Here is a flurry of personal goals I have this year:
Take more risks. Be more agentic. A big lesson of 2023 is that I should identify the things I am avoiding, the scary, uncomfortable actions that push me outside of my comfort zone, because this is where I find fulfilment and growth. I have to take intentional action because otherwise my default mode will be to do what I’ve always done, but I won’t reach my goals unless I make the time for it.
Write more. I like to write. It helps me to think for myself. It forces me to reflect on whether I’m working on the right things. I also like to share my theories with you.
Journal daily. I have a bad memory. It worries me sometimes that I forget much of what happens in my life because I spend a lot of my time working on the next thing. I also want to be more intentional about how I live my life. Like point 1, I think if I don’t reflect, it’s much more likely that I will live life passively. It also makes for more interesting conversations.
Find my tribe. I want to build close friendships with people who care about the same things as I do, like growth, personal development, accountability, introspection and having an impact on others. I am being more intentional about investing my time in friendships with people who lift me up, like to reflect on life and want to be pushed to reach their goals.
Ask for help. I have an issue with trying to do everything myself. When I’m facing a problem, it’s not obvious to me to reach out to someone who has faced that problem - rather, I’ll try to learn how to fix it myself. I think this is a big limiting factor, because it stops me from falling into my blind spots.
Continue on my public speaking journey. I just rejoined Ultraspeaking (starts next week). I found my experiment with the programme last year pretty transformational: I learnt that I had a wider span of emotions than I believed. I also realised how much I was carrying over a false perception of my public speaking abilities. This programme helped me to shatter that.
Build up my foundational understanding of math. I was drawn to law because I liked to write, and I was happy to drop maths as soon as I finished my studies. But I feel that maths is a foundational skill that is worth investing in for my long-term success. Any business is basically a series of numbers telling you about the health of your business, where to allocate your time, and predictions about where you might be able to go. You might say - why math? Why not a basic course on accounting? My view is that it’s better for long-term success to build a foundational understanding of the root subject, to develop ‘a way of thinking’, otherwise I’ll have inevitable gaps in my knowledge.
Get my first tattoo. I have been talking about this for ages. I don’t want to be someone who talks about doing something. I want to be someone who does things.
Take weightlifting seriously (what is serious?). I have re-started personal training, which is the single best thing I ever did to reach my gym goals. Why? When I’m paying for a service, I am much more likely to sacrifice other things for my goals. I pay for the intensity, the accountability, and the enjoyment.
Did any of this resonate? Feel free to drop me a response :)