3 Methods to Accomplish Your Goals

Sharing three ways I am taking action on my goals for the new year!

A big inspiration for this post is a man named Ali Abdaal. When I broke into this side of the internet, it was his warm face that met me first. He provides valuable information on productivity, content creation, and a lot more. If you are interested in more of his stuff, check him out on youtube. The three areas Ali taught me about how to tackle the goals I set for the New Year are by using the following practices: the ideal week method, writing down goals, and lowering the stakes. These three goals are going to be the corner stone of my pursuit to accomplish these goals. If you are anything like me, goals can be illustrious and defeating when we don’t have structure, these three methods are going to help us get where we want to go in 2024.

The Ideal Week Method

The ideal week method is a very simple yet effective method to reflect on where you are currently and to discover what changes need to be made in order for your life to reflect what you desire it to be. By simply opening up a blank google calendar, and putting in the ideal time you’d like to wake up and go to sleep, having some time with friends, read a new book, or cutting out time for date night. This calendar is for all of those things you want to do but don’t have time for right now.

This is the sad part, now we have to come down from our dream space of the ‘ideal week’ and implement responsibilities into our calendar. Work, appointments, weddings that you said yes to and feel bad to go back on your word, and everything else that seems to disrupt our daily flow. This is helpful because now we know what we want to do, and while we will not be able to do everything we’d like to do, we can do the things that are most important to us!

Writing Goals Down

Writing down goals is important, as now it is on something physical rather than a fun dream in our mind. Writing down our goals takes something metaphysical and transforms it into a legitimate entity, one that we can now look at and be reminded of the goal. When writing goals, it is important to note two keys to success: they must be measurable and they must have a strong why behind them.

The importance of goals being measurable cannot be overemphasized, as this will help us make consistent progress over the coming days and weeks. Even if we have to drag our feet through the task required to make progress towards our goals, like I talked about in my last post, we know where the finish line is for that day. The why behind our goals is equally if not more important than the goal themselves. I could say I want to get into the gym to be a mass monster, but that why is not sufficient enough to provide incentive when I lose motivation. Our why needs to be powerful enough that on days where we dont want to sit and read or go to the gym, we do it anyway. Goals are never supposed to be something we achieve for external rewards, it is only about the formation that happens to us as a byproduct of achieving our goals.

Lower The Stakes

Often starting is the most difficult part of beginning something new, this builds up fear within us. The stakes climb higher and higher when we miss a day of progress or flat out fail. But this is why we have to continually lower the stakes. Lowering the stakes doesn’t mean we don’t care about our goal, but it is being confident in the understanding that just because we didn’t complete our goal doesn’t mean the goal is now unattainable. We have to lower the stakes because one bad day cannot dictate a year of progress. Brave the course, and use the pressure as the privilege in enjoying the journey and process our goals carry us through.

Closing Thoughts

I want you to take control of the progress you want to make, and using these three methods should supplement the work you are going to put in this year. Do not become a part of the statistic of those who ‘fall off’ on their goals for the new year. My goal with these posts is to give you actionable steps towards your goals! Now go and make progress towards your goals!

Share with someone you are chasing goals with!