How to Make and Stick to New Year Goals
When it comes to setting New Year resolutions, it’s not unusual for us to start with the best of intentions only to later find that they waver, leaving us feeling defeated and disappointed in our lack of execution. Making effective New Year resolutions involves a blend of realistic goal-setting and strategic planning. Here are some best practices:
1. Be Specific. Vague resolutions hinder accountability. Set specific goals. Instead of “practice better voiceover technique ," aim for “doing ten minutes of vocal warm-up before sessions."
2. Make Them Measurable: Goals should be quantifiable to track progress. For instance, “generate $X monthly" is more measurable than “generate more money."
3. Achievable and Realistic: Set attainable goals considering your current resources and constraints. On the other hand, don’t be afraid to create ‘stretch goals’; goals that challenge your current abilities and incentivize you to grow.
4. Relevance is Key: Ensure your resolutions align with your broader life goals and values. This increases the likelihood of staying committed. In other words, ensure that you’re pursuing the right goals and for the right reasons. You’re much more likely to reach a goal that is your passion, than one for which the rationale is rooted in money (not that that’s not important).
5. Time-Bound: Give yourself a timeline. Deadlines create urgency and can spur action. If it helps, use deadlines of third parties - the date of your next voiceover conference for instance - by which key items must be completed especially if they’re related to that event.
6. Break It Down: Large goals can be overwhelming. Break them into smaller, manageable tasks for gradual progress. If goals can be pursued daily even if by committing a modest amount of time for something like learning direct marketing, that’s likely to generate further down-stream action and inspiration than doing it all in one block on a single day.
7. Write Them Down: Putting your goals in writing makes them more tangible and easier to review regularly. I find ClickUp to be a great overall project-management tool which can easily be leveraged for this purpose.
8. Plan for Obstacles: Think about potential challenges and how you'll overcome them. Finding that it takes too much time to generate your next blog entry? Use ChatGPT to generate ideas or the draft of your next entry which you can then edit to make fully your own.
9. Regular Review and Adjustments: Periodically assess your progress. Don't be afraid to modify goals as circumstances and your priorities change. At the end of your goal-setting cycle whether that be a month or a year, you want to look back and see progress on the goals that were meaningful and important to you.
10. Accountability: Share your goals with someone who can offer support and keep you accountable. If you don’t already have a VO accountability group, consider starting one with those creatives with whom you already enjoy a warm camaraderie.
11. Celebrate Milestones: Recognize and reward your progress to stay motivated. Want to know what I do? Transfer an amount into an account used solely for vacation and travel which is a priority for me.
12. Mindset Matters: Cultivate a positive attitude. View setbacks as learning opportunities, not failures. Perseverance wins the day. Accumulate your favorite quotes that truly reinforce your resolve? Reference an article that reframes your perspective.
Remember, the best resolutions are those that lead to sustainable, long-term changes, rather than quick fixes.
