Say goodbye to 2022 and hello to 2023. We have a lot to be grateful for as we look back on this past year. For me personally, 2022 was the year that I started going to therapy to improve myself, I have a new girlfriend, and I started The Mindful Zoomer again. With that being said, it’s time for us to quit dwelling on the past, and instead establish our new year’s goals for 2022.
As with the coming of every new year, people worldwide will sit down and hash out what they want to accomplish in 2023. Now, I’ll be honest with you guys. I’ve never actually set any new year’s goals. This will be the first year that I plan on getting serious about establishing goals, tracking their progress, and ultimately achieving them. When I wrote down my personal goals, I broke them up into 4 categories. In addition, I made sure my goals aligned with the concept of ‘control what you can control,’ and you should do the same. Our goals are based on effort and consistency, not validation and external results. Accomplishing our goals in each of these categories can turn 2023 from ‘just another year’ into the year that we got one step closer to becoming the best version of ourselves.
Business Goals
Business goals can be summarized as, goals that a company, entity, organization, or individual hopes to accomplish in a set period of time. For the purposes of this article, our set period of time would be 1 year (2023). It’s important for businesses to set goals so they have something to shoot for. It establishes the mission and allows us to break down the steps necessary in order to ultimately accomplish that mission.
A 2023 Business Goal of Mine:
“I WILL post 26 articles on The Mindful Zoomer in 2023 (1 article every other week).”
Hobby Goals
Have you ever wanted to pick up a new hobby? Maybe you’ve always wanted to learn how to snowboard, play “Eye of the Tiger” on the drums or go fly fishing in Alaska. Well, 2023 is the year to do it. Hobbies are something that everyone should have for a few reasons. First off, they can allow us to find relaxation outside of our stressful day-to-day lives. On the flip side, they can also bring us excitement if we’re into hobbies such as skydiving, deep-sea fishing, or hang gliding. Lastly, hobbies make us more interesting people. They help us become more well-rounded, introduce us to new people, and expand our horizons on what the world has to offer.
A 2023 Hobby Goal of Mine:
“I WILL hike the ‘Mystic Falls, Fairy Creek, and Little Firehole Loop‘ at Yellowstone National Park.”
Physical Goals
When we see the words ‘physical goals’, we immediately assume that these are related to working out and lifting weights. However, these can also be related to diet. For instance, maybe we want to start drinking more water, cut down on our caffeine intake, or start incorporating new foods into our meals. These are all examples of goals related to diet, not physical activity. In reality, we would want to incorporate both physical activity AND diet in order to improve our well-being.
A 2023 Physical Goal of Mine:
“I WILL drink 100 oz of water every single day.”
Mental Goals
As science continues to advance, we’re learning more and more about the importance of our mental health in today’s society. According to the CDC, approximately 1 in every 5 Americans will experience a mental illness in a given year. If you’ve read my first article, you know that I struggled with my mental health for a short period in college. The rut that it puts us in can feel unescapable at times, and we may begin to believe that it’s become a permanent part of our lives. However, by setting effective goals for our mental health, we can avoid or minimize the suffering that we’re going through. Mental health should always be a top priority so we can enjoy what life has to offer.
A 2023 Mental Goal of Mine:
“I WILL meditate for 10 minutes every single morning.”
How to Follow Through
We did it. We established our goals for 2023 in order to take that next step toward becoming the best version of ourselves. Now comes the hard part, actually following through with those goals. Year after year, people flood the gyms in January in order to get into the best shape of their lives. However, most of these people fizzle out by the time February rolls around. Why is that? This happens because these people are riding the wave of motivation. Motivation is powerful and it overtakes us, but only for a short period of time. Motivation can’t be relied on to push us through to the finish line. Self-discipline and consistency are what turn those broken goals into fulfilled ones. Here are my 5 keys to success if we want to accomplish our goals in 2023!
