Tagalog Version (Click Here)
It’s said that those who fail to plan, plan to fail. Most of us just run on an automatic schedule, just drifting along through life, forgetting to seriously plan our futures. We wake up, eat breakfast, commute to work, spend our day working, commute home, and watch TV or browse the internet before bed. That process repeating until the weekend, and we almost always waste those rest days on some mindless entertainment or leisure activity.
How often do we set aside some time for the things that give long-term benefits? The things that will grant us more happiness in the long run? Almost never. Most of us are content with mindlessly repeating our daily schedule until we grow too old to work (and die).
Very few people, if any, drift along through life and find themselves successful. Most of life’s greatest achievements are first planned, and THEN earned through years of effort. This year, let’s think a little further into the future and plan for our own success and improvement.
How to Earn More Successes this New Year
We all have different goals and dreams and different wants and needs. While it’s easy for us to tell other people what they should do in life, we’ll probably just get annoyed when people do it to us. That is why we won’t force anything on you here. We’ll just offer some suggestions that you might want to consider, but ultimately you are the one who gets to decide what to do.
You are still the one in charge of your destiny after all.
So… what are your success plans this coming year?
Again, remember that people who fail to plan plan to fail. Are you just going to let this year pass by without ever achieving anything new? We hope not (but it’s your choice either way). In any case, why not spare a few minutes to think and plan for your own self-improvement?
After all, if we never think about the things we want to or COULD do, we’ll probably never even start. Why not start thinking about ways to improve your life this new year?
Improve your health?
Most people want to improve their health, and thanks to the “new year’s resolution” tradition, a lot of fitness gyms tend to be crowded every January. Unfortunately, most people aren’t that good at keeping positive changes so almost 80% of gym goers drop out before June.
You don’t need to start an extreme fitness regime and diet to improve your health. If anything, that’ll make you just want to quit. Some little changes like drinking a couple more glasses of water every day or adding just another hour of sleep (for those who don’t have a good sleep schedule) would bring great benefits in the long term, so why not start with something like those? Try to look for a couple of healthy improvements you can do, and try it.
Career advancement or business improvement?
What is your current position in your job? An entry-level employee or maybe middle management? What about your salary? How many people does your business serve and how much do you earn from your business? Are you planning on staying stuck at that level forever? Start thinking about how to get promoted or how to get pay raises.
Think of all the little ways you can increase your productivity, how to get along with coworkers or clients better, how to improve or “growth hack” your business, and more. What can you do this year? Plan for them now!
Improve your finances?
It’s yet ANOTHER new year. Time flies by so fast, right? Only the cash from our wallets seems to fly faster. Take a look at your financial life right now. Are you buried in debt? Do you have enough savings for emergencies in case you or your family member gets into an accident or if you find some awesome opportunity? What are your plans for when you get older (I sure hope it’s not “be a burden to your kids”…)?
Start learning some positive financial habits, like how to pay back debts, how to save more money, and how to invest your savings so you and your children will have a brighter future.
Improve your relationships?
One thing I’ve learned from Mark McCormack’s What they don’t teach you at Harvard business school is that “business situations always come down to people situations”. How are you at dealing with people? How do you deal with clients and coworkers, family members and friends? Do you try to impress people too much by showing off too many status symbols (McCormack warns people against this since it makes you look untrustworthy) or by actively “acting” competent or tough?
Also, when was the last time you came to visit your parents or grandparents or your other relatives and close friends (maybe this Christmas)? When did you last spend quality time with them? Did you remember to make it count? Don’t forget that our loved ones, especially our older family members, won’t always be around. This could be the last year you’ll be able to see each other.
Commit to self-improvement?
It’s said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. It’s a quote wrongly attributed to Albert Einstein, but the lesson there is very important. We all want to earn great things in life, be admired or respected, or grow wiser and more intelligent. The thing is… are we actively seeking those improvements when we’re too busy watching TV or browsing Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or some others? Do we remember to try to improve when we’re too busy with our weekly work schedule?
There are so many ways to improve ourselves. We can start a new hobby, save some cash and travel to learn more about the world, read books that can grant us a bit more wisdom, and more. Perhaps it’s time to start with those. What can you do to improve yourself this year?
One more tip…
Here’s one final tip before we go. I’ve mentioned this in a lot of previous articles. It’s important, and since repetition is the key to mastery, it’s worth mentioning once again.
Whatever you want to do, you need to MAKE IT A HABIT.
Most of life’s successes don’t happen by chance. The most talented athletes still needed to practice and train for years before earning medals, great businesses still took years to get built and grow, and the greatest experts needed years of study and experience to get to their current level of success. Besides… even if something lucky happened like winning the lottery, remember that it often doesn’t last (just read about how most lottery winners go bankrupt and end up worse after winning).
There’s a famous quote by Will Durant (wrongly attributed to Aristotle) that we have to remember whenever we’re tempted to look for “quick fixes”.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Will Durant
If we want to achieve a greater level of success, then we have to acquire better habits. Although we can start and learn new things at any time of the year, let’s use this coming new year as a nice little signal to begin something new, and let’s all stick to it until it sticks.
We’ll thank ourselves for it later on.
By the way, if you want to learn more valuable lessons, just click on the links to our other articles below!