be worthwhile sacrificing in other areas to get the coaching to achieve your 2023 goal.
5. Find an accountability partner to help you achieve your goal
Going back to the fitness example, isn’t it easier to continue with something if you have someone to answer to? It’s easier to flake on a morning run (particularly when it’s cold and wet) or nightly gym session if it’s just you. When you are training with someone else, it’s a different story particularly if you are the type of person who doesn’t like to let others down.
When setting your goals (particularly if they are more individual such as learning a musical instrument or writing a book) you may want to reach out to someone close to you who you trust implicitly and confide your goals to them and ask them to keep you accountable.
No matter how excited you are at the start of the year and how much you enjoy something you will hit a roadblock (particularly if the goal is significant and challenging) and you will benefit from having an accountability partner or someone who can help you stay the course.
If you don’t have someone like this in your life you can try and reach out to anyone who has done something similar to what you are looking to achieve and if possible ask them if you can chat to them or if they can provide any tips that helped their success.
If you’ve struggled in the past to achieve your goals, following the above 5 points will likely turbo charge your success. Once you achieve your goals, don’t forget to reward yourself once you achieve your success.
From a small personal gift to yourself to a larger reward such as a watch or jewelry for a bigger goal, this may help you with further motivation to hit your goals and finish your 2023 well. Yes achieving the goal itself is great however if you tie in a reward this can give extra motivation to achieving your goals.
Good luck with all your endeavors this year and let’s make 2023 your best year yet!