3 Guidelines To Accomplish Your Goals This Year
A few surprisingly simple reminders to inspire daily action.
“Not every step needs to be planned-just begin.”
I’ve struggled with this for as long as I can remember.
Specifically with maintaining a journaling practice. I’m fully aware of the benefits and mental clarity that derive from journaling by hand, whether first thing in the morning or before bed.
I just don’t want to sit down and do it, because that’ the hard part. A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.
I’ve tried lighting candles, writing at a desk, writing on a yoga mat, meditating before, meditating after, researching best journaling protocol, following along with “journal with me” youtube videos….you get the picture.
What I’ve accepted this year, is; the best routine is the one you actually do. If that means rolling out of bed and sitting under a hideous fluorescent light and writing down 3 things I’m grateful for, that’s better than nothing.
This applies to so much more than journaling. Starting an exercise habit, cooking more at home, starting the online business you’ve been thinking about for 5 years…sometimes it takes quantity over quality to establish the routine and habit.
2. “If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.”
You know what’s easy?
Never moving out of your hometown, staying in a mediocre job for 15 years because it’s comfortable and rotating between the same 3–5 hobbies for the rest of your life.
If you want to experience actual change, you have to chase the fear-perceived or real.
For example, when I was 21 and completing an Outdoor Recreation degree I decided it would be a beneficial, “character building” experience to work as a Wilderness Therapy Guide in Utah.
I was basically in charge of keeping groups of teenagers alive in the desert for a week at a time who had previously been dealing with substance abuse.
My own training was only a week long, and then we were set loose as wilderness guides. I have many thoughts about the entire industry which I won’t go into now-but essentially it got me so far out of my comfort zone, it was impossible to bounce back into “normal”.
The experience changed my entire view of adventure and what I was capable of on my own. It inspired further travel on my own after graduating, and many more wild experiences in the outdoors for years to come after that.
So even though I was stalked by a cougar at 2am with unruly teenage boys, it was absolutely worth it.
3. “If you feel trapped, change something.”
Feeling trapped is a sensation I’m all too familiar with. There’s probably some underlying reasons to this, but I tend to move every 3–6 months and dabble in jobs for similar stretches of time.
That’s just me though. I know that I constantly seek new experiences and crave variety. While this is a bit of a nightmare come tax season, and establishing any real sense of a homebase, it’s also provided me with an incredibly varied set of life experiences.
From living in my parents basement and working in a sandwich shop, to moving to a remote mountain town and being a trip photographer for an outdoor company, I’m a huge believer that your environment shapes your potential.
You just have to decide what your priorities are.
Say you’re trying to establish a habit of going to the gym 3x/week. It’s going to be a lot more seamless to establish that habit if the gym is walking distance, or on your way to work-as opposed to driving for 20 minutes in the opposite direction.
Or another age old favorite-eating healthier. It’s probably going to require less mental distress by simply not having the temptation foods in your pantry, instead of knowing it’s there and relying on willpower.
Don’t make yourself rely on willpower-use environment shaping to your advantage instead-and change something.