That’s right the 24th of March was my 31st birthday and I thought I’d write a little blog to mark the occasion. After a quick Google search I found that I share my birthday with some interesting characters. Firstly there’s the very funny and ubiquitously awkward Jim Parsons (Sheldon from The big Bang Theory) as well as Harry Houdini, Alan Sugar and Clyde Barrow the bank robber of Bonnie & Clyde fame.
Like any other arbitrarily ‘important’ day, a birthday offers an ideal moment for reflection on what has happened, what hasn’t happened and what may happen in the following year.
Are you ready to give your life a shake and a fresh start?
Like New Year’s Day, birthdays offer a magical Etch a Sketch moment where you can give your proverbial life a shake and hey presto a new start has begun. Gone are the previous failings of yesteryear as they fade into a ‘birthing day’ induced amnesic haze.
If you have a birthday coming up why not use it as a chance reflect and to set some goals for the following year.
Looking back
When I look back to things that I have failed to do in the past year it’s worth trying to figure out why. Looking at the ‘why’ can help you to work out what’s gone wrong in the past, in turn increasing your chances for success in the future.
My top reasons for failing to achieve my goals are:
- My goals changed
- Other things took precedence
- I took on too many projects (very common for me)
- Fear stopped me from making it happen
Have a think about the things that stopped you from achieving your goals this year to see if you can learn anything that can help you in the future. The main one for me is not spreading myself too thinly. Taking on too many projects and then trying to find the balance between writing and climbing can be tricky.
Are you spreading yourself too thinly or are other things getting in your way?
Looking forward
When looking forward the key is to set some achievable goals that have definitive parameters for achievement. It’s good to have some long term goals and some shorter ones and ideally they should have a time limit.
My goals for this year are:
- To have bagged a paid editing role by this time next year
- To have an article feature on the Guardian Careers site by New Year
- To climb 7a on Limestone by the end of summer
- To climb Cenotaph corner by the end of summer
Whilst I’m used to setting goals I must admit that writing them down and publishing them on the internet is a little scary. It’ll be interesting to see which of these goals I complete so I’ll follow this up next year!
Try it yourself, set some goals and let us know what they are in the comments below. Publishing them may even help give you that push that you need to achieve them!
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