1) Be Optimistic AND Realistic
When we set our goals for the new year, we want to be as optimistic as possible. We want to set goals that will challenge us and force us to step outside of our comfort zones. That being said, we should also be realistic in our assessment of what we can achieve in a given year. For example, if one of my goals was to “eat 1,000,000 hot dogs in 2022”, that would be pretty optimistic (and weird) right? However, the ability to eat 1,000,000 hot dogs in a year is nearly impossible and I would never be able to do that, even if I was Joey Chestnut. Be both optimistic AND realistic in your goals for 2023.
2) Write them Down
This concept should be pretty self-explanatory. We can conjure up our goals for the new year inside of our minds as much as we’d like, but our memory might not be as strong as we think it is. Writing our goals down can do a few things. First, it makes it easier to whip out our journal, notebook, laptop, iPad, or whatever we want to use, and remember what we had written down. In addition, having them written down also allows us to track our progress more easily. Lastly, having our goals written down keeps us focused on the bigger picture. Our goals may seem unattainable if we’re looking through the scope of one month. However, twelve months of continuous improvement can amass into something much greater. Write your goals down.
3) Quantity > Quality
This is one of those rare occurrences where quantity is actually better than quality. When it comes to relationships, writing articles, and our work, quality is clearly better than quantity. However, when it comes to our new year’s goals, quantity will always be better than quality, so allow me to explain. We do want to set quality goals yes, but we also want to set goals that are quantitative in nature. Let’s compare two new year’s goal examples, “I will get in better shape” vs. “I will go to the gym 5 times a week”. Clearly the second example is easier to track and is thus a better new year goal. Quantifying our goals eliminates subjectivity and creates objectivity. At the end of the year, we could possibly say that we got into better shape, but we can be absolutely sure that we went to the gym 5 times a week. Let’s quantify our goals this year.
4) Track Your Progress
I briefly mentioned this in the second key, but we have to track our progress throughout 2023. We should track our progress on a monthly basis. Tracking our progress is beneficial for a couple of reasons. First off, it turns those elephant-sized goals into bite size pieces. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “How do you eat an elephant?”, to which we respond, “One bite at a time”. It may seem silly, but the concept is still valid. Breaking up our ambitious goals can make them seem more attainable. In addition, tracking our progress can provide us with an extra sense of motivation. When we begin, our progress may not seem like much, but continuous progress over the course of 12 months will definitely add up. This is called the “Compound Effect“. The compound effect can be summarized as, when small everyday choices compound into dramatic results. Both of these concepts can help us accomplish our goals for the new year. Track your progress.
5) Celebrate Small Victories
My final key to success is to celebrate the small victories. If you have a goal to start a blog, YouTube channel, business, or anything that involves taking a leap of faith, I know how easy it can be to become discouraged and give up. Celebrating our small victories can push us to keep going and keep striving towards accomplishing what we’ve always envisioned for ourselves. For instance, when I was thinking about starting this blog, I put it off for what felt like forever. I would tell myself, “I’ll just start next week”, or “I’ll just wait until I get my next paycheck to purchase my domain name”. I gave myself those excuses that weren’t actually valid, but they allowed me to continually push it off. When I finally established the blog name, I gained some momentum. Then I purchased my domain, and a gained a little bit more momentum. Then I published my first article and gained even more momentum. Now, I’m continuously putting out content and finding ways to improve the blog each and every day. Celebrating the small victories can turn those baby steps into a full-blown sprint.
Here’s to the New Year
Let’s take some time to sit back and reflect on this past year. 2022 may have been the best year of your life, the worst year of your life, or maybe it was just eh. However, we can all acknowledge the fact that 2022 taught us life lessons, both good and bad. We should celebrate our accomplishments, learn from our mistakes, and realize that we still have room to improve. Setting our goals for 2023 can give us the roadmap we need to craft the year that we want. We should shoot for the stars but realize our capabilities. Let us also quantify our goals so they’re concrete, objective, and easy to determine if we were successful. Lastly, let us celebrate how far we’ve come, but realize that we still have a long way to go. Happy New Year!
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Stay mindful!
