I can be pessimistic about New Year’s goals because there is so much hype, and I know most goals never happen. I usually wait till my birthday in March to think about my year. I also think that if you want to make a change, make it. There were habits I wanted to build and things I want to do, and I didn’t want to wait for March, so I put together a plan to build habits in 2021.

Beyond habits, there are themes and actions that I want to have or do this year.

If you are afraid about goals or want to learn about building goals or habits practically, you are in the right place.

Here is how I created my 2021 goals.

1. I broke down my life into different buckets

I thought about each aspect of my life that I wanted to improve. It can be overwhelming to think about changing your life, but breaking down each aspect makes everything feel tangible. This also helped me focus on where I need to focus my goals and habits.

2. I created goals for each bucket of my life

Goals are all about actions to me. Some actions are one-off things like going to Colorado for a trip. Some goals are compounding actions over the year, like business goals. Some are loftier than others, but I focused on what could push me. I want these goals to feel out of my reach because it will push me to action versus settling. I want to set the tone in specific areas of my life and business.

You can’t strengthen a muscle without exercise and exerting effort.

My thought is to put goals in place to push me or make me train like an athlete for my career and business.

3. I focused on themes for each bucket of my life

I don’t like having goals on habits that I already have, like reading. I love to read, and I don’t need to push how many books I read. I need to have a focus on what I want to read. For example, one theme for me is I want to learn more about math and science. I want 5 of my books to be about science. I am not focused on all of my books being science, just a few.

4. I focused on habits for each bucket of my life

There are changes in my life that I want to make or build upon. I wanted to think about lifestyle changes. I think people try to build habits as quickly as possible but then don’t keep them for years to come. I wanted to find habits I wanted to still do 15 years from now. I want to design the perfect day by the end of the year with specific habits happening each day. Meditation is something I do from time to time, but I want this in my everyday practice. At the end of the year, once I have it, I have it. I don’t have to optimize for that anymore because it will be second nature.

5. I broke down the goals, themes, and habits into checkpoints for each quarter of the year

I took all of my goals, themes, and habits, that I wanted by December 31st and broke them down into 3-month sprints. I figured out the actions I need to do in each quarter to make the goals tangible. Some actions are one-time experiences but I put them in the quarter which gives me three months to do that experience.

By creating very tangible steps each quarter of the year, I feel like I can tackle these goals, themes, and habits. Some steps seem so simple but I want to build long-term growth. I know if I can take these small steps this year, they will compound into great success over the many years.

A lot of what I am working on is creating an ideal lifestyle. Next year and beyond is about maintaining and tweaking what I established in 2021. This year is going to be amazing, and I am so happy that you will be a part of it.