40 Ways To Start The New Year With A Bang!

Do you believe in new years resolutions?

Have you often tried sticking to them but fell short a few weeks of starting it?

The end of the year for most of us is quite possibly the most painful reminder of whether the things we’ve set out to do actually happened. It gives us a surge of motivation after a few weeks of eating and drinking over the Christmas period. It’s usually during this time of year where gym membership sales skyrocket, followed by a drop off in attendance a few weeks later.

The fact is, this has never worked for me personally and can probably speak for other people too… Because it doesn’t work!

Whenever I look at resolutions, I feel confused about it because the first thought that comes to mind is “Why to wait until the new year to make changes when you can start right away?”

I mean surely if you were passionate and enthusiastic about it, that you would start right away. The main reason why I believe motivation on its own doesn’t work is that it usually needs a vital ingredient, which makes all the difference:

Passion

Without it, there is simply no way you can motivate yourself in doing anything. Especially since mastery and proficiency require tremendous amounts of dedication, hardship and (at times) frustration before breaking through. Elements, which would otherwise be close to impossible to get through if you lack the enthusiasm to learn.

So let’s assume you have the passion and drive to follow through. What next?

The truth is, I’ve had massive difficulties in organising this article in a way that makes it easy to follow. So I looked for sources to help me and was privileged to find one written by Farnoosh Brock over at Prolific Living who wrote an awesome article about 83 ways to become a better person. It really inspired me to write a similar type of post that’s simple, easy to read and straightforward to follow.

So below is a list of 40 ways to start the new year with a bang:

1. Decide what you want to achieve for each month.
2. Create daily processes to help plan your day.
3. Write a list of ‘why’ you want to achieve your goals to instil you with energy.
4. Keep a gratitude journal and write down things you’re grateful for to help keep you positive.
5. Undo bad habits, whether it’s smoking, eating junk food or drinking excessive amounts of alcohol.
6. Create healthier habits, whether it’s writing every day, going for walks or talking to a few new people.
7. Change your wardrobe and update your style to give you a feeling of a renewed state.
8. Develop a positive outlook by removing negative thoughts.
9. Spend more time with friends and family members. You can’t tackle the world alone and need companions to take with you.
10. Take up new hobbies and become interested in learning new skills.
11. Update your CV/Resume with your newly acquired skills and experience from the previous year.
12. Develop and build your communication skills by finding opportunities to talk.
13. Learn about human psychology and behaviour to become better equipped at handling people.
14. Learn how to Market and Sell yourself and your services to better prepare you in the job market and dating life.
15. Build a network of influential and successful role models to help you grow and succeed.
16. Read personal development books to further grow your knowledge.
17. Listen to self-help audio seminars by famous motivational speakers to help instil positive mindsets.
18. Start a blog on your favourite hobbies and passions and share your knowledge with people.
19. Study up on how to build additional income streams separate from your normal job.
20. Go to the gym and develop a healthy lifestyle.
21. Eat more healthy foods and cut down on take-outs and fast/junk foods.
22. Learn a new language to allow yourself to communicate with more people who can’t speak your main language.
23. Find out what things you’re naturally good at and focus on strengthening and applying them in your daily life.
24. Share something of value to someone for nothing in return and make it a habit to do this daily.
25. Take up a martial art to help improve your self-confidence and ability to physically defend yourself.
26. Join a debate class to help improve your self-confidence and ability to verbally defend yourself.
27. Learn about money management and create separate accounts to help separate your cash flow.
28. Plan to travel a few times in a foreign country to help build your experiences and knowledge of other cultures.
29. Create a list of lifetime goals that you hope to accomplish. Don’t worry if they’re lofty. It will help spark your life with more excitement.
30. Spend a few hours making people around you feel better about themselves. It’s good practice and will definitely help you feel better.
31. Make a list of your weaknesses and begin taking action in improving them.
32. Do something that scares you every day that challenges your comfort zone. This will better prepare you for future challenges that will ultimately arise.
33. Spend some time in nature by going to the park and reading a book. The hustle and bustle of the city can oftentimes put a lot of stress on your seeing everyone around you in a hurry. Use nature to help wind down and relax in times of hardship.
34. Go for walks and explore the town you’re living in. You’ll be amazed at what you’ll discover. We oftentimes like to live life in a routine and overlook the small things about our city. It will help develop a better appreciation and give you a renewed sense of excitement.
35. Become passionate about life and see it as one large playground full of things and activities to explore and do. There’s really no such thing as boredom, only potential fun experiences.
36. Do things you wouldn’t normally do to help explore yourself. Don’t be surprised if you end up finding something you end up becoming very passionate about.
37. Sometimes, the smallest details offer the biggest lessons. Start looking at things in a wider perspective. Is what you see really what you see? Or is there a broader meaning?
38. Learn to adapt and grow your character and personality. Who you really are isn’t who you really are and are in fact the sum of years of experiences acquired over time. With enough consciousness and focus, you can change and grow into whoever you want to be.
39. Become conscious of people’s needs. A lot of the time, they provide you with a window of who you are and what you can do to improve.
40. Learn to not take life so seriously and have fun. Neither of us will be on this planet forever.

There you have it. 40 ideas and things to think about and focus on ready for the new year. Pick a few from that list and begin taking action.