2022 - Do Something About It. 💪
Happy New Year! It's 2022. Another year has come and gone and we're onto the next one.
Now....what comes next?
Well, whatever you want.
You've got a whole year now to manifest your desired life.
And if you need that societal justification or backing, you're in luck. This is the generally accepted time to reframe, re-evaluate, and plan out your year and your aspirations for your year.
Now, it isn't necessary to start this now nor is it necessary to wait until now to begin but, if you're here and wanting to do it now, it's a good starting point.
I personally hate the waiting until January to start but I do like the new start feel. So, take whatever parts of the new year help you to start and just go with it.
Get off your ass and do something about it.
New Years Resolutions And Me
I'll tell you the things I want to do this year and maybe that'll give you the confidence or inspiration to get yours.
Amongst my friends and I, we usually get together and chat about our goals for the year. Things we want to do, things we want to focus our energy on. Think of it as accountability with a little bit of social pressure. There's 7 pillars of our lives that we want to improve or target. This year, I want to try making it a bit more specific and keep myself a little more accountable so I'll try to flush out these larger ideas into more manageable goals.
Although I wouldn't say I'm super strict on myself, I figure I might as well flush them out as specifically as I can so I can make sure that I have clear ideas about if and when I have accomplished my goals. The more vague the goal, the more vague and self-sabotaging I can be - and we're all our own worst critic.
So here are the rules:
Make goals for 7 areas of your life.
(i) Physical Health & Energy, (ii) Mindset/Emotional, (iii) Professional, (iv) Relationship/Partner, (v) Family/Friends, (vi) Financial/Income, and (vii) Free Time/Fun.
Decide on a guiding long-term goal and at least 1 short-term monthly goal
Monthly short-term goals must be written as SMART goals
The short term goals should be written as habits of do's and don'ts
Additional Considerations (Check out Mark Manson's post about habits here and Steve Schlafman's annual life review questions here for more details and the inspiration:
Consider including keystone habits
Evaluate what makes you happy, unhappy
Evaluate what current skills will make you successful
Who do you want to become?
What I will be aspiring to do this year
Here are mine.
PHYSICAL HEALTH & ENERGY
OBJECTIVES: protect my shoulder, gain some healthy weight and muscle, develop improving aesthetic, proprioception, and confidence in moving through the world in my body
Long-term goals - do a muscle up, get better L-sits, learn a planche, develop insight into how my body feels (pain, tightness, relaxation)
30 day goals
Kris will complete 100 push ups, pull ups, or squats a day with 100% consistency for 30 days. Start there, and then increase as the habit becomes a little more routine.
Kris will complete right shoulder rehabilitative exercises with 100% consistency for 30 days on a regular basis (every 2 days) with regular physio appointments for accountability and increasing difficulty.
MINDSET / EMOTIONAL
OBJECTIVE: maintain stable and calm mindset. Be grounded but also grow in emotionality or ability to express emotions. Explore and improve my communication of emotion.
Long-term goals - become a more balanced person, consider the prophylactic benefits of therapy and counselling, handle irritability in a more constructive way
30 day goals
Kris will meditate for 5 minutes a day with 100% consistency for 30 days. Start there, and then increase duration as desired. No hard target for duration, but focus on regularity
Kris will explore the benefits of prophylactic counselling/therapy with the intention to figure out what it can do for me. Whether that leads to something else will be determined but at least investigating it (via a 5-hour commitment of invested time), booking a session, etc. This will be completed via a tracked time-frame to monitor commitment of time.
PROFESSIONAL
OBJECTIVES: Continue to grow in both my profession and my entrepreneurial tendencies. This growth can be in any aspect of my professional and/or entrepreneurial desires.
Long-term goals - Grow in confidence as a clinician/supervisor. Have attempted to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities despite the fear of losing time, effort, money.
>30 day goals include:
Kris will design/make/sell a physical product. This will extend over 30 days and as such won’t be reflected in the 30 day goals but should be recognized as a long-term goal.
Kris will have 2-3 regular clients throughout the year for accent modification services.
30 day goals
Kris will complete 1 SLP-associated course every month with 100% consistency.
Specific niche areas can be pursued with increased intensity/attention as they arise (motor speech, transgender voice therapy, etc)
Kris will invest 5 hours of time per week in the pursuit of entrepreneurial goals. This can be related to learning, research, sales, marketing, design, etc.
