Setting Realistic Goals for 2024

Hi there,

Happy New Year! I hope you had a great time spending it with your friends and family while celebrating another year filled with hopes and dreams.

It’s that time of the year again when we all look forward to achieving the goals we set for ourselves…and then fall short again when slight inconveniences happen.

Sounds familiar, right? I’ve been there too.

I had my fair share of goals in the last year (2023, to be specific) that fell short due to circumstances and instances where I chose to either give up or lose track of progress. The friction between me and the goals that I set for myself was harder than expected, and the journey until the end of last year was a bit unsatisfying. I have yet to review my previous goals and share some of them with you at a later date. But for now, let's dive into something else.

Throughout December 2023, I set out to look for the best ways to plan ahead in the upcoming year. At the time of this writing, I still had to refine my goals as they were still abstract and too many to pick out the one that I get to focus on the most.

As I went through reading and listening to everything that comes through my digital space, I listed some helpful tips for you if you want to set your 2024 goals in the most (hopefully) realistic and aligned way to who you get to be after this year ends.

You may not be used to planning out your next moves this year, but, to tell you honestly, you have an entire month of January to plan it out and refine it. No rush. You need more than just one day to be intentional with the things you set for yourself.

📝Write them down

Writing down your goals significantly increases the chance of accomplishing them compared to those who don’t, according to a study. In the same study, public commitment and accountability have also shown positive effects.

But what if you're not sure what or how to write in your notes?

1. 🎯 Be specific - Saying you want to run is vague and unclear. However, stating you want to run 5 kilometers is specific and measurable.Having a clear map and direction when setting a goal increases the likelihood of achieving it. By quantifying and measuring the goals, you establish a defined path for success.

2. 📝 Make a draft of your goals and refine it - Compile a list of every goal you want to achieve, regardless of how abstract it may be. Refine the list later when you identify what matters most to you. Goals could relate to health, relationships, career, finances, passion, and more. Allocate time to refine and be specific about each goal.You may choose to discard minor goals or set them as side quests, nice-to-haves while pursuing the main quests (let's call the main goals quests from now on). No pressure; think of them as bonus experience points in the main game 🙂

👣 Track Your Goals

You can either track your goals digitally or manually using a habit tracker of your choice. Tracking goals has been a constant thing in my writing as tracking your main quests and other side quests reminds you to act, motivates you to continue, and it gives immediate satisfaction when you accomplish the quests (from James Clear’s Habit Tracker).

Although it does seem insignificant when you check the first day of completing one habit, but when you consistently check off the days that you do it, you’ll be amazed as to how you accomplished them in the long run. Hence, the immediate satisfaction is achieved.

Here’s my advice: while we’re human and tracking them perfectly is not realistic, there will be days that it gets harder to achieve it. A rule to myself that I learned from James Clear’s Atomic Habits is to not break the chain (not breaking it to more than two days). And if I do miss them, I have to review it and find a way to not break it again and be more gentle to myself and not be harsh on the days that I can’t show up.

👥 Accountability

You’d go far on your own, but you go further with someone whom you trust and checks on your progress. It is highly encouraged to get yourself an accountability buddy when you are serious on achieving your goals.

Your accountability buddy doesn’t have to be someone who is in authority nor your supervisor. It could be your friend who is also aiming for a common goal that can be your partner. When you both have a common goal of achieving your habits and goals and you check on each others progress, this leads to a greater chance of a habit to succeed in the future stages.

So what does it mean to have an accountability buddy?

• They provide fresh perspective on your goals

• They suggest improvements and what can make your plan to achieve better results

• They can spot potential drawbacks to your goals, especially when it is farfetched and hard to reach within your set amount of time

• Shared commitment - you both made a pact to look to each other’s progress and see how it went.

(by the way, if you’re looking for an accountability buddy or someone to talk to about your goals, leave a comment or message me! I’m very happy to help with everything I can!)

📊 Review Your Progress

This is similar to tracking your goals, but you provide yourself a progress report on how your actionable steps have gone so far.

There are three things that you can do to when you should review your progress:

• Weekly Review

• Monthly Review

• Quarterly Review (every three months)

Personally, I’d stick to weekly reviews. Weekly reviews are a lot more efficient as you can keep track of the things with clarity and direction. If it seems like a chore, don’t worry. It’s worth a time in your week to delegate your objectives and progress reports throughout the week.

After all, what’s measured is always managed. Therefore, tracking your habits and goals and reviewing them will help you get more things done.

There are many ways on how we plan out our year, but what’s important is how committed you are to these goals and habits that you want to establish. It doesn’t matter if what systems of actionable steps that you take, but pick what’s best for you and stick with it then refine it in your best way.

Have a beautiful week of planning ahead! xx

-ran

🖌️ 🎶 Art and Music Corner

Before 2023 ended, I participated in a design challenge hosted by Asus ProArt. Definitely had fun using their provided assets and incorporated it with my imagination.

1. Music - Here’s a soundtrack that I listen to while working

2. Artwork feature - You might have heard Benny Productions (or not), but he hosted a photomanipulation challenge about using him as the subject of any photomanipulation artwork, and this guy nailed it.

📘 Reader’s Delight

• Book - JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit is one of my current books to read during my downtime (apart from reading Theories of Personality and knowing Sigmund Freud’s background and my small understanding of id, ego, and superego lol)

• Podcast - Remember when you made a new year’s resolution but then it turned out to be another disappointment and frustration? Maybe Ryan Holiday’s podcast could help you in building the habits based on the most timeless wisdom in Stoic philosophy.

• The Emerging Graphic Design Trends of 2024 - Time to level up your graphic design! Read along the emerging graphic design trends to get ahead and explore the evolving graphic design landscape

• App - My favorite to-do list app for task management and other projects.

• My Favorite Note taking app - This app has been my go-to in dumping my notes and organize them for referencing. I have borrowed templates from different Notion creators and customized them to my preference. Go check them out! (PS: This is an affiliate link!)

🖊️ Words to Live by

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