Goal Setting: 2019 Edition

With the start of the year, millions of people sit down and lie to themselves. “This year” they say, out loud, “this year I will get abs, or win the lotto, or even win the lotto with my abs!” No, I don’t know how that is possible either, but if you find out, please let me know. I’d love to win the lotto with my ab.

Humans have this great ability to look forwards in time and anticipate the ups and downs. The only other creatures to do this are bears. They hibernate, and I think it doesn’t count when all you’re looking forward to it a 6 month nap.
On a side note, how good does a six month nap sound? Today was my first early start for the year, so life is a bit hard right now…
Any ways! We can look forward and plan for things that have no indication of happening. It is truly a remarkable feat.

This feat then leads to all these people sitting down, and lying to themselves. New Years resolutions and all that jazz. All the science and studies and old men with little-to-no-hair have told us time and time again that new years resolutions do not work, they set you up for failure, outcome based goal setting is bad, yada yada. I am sure you have heard it all.

So does this mean I won’t do it? Hell no! I am there with these people, lying to myself with the best of them. Abs, lotto, golden plane, parties every night, winning an Oscar for playing myself in the story of my life… You know, the usual.

I am just going to do it publicly. Because apparently making a public statement about things leads to stuff like accountability and follow through and actual accomplishments. Also, since you, dear reader, are now privy to this, I can hold you at least somewhat responsible.

So Kyle, tell us, what are your goals for 2019?

Ha! Trick question. After discussing it with Simonie, we are going to move towards a more iterative goal setting timeline, because synergy. (I do like my buzz words! But not really.) What does this mean? It means that we are setting goals for the next 6 months, to be revisited at such time and amended. That way, if I say now I want to lose 21 pounds of gorilla flesh, and come June or July I have gained 23 pounds of gorilla flesh, well then my goal can be to gain 30 pounds by the end of the year. See! No failures here! Only success stories. Thats the way I live. One success at a time.

Now onto the serious business. I am going to change the way I approach goals. Outcome based goals (I am going to lose X kgs, I am going to run X kms) are a recipe for failure. You know this. I know this. The Queen knows this. And Queen know this. (Ok, maybe Freddie doesn’t anymore, but the others do). Instead, as research has shown, the way to set goals and actually stick with them is to not see them as the finish line, but rather, life style changers.

So how does one do this? That’s the million dollar question, sort of, but not really. It’s actually just one question of many. But it’s no less important. The thinking behind this is to set your life and lifestyle up in a way that you become the type of person to achieve these goals. Man, that’s quite long winded. But it’s quite simple. Do you want to be the type of person who reads more? Carry a book around with you. You have made reading an easy activity to do and you’ll find that you read more by default. It’s all about making certain choices easier, and others harder.

Practical example time! Yay! There is a story about someone who’s goal it was to eat less popcorn. This person, who we shall call Jeff Jefferson the Third, would happily eat popcorn for breakfast, lunch, supper, snack time, elevensies, midnight gorging and even just for fun. Now Jeff didn’t want to give up popcorn completely, or his life would be a lot more empty. He simply wanted to eat less of it. So what Jeff did was to try use that superpower we all possess – willpower! Every time Jeff went to the pantry, he would look at the popcorn and tell himself “NO!” Spoiler alert, Jeff lasted a few days before he was popping corn like his life depended on it. Outcome-based goals relies on willpower, and humans have a hard time with it. Instead, our new friend Jeff, took all his popcorn from the pantry and put it on the highest shelf in his garage at the end of his garden. His popcorn was still there. He could still eat as much as he liked. When he went to the shops, Jeff would stop and think “Do I need more popcorn?” and then remember, he had 13 bags full in his garage and not need to buy anymore. By moving the popcorn, he removed it from his line of sight, and he appealed to his lazier nature. Moral of Jeff’s story is that setting up your environment to make certain choices easy and certain choices hard can help you get to your goals without you actually having to do more work. In fact, being more lazy helped Jeff get there sooner.

Alas, getting abs, finding financial freedom, going on ski trips, concert trips and learning more everyday can not be done by appealing to your lazy nature. The very activity of gym, after all, is to be anti-lazy. But you can still make it easier to get there. And its these small changes that I am going to focus on.

I’ll be making going to the gym easier by prepping the night before. I’ll be diversifying my income streams in ways that allow me to not completely rely on my employment. I’ll be learning by making sure my YouTube dashboard is filled with proper good videos and not just the latest FailArmy or People Are Awesome. I’ll make sure to listen to more good music by carrying around my new pair of Sony XM3 (which, by-the-way, are totally awesome). Small changes, which, just like savings in a bank, will make up one big change in the next 11 and a half months. Well I hope. And you, dear reader, are along for the ride.

We kick it off tomorrow – I have privilege of starting work late for the next two weeks, and I intend to gym in the morning and supplement it with my late night runs. Along with getting rid of all the junk food in the house (reminder: eat all the junk food today) and I hope to set myself up as the type of person who can gym in the morning, run at night and still have a life and not tell everyone around me. During this time, I will be focusing on ensuring the adverts on this site are top notch and hopefully turn this into more than just a pay-for-myself project. I’ll also be looking at companies and Kiwi start ups that I could invest into. Spending the next two weeks, while working, gaming and basically living like normal, to set myself up for the next 6 months of goal achieving!

Sounds good right? It does to me! So what say we get 2019 underway officially?

New Year, same me, but also new me. This is the year we #chooseHappy!