RELATIONSHIP / PARTNER
OBJECTIVES: Continue to grow and foster a developing relationship with my wife.
Long-term goals - Connect, reconnect and connect more deeply with my wife. This goal is an ever-growing, encompassing and never-accomplished goal. I think the pursuit of this is the entirety of the goal and the ‘achievement’ may never be reached but the intention and pursuit is the very aspiration I am trying to capture.
30 day goals
Kris will write a note referencing 1 thing that was good into a jar every month with 100% consistency to capture a positive memory. This will be reviewed at the end of the year with his wife..
Kris will do something together with his wife to foster deeper insight into the relationship with his wife (via games, discussions, therapy) on a weekly basis. Some sort of scheduled regularity would facilitate increased routine frequency.
Kris will do something every day to communicate a sense of caring, love, admiration and adoration daily to his wife. It should be clear every single day that these feelings and thoughts are accompanied by action to both Kris and his partner so there are daily examples of love.
FAMILY / FRIENDS
OBJECTIVES: Ensure that my friends and family feel connected and I feel connected to them. Friendships and relationships require time and effort to grow and maintain. With negligence they can die and although I may not have concerns with their sustainability with limited attention, that is not necessarily the case from the other's perspective. This growth should extend to my family, my friends, and fostering new relationships or connections
Long-term goals - Connect, reconnect and connect more deeply with the people in my life.
30 day goals
Kris will reach out to 1 friend a week to try and foster at least 52 meaningful connections. Try to meet up or schedule a talk with them on a regular basis (+/- the challenges and reality of people's lives).
Kris will reach out to 1 family member a week for 52 meaningful interactions. Try to talk to them but if text-based interactions are the only means, then they are acceptable. Not because I value verbal over text but the time invested and attention in conversation tends to have a higher threshold of commitment and engagement.
FINANCIAL / INCOME
OBJECTIVES: Automate and increase financial standing. Do so with a sense of excitement, optimism, energy, and hunger. Once it becomes a negative, draining, demoralizing experience, consider stopping. Have insight in the privileged position you are coming from, recognizing and accepting a healthy sense of greed and hunger but also acknowledging the humble beginnings and humility required to know you didn't arrive here alone.
Long-term goals - Increase investment contributions. Right now I'm at around 10% for safer, passive investments and dabbling with some more active investing on the side. I'd like to increase that to 15-20% and see how that effects my quality of life and budget a bit more.
30 day goals
January - Kris will establish a blueprint for the year in terms of annual goals (based on percentages of income) and/or absolute value monetary numbers for savings and investments for reverse-engineering the needed budgets
Kris will make an extra $200 this month (above what is expected). He can do this by selling something, attaining a new client, reselling, doing transcription services, surveys, etc.
FREE TIME / FUN
OBJECTIVES: Remember to have fun in life. Things don't always have to be done right or perfect. You have the tendency to want live life "the right way" and that sense of ethics, morality and duty leads to a self-sacrificing way of life that does no one any good and leaves you frustrated with all the "sacrificing" you do. No one is asking you to live this way and if it leaves you frustrated, it isn't something you are doing in good conscious or with the positive effect you put on a pedestal.
Long-term goals - Build fun into your schedule and routine. It should come naturally, should incorporate your other goals and as a result, be built-in to your life. Happiness and fun shouldn't be an extra, nor should it be on the opposite end of productivity so make sure those two aren't at odds.
30 day goals:
Kris will spend 1 hour a day doing something photography related with 100% accuracy. It doesn't have to be taking photos every day but it should be in the pursuit of this interest. Reading about photography, practicing photography, shooting, anything that is related to exploring the craft of photography.
Kris will create and publish 1 video a month. It does or doesn't have to be related to business. The idea is the regularity of publishing should help you establish habits, routines, familiarity with the programs so you can do this regularly. It can be trip-related, story-telling related, accent mod related, etc.....but something. It can be of any length but the length should be explored or varied.
What I challenge you to do
I challenge you to spend some time this year doing an annual review or a 2022 action plan. Design the life you want. Don't let life happen to you.
Cause once you realize you have a primary, integral role in how your 2022 begins, looks, and ends, you step out of a back-seat role in what happens, take responsibility for how it looks and need to walk the walk.
I won't stand here and say I'm impervious to fault or laziness or am lecturing from a superior place. But I recognize that this is a start to me taking control of my life. And I hope you can do the same for yourself. I’ll also try to update my list regularly as I add or change monthly goals.