New Year, Same Me

5, 4, 3, 2, 1... Happy New Year! As the sounds of the New Year cheering and horns ringing filled my ears, I began to panic. Jeez, another year has gone by and I still haven’t accomplished the goals I have set out for myself.

However, that doesn’t mean I didn’t do anything. At this time last year, I was dating my significant other and now I’m married, meaning I had a proposal and marriage in a year's time period. What an accomplishment! I graduated with a master's degree and I got my highest-paid full-time job to date. All fantastic accomplishments! But they were not the individual goals that I set for myself, the little goals that very few people even know that I have.

The goals I’ve had included writing a book, creating a website, and launching my own business. None of these things happened to the full extent that I wanted. They are all partially completed. Yet, I feel that they are not complete. I know I want to spend more time on it. This is where I will focus on my new year's goals this upcoming year.

I’ve been reading a lot recently. As a writer, reading is an essential component of growth. I’ve been reading a lot of self-help/self-motivation books. In these books, they talk about how to stay motivated during the everyday setbacks that may happen. They talk about finding your why and reminding yourself of these reasons during the struggle that is everyday life. Writing is something that I enjoy doing, but find every excuse in the book NOT to do. Why do humans do this? We have these goals and wants in life, yet we convince ourselves not to do them. “Oh I’ll have tomorrow” or “I’ll do it later” only to have later roll around and feel too tired to do anything at that time.

One of the biggest pieces of advice in these books was to start now. Take action now and do the things you want to do today. Do not wait until you’re ready to do it. This is the goal that I will have as I transition into the new year. If I want to write every day, I will sit down for five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes and write, no excuses and no waiting for motivation to strike. If I want to workout, I’ll get off the couch and move. I’ll start at one minute and work my way up from there. My goal for the new year is to spend more time on the everyday little goals that I have to better benefit my overall wellbeing in life. Because today plus today plus today equals life and I want my life to be the healthiest and most successful life I can make.

So every day I will have my daily to-do list. I’ll start with a very simple to-do list of:

Write for five minutes

Read for five minutes

Workout for five minutes

Work on my business for five minutes

This to-do list will be the bare minimum. I know myself and I know that everytime I sit down and do five minutes of writing, I spend at least fifteen minutes on it instead. The minimum gets the momentum flowing and momentum is exactly what everyone needs to start and keep going.

A new year means a fresh start and a beginning that feels more important than simply a new day, week, or month. It feels so much bigger, if only we treated each day as we did the new year. Perhaps we would make so much more happen for ourselves every single day.