New Year's Resolutions Don't Work. Here's What To Do Instead

Hey everyone,

This will be the last newsletter issue for 2022, as I am going fully offline for the holiday season to recharge for the following year.

I will also use the quiet and peaceful time offline to reflect on my past year & prepare for 2023.

I believe in the importance of such reflection and intentional year planning. Therefore, I also want to help you with this week's article to reflect on the year behind you and design an intentional new year.

The second reason there won't be another article in the remaining days of this year: please go offline and ditch the internet & emails for the holiday season. You spend 51 weeks on it yearly, so you should enjoy at least a week without it.

A million thanks for being with me in the past months, and see you in 2023!

But before that, read this article, it will only take 5 minutes.

The New Year is coming, and people tend to set New Year's Resolutions.

The most common example is weight loss. People want to get rid of the extra kilos they put on during the holidays, so they hit the gym with high motivation on the first days of January.

Sadly, those resolutions fail within the first two weeks of January.

Why?

The main reason is the lack of a system and consistent habits that support their goals.

They start with high motivation, but as they don't see tangible results after a few sessions, they give up.

But as you read this newsletter, you clearly seek an intentional life. You want to approach the goals you set more intentionally.

So let's ditch those stupid New Year's Resolutions and find a way to support your goals & ambitions much better as 2023 begins in a few days.

I want to give you three tips that could help you to

1. Reflect on all the things that happened to you this year,

2. Set your intentions and goals for the upcoming year,

3. Ensure that you can consistently work on those goals.

The holiday season is just about to begin. Still, there is no better time to talk about this as we can prepare to dedicate some mindful time to reflect on this year and the one ahead of us.

So when the clock hits midnight on New Year's Eve, you already know what and how to do in 2023 to rock that year.

Let's go!

Reflect On This Past Year & Design Your Ideal Next Year - With This Simple & Fun Booklet

Every end of December for the past five years, I have spent a few hours reflecting on my past year and designing my upcoming year.

I do that with a simple booklet called the Year Compass.

You can find it here; it's free and available in multiple languages.

I strongly recommend printing it out to fill it out by handwriting instead of doing it digitally.

This Year Compass enables you to review the highlights of your past 12 months from various life aspects - personal, professional, relationship-wise, etc.

It also gives you questions to reflect on the actions & lessons learned throughout the past year.

However, the most powerful part of this section is about things and the hurt you let go of and the people you forgave.

The booklet also helps you close this chapter of your life and move on to the next year filled with excitement.

The year planner section of the booklet is more like an "ideal year designer."

Throughout the parts of this section, the Year Compass enables you to design the year with the followings:

• Things you wish to happen in an ideal year

• Set goals in different life aspects - e.g., family, relationships, physical fitness, mental health, career, hobbies, etc.

• Magical Triplets to list actions that are true to yourself and will help to grow as a person and live more intentionally

• Six sentences to define your upcoming year

My favorite sections are the Magical Triplets and the six sentences to define the following year.

Let me share some examples of the Magical Triplets you have to fill from the booklet:

• "I will love these three things about myself."

• "These three people will be my pillars during rough times."

• "I will have the power to say no to these three things."

Regarding those six sentences, you will find ones such as:

• "This Year, I will draw the most energy from..."

• "This Year, I will say yes when..."

• "This year will be special for me because..."

At the end of the year designer section, you will need to choose a word to define the year and share a secret wish to happen next year.

By finishing the whole booklet, you will get more clarity and intention about the next 12 months of your life. This will also give you massive excitement for what's ahead of you.

Break Your Goals Into Atomic Habits

This Year Compass is genuinely fantastic. But you should take the necessary actions to ensure you move towards your goals and wishes in the booklet. Otherwise, you won't achieve them.

And that applies to every single goal we ever set.

As James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, says:

As I mentioned above, the lack of a supportive system and consistent habits fail New Year's Resolutions.

Concerning this, James Clear also says that we should focus on our goals themselves. Instead, we need to focus more on simple & sustainable habits we create and stick to them daily.

Once you complete the Year Compass, this is the following action you need to do to ensure that you will move in the desired direction.

You should review your goals again to identify if some are dependent on others and which goals should be your priority ones next year.

As you finally understand those, you must design your everyday life to support those goals.

The best way to do it is to design a system that breaks down your goals into tiny daily habits.

For example, you want to lose weight but might not be hitting the gym already. So, instead of rushing into hours of gym sessions from January 2, start with the tiny habit of walking every morning for 10 minutes.

Such a system aims to focus less on the goal itself and enjoy the progress through those daily habits.

Those tiny daily habits might not bring tangible results in a few days, but they will make a massive difference in a yeartime.

This relates to James Clear's notion of the daily 1% improvement:

Be Flexible & Mindful About Your Goals

You are a human being who constantly grows and evolves. Therefore, your goals may also change as time goes by.

So you need to be mindful of your goals for the year ahead.

Throughout the next 12 months, you will undoubtedly have new experiences and impulses that could impact your goals.

As you have those experiences, you might want to take a different direction or tweak your goal. And that is fine.

Sometimes, you must be stubborn about your goals, especially concerning your physical or mental health. Getting & staying fit should always remain your goal.

However, your professional life or creative life aspects might experience some changes in their courses.

I have a personal experience with this. A few years ago, I realized that the goal of building a startup was outside my true identity. I wanted to pursue creative activities.

Working on this newsletter is the exact result of that realization and change of the course.

Never forget: life is a journey with several intersections, and you might take a path slightly different from what you previously believed to be the right track.

Don't be afraid to change.

So, as you will have a well-deserved time-out this holiday season, make sure you have some relaxing time to reflect on the year behind you and design the one that is coming up.

Doing this will help you to live your life more intentionally and do the things that are true to yourself.

In exactly 12 months, you will thank yourself for this.

Máté - The Mindful Guerilla

💡 My Weekly Recommendations 💡

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Newsletters I Read Every Week

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• International Intrigue - A valuable newsletter on diplomacy & geopolitics delivered every weekday. Rather read this than all those shitty clickbait articles on mainstream media.

• Exec Sum - A daily newsletter on the major stories from the financial world. It's fun, entertaining, and informative. Better than those finance outlets with shitloads of ads.

• Snail Mail by Slow Growth - a weekly newsletter delivered every Monday by Matt D'Avella's team with great motivational content on productivity. It's not the usual productivity bullshit that you find everywhere else.

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