I have a love-hate relationship with New Year’s Resolutions.
On one hand, it’s awesome that people are thinking about how to improve. On the other hand, most people make grand resolutions only to lapse into old habits by January 6th.
But first, we need to establish some definitions.
Is a resolution just another name for a one-year goal? Or do you already have your goals set and then you add a resolution because you were asked at a New Year’s Eve dinner party? Or if you make an off-the-cuff resolution and then add planning, does it become a goal?
I might be overthi…ok, I’m definitely overthinking this. But I’m honestly kind of confused.
Here’s where I’m at now (please feel free to chime in): Compared to goals, resolutions are whimsical, more of a conversation starter than a method for keeping oneself accountable. Once you add planning, a resolution becomes a goal. Without planning, a resolution won’t hold up.
For instance, let’s say you come up with a resolution to run a marathon. Will you even have time to train? Why do you want to do it? Did you want to do it before someone asked you about your resolutions?
Without thinking something through, it’s destined to fail.
So I would rather talk about goals and systems.
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Every year I make goals, then try to line up my time accordingly.
Here were my 2018 goals.
1. Start a business out of college (I honestly forgot about this one)
2. Graduate in three years
3. Become a better friend and more generous
4. Genuinely be interested in other people
How did I do?
1. This one snuck up on me but here we are. Thanks to you all. Hopefully, we can keep it up. It’s not easy and most days are a struggle but I really enjoy it.
2. Yep.
3. Pretty subjective. Maybe a marginal improvement? You can’t force these things, it can help by just being aware though.
4. Same thing here so maybe these last two aren’t good goals, but I feel I’ve improved a little more here. Just with focus and listening.
Reflection on 2018 goals:
1 &2. I’m happy about the first two. Cool how it worked out.
3 & 4. I like the idea of the last two but hard to measure and seek out feedback (more on this in another post soon!).
But how is 2019 looking?
I’ll try to be SMART-er with my goals.
S- pecific
M- easurable
A- chieveable
R- elevant
T- ime-bound
Here are my 2019 goals:
1. Bring in $______ in monthly recurring revenue through Investing City (would rather not reveal numbers but I have one in mind. I would like to be fully transparent but maybe I’m insecure about how much I’m making now. Only can go up from here! 😊).
2. Exercise for 30 mins every day (start with 20 push-ups per day for the first month).
3. Become proficient in Python (still trying to figure out a way to measure proficiency. Also, if you know it, I’d love to hear of any good resources).
4. Open up an RIA (registered investment advisor).
5. Be less selfish (I’ll measure this by the amount of daily time I remembered consciously thinking about other people).
So there we have it. These goals are SMART-er and hopefully, we can make this a yearly thing. I would love it if you posted three of your own goals for 2019. You can either post them as a comment here on this blog post (the preferred method) or just reply to this email and I’ll aggregate them somehow.
If you’re adding a new goal, I think the key is starting small.
For exercise, I’m just starting out with 20 push-ups per day and then gradually working up to 30 minutes. And for learning Python, I’ll try 5 mins/day at first. It’s just the frequency that counts in the beginning rather than the amount of time. Once you build the consistency, you can ramp up the length.
I’m excited for 2019 and I hope you are too! Let’s aim as high as we can without making it too burdensome. Maybe re-reading this post is a good place to start.
Onwards and upwards…
I have a feeling 2019 is gonna be awesome.
Don’t forget to let me know your three goals!
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