Make 2024 Your Year: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating New Year’s Resolutions You’ll Actually Achieve
Instead of making goals that you’ll forget about in 2 weeks - follow this guide to make effective goals.
I’m willing to bet you’re well aware of the fact that the majority of people quit their New Year’s resolutions within weeks of setting them.
Better yet, most people haven’t even created them by January 1st.
Being the awesome, productive, motivated person that you are… instead of falling into this bucket of failure and procrastination, in 2024, you can set your goals a little differently.
Follow this guide and you will be able to set powerful goals AND achieve them.
Step 1: Write down everything you want.
I’m sorry to say, but if you want to set effective goals for 2024, you need to be aware it will take a little more time than usual.
That time though, will be well worth it if you follow this guide and stay consistent.
That brings us to the first step.
With a paper and a pen, write down everything that you want to happen this year.
You can do this in bullet points, or even better, as a story. But, don’t hold back and don’t be ashamed of your desires. Write it all down!
Work/business/school goals
Health/fitness goals
Relationship goals
Financial goals
Personal goals
To be able to set effective goals, you need to truly know what you want. That is why this step is so important.
Step 2: Break down your goals into steps.
Now, take everything you wrote down on that paper, and break it into 3 parts with timelines (I’ll explain in a second).
Each of those parts should be steps that are required to achieve those goals.
For example, if you wrote that you want to lose 20 pounds, break that down into 3 milestones and when you will hit them.
Lose 5 pounds by March
Lose 10 pounds by July
Lose 20 pounds by the end of the year
This may be harder for some goals but do your best.
The idea here is to make goals that are easier to achieve, and then have a follow-up goal so that you aren’t left goalless after you hit it.
Hitting these smaller milestones will motivate you to keep going.
Step 3: Add actionable steps for each goal
A goal will only ever stay as a goal if you don’t figure out how you will get there. Sure, it is important to know the destination, but it is also important to know what train station to go to.
Let’s use the weight loss goal as an example again since that is typically the most common.
I will lose 5 pounds by March by working out at the gym for 60 minutes per day, 4 days per week.
I will lose 10 pounds by July by continuing my plan, but now also cutting carbs and decreasing late-night snacks
I will lose 20 pounds by the end of the year by continuing my plan, and by starting to intermittent fast daily.
Notice how each milestone adds an extra actionable step to help get better results?
Now your goals not only have smaller milestones, but they have achievable timelines and actionable steps.
You’re well on your way to having a successful 2024.
Step 4: Turn your goals into a checklist
It feels great to be able to physically check off your milestones as you hit them.
What I recommend doing, is writing down your goals into a checklist on a document, printing it, and putting it somewhere you will see it daily.
When you hit your milestone, you can now go check it off and physically feel the satisfaction of hitting that goal.
Organize your goals based on your wants and timelines so that you know what you have to do next!
The bonus benefit of doing that is when you feel a category lacking, you can refer to this paper!
Step 5: Make a daily to-do list
It’s extremely important to know what you should be doing each day that will help you hit your goals.
You need to write a note on your phone (or in your notepad if you have one) a to-do list each morning. Refer to the checklist you printed to know what you need to add to this list.
In the past, I’ve created an entire spreadsheet with every day in the year so I can check off my actionable items each day. Nowadays, I prefer to just use the notes app on my iPhone.
With this daily to-do list, you will easily know what you need to do that will help you achieve your goals.
Here is an example of what it could look like:
Read 25 pages (personal goal)
Go to the gym for 60 minutes (fitness goals)
Tell my girlfriend I love her (relationship goal)
Put $20 into my savings account (financial goal)
Spend an extra 30 minutes working on a work project (work goal)
What you’ll realize is that you may have to create a weekly to-do list as well. That’s because a lot of these items are not necessary to complete daily, but should be done weekly.
For example, you could add:
Do a 24-hour fast (health goal)
Go on a date (relationship goal)
Spend 4 hours working on my side hustle (work goal)
Listen to a podcast on financial education (financial goal)
Meditate for 30 minutes and go for a 60 minute walk (personal goal)
Final step: Review each month
The reason most people fail to achieve their goals is because they forget about them.
The solution: A monthly review!
You want to remind yourself exactly what you are trying to accomplish.
However, I would recommend doing a couple of extra things to help drive this home and leave you feeling motivated each month.
Write down everything you want to happen once again
Meditate and visualize what you want to happen, while feeling what it would feel like when it happens.
The combination of these 2 steps is extremely powerful.
Writing down what you want to happen each month not only reminds you of your goals, but it allows you to refresh them and rethink how you want your life to go.
On top of that, this meditation practice puts your mind in the right and helps you visualize what achieving your goals looks like. It also helps you position yourself so that when you achieve your goals, you remain humble.
Closing remarks.
To have the best chance of achieving your goals in 2024, you need to complete all of these steps. Forgetting to do one of these steps will stunt or even prevent your progress!
So, now that you have this guide, the ball is in your court!
Are you going to make 2024 another year with failed goals…or are you going to make it your year?
Thanks for reading