How To Get Off To A Flying Start In 2017
It’s almost the end of 2016 when I’m writing this.
At the start of the year, I wanted 2016 to be the busiest year of my life. Has it been? Probably.
However I know I can achieve a lot more in 2017, and I’d be upset if I didn’t. After all, I spent a lot of 2016 laying the groundwork for bigger things to come.
A great way to ensure you achieve more in 2017 is to get off to a great start. Most people are going to spend January 1st hungover or tired. Those people are going to spend January 2nd annoyed that they’ve failed their New Years’ Resolutions already.
Readers of this blog are a clever bunch though. We’re going to do the following stuff instead. Right?
Early To Bed, Early To Rise
I know… I’m boring. If you want to instil a good habit in yourself, you should probably get up earlier. You don’t have to go to bed at 9pm and wake up at 4am or anything, but it’s no secret that most of history’s successful people have woken up early.
When you wake up early, you get more done. It’s as simple as that.
The best time to get up and start working will vary depending on you, your life and your surroundings. (Guys who live near the Arctic Circle are going to have a tougher time getting up early than people who live in the tropics, for instance.)
That said, get up an hour earlier. Wake yourself up and then get a single task completed before everyone else starts working.
Simply by doing this exercise, you’ll feel like you are ahead of everyone else all day.
Bonus points if you do this on New Year’s Day, where everyone else is nursing headaches or otherwise enjoying a lazy Sunday.
Knock Out An Easy Resolution That’ll Take You Less Than A Week
This is like something a life hacker would say if life hackers ever said anything good.
The best way to “win” at New Year’s Resolutions is to pick a few that are difficult, and one that is easy.
I recommend picking a resolution that’ll be a one-time affair (setting up a savings account, getting rid of junk) or a simple goal that you can achieve in less than a week. This way you get to complete your first major goal of the year within a few days of 2017.
That’s a great start, something you’ll be able to hold up as an example of you doing what you say you can and also great motivation for the tougher challenges.
Look Over Your Plans, Make Sure They’re Airtight
The best way to hit the ground running on New Year’s Day is to have a plan and to stick to it.
The more thinking and planning you do before the fact, the easier time you’ll have after the plan is in motion.
If you have a plan for 2017, then make sure it’s as airtight as it can possibly be. If you’ve been reading this site for the past few weeks, you’ll have a plan.
If you don’t have a plan, then you’ve got tomorrow to get one. At this late stage, I’d forget planning a year out in a day. Instead, plan the first week, the first resolution (see above) and work from there until you have time to see how things pan out.
Remember, the more detail you have, the less brainpower you’ll have to use in the future.
Final Thoughts
Other than the above, do not stress about being perfect, because it’s not the beginning of the year that counts, it’s the end.
Getting off to a great start on January 1st isn’t the be-all and end-all of succeeding. There’ll be a lot of hard work to come, and a lot of rewards to be had.
That said, aim to start off strong, because that always accumulates mental power and most people won’t bother doing it.
Other things you might want to do include writing a retrospective of 2016 to see where you went wrong (and right!) and you might want to write a list of things you started in 2016 that you can grow/continue/improve in 2017.
Really though, the best thing you can do to start 2017 off right is to just sit and think about some of the things above. There’s no death squad coming to get you if you don’t, but it helps to clear your mind, work out what you need to work on and then get started early.