How to Take Your Life to the Next Level in One Year

How to Take Your Life to the Next Level in One Year

6 Steps to implement over the next 12 months

This year is gonna be my year.

Many people make grand plans before the new year, but they fail to follow through.

There are many reasons for that. Some people lack the self-discipline to take on long-term challenges, while others simply bite off more than they can chew.

Changing your life in one year is not sorcery, but you’ll need a lot of effort. In that same vein, you need to be willing to make sacrifices and stand up when you inevitably fall down.

It’s not about becoming perfect. It’s about improving your life in various areas and becoming the best possible today-plus-one-year version of yourself.

On this basis, here are six steps to take your life to the next level in one year.
Define and live according to your priorities

The first step toward changing your life in one year is to know why and how you want to change it.

Everybody wants a summer body and more money, but these ideas are too abstract. What we need is a clear set of priorities.

In this context, the best way to define personal priorities is to start with values.

What are my cardinal values in life?

Some people value stability and family over everything else. Others put more emphasis on adventure and entrepreneurship.

Once your values are clear, you can attach more concrete priorities to them.

If, for example, your values include freedom and adventure, you might not want to take a job that provides none of those.

Values spawn priorities, and these priorities later engender daily habits.

In simple terms, ask yourself how your actions over the next 24 hours correspond to the long-term priorities that you defined according to personal values.
Set ambitious but realistic goals

Next, set objectives according to your priorities.

Goals only work if you want the journey, not just the result.

As such, before setting an ambitious goal, ask yourself whether you want to face the pain that inevitably comes with your target.

Don’t dream about making 1,000 dollars with a side hustle. Ask yourself whether you’re ready to put in the work that will guarantee that income.

Goals are all about accepting a deal. The deal is that you’ll have to overcome struggle and pain for a later reward. Instant gratification goodbye.

If you’re setting ambitious goals, keep that equation in mind, and you’ll be on the right path to change your life in a year.
Quietly implement changes

We all know people who make big announcements in December. In January, they start going to the gym. They share their workouts on social media and talk about their progress.

By mid-February, their motivation is gone, and they come up with all sorts of excuses why they stopped working out.

In my country, this phenomenon is so common that we have a name for these people: “January gym tourists.”

On a similar note, we always see people sharing their new fancy journals on Instagram. Hashtag journaling routine.

In most cases, these people journal for a few days and then get bored because the novelty of sharing their new habits on social media is gone.

You don’t want to be those people.

Taking your life to the next level is not about sharing a new habit on social media. It’s about quietly implementing changes that will make your life better in the long run.

Don’t share anything before you’ve built an unbreakable habit. If you’re still working out regularly in May, people will see your changes without one single Instagram story.

The quieter you build your new habits, the more effective they’ll become because you won’t feel external pressure, but you’ll be able to show long-term results.
Replace society’s mirror with your own

Many people fantasize about changing their lives. They want to be self-employed, read 50 books a year, and look better.

Society, however, pushes us into our comfort zones. Most people don’t change their lives in one year. Most people aren’t fit, and most people don’t choose the path of freedom.

In short, society wants the status quo.

Your friends won’t understand your digital nomad plans, and your family might not support your entrepreneurial endeavors.

And that’s why you need to stop looking at their mirror.

They aren’t on the same wavelength, which is why you need your own mirror. You can only compare your current self to your past self — not to society’s idea of success.
Accept the trial and error cycle

Another primary aspect of changing your life in one year is to accept that it won’t be plain sailing.

Building an online business is difficult. Going to the gym every day is challenging. And taking on new projects or changing jobs isn’t a walk in the park.

In simple terms, your journey will have ups and downs, and you’ll fail sometimes.

In the words of Ryan Holiday,

“​​If you ask most smart or successful people where they learned their craft, they will not talk to you about their time in school. It’s always a mentor, a particularly transformative job, or a period of experimentation or trial and error.”
Consequently, accept that to become better, you first need to try and fail. You won’t build new habits by accident. They will eventually stick because you tried several methods, and some didn’t work.

Most people never change their lives because a few hurdles discourage them. That’s why you need to become resilient and accept that obstacles are unavoidable. And once you see these hindrances as steps along the journey — not signs of impossibility, you’ll become unstoppable.
Don’t copy other people’s habits. Take inspiration from Japanese whisky.

If you’re into whisky, you’ll know that several Japanese distilleries make some of the finest ones in the world.

How is that possible? Whisky isn’t a traditional Japanese drink, and their industry is relatively recent.

The reason why the Japanese became master whisky makers is simple: they studied a foreign process and adapted it to their own taste and culture.

To make a long story short, in the early 20th-century, Japanese whisky makers traveled to Scotland and learned intricate whisky-making techniques.

They took their knowledge back to Japan and popularized the drink by opening special bars and creating new flavors to appeal to Japanese customers. The Japanese whisky industry took off — and eventually became known all over the world for its quality.

The lesson here is straightforward: the Japanese didn’t just copy Scottish whisky. They learned the techniques involved and adapted them to their own requirements.

The same applies to habits.

You can try to copy Richard Branson’s morning routine or Mark Cuban’s night rituals, but you have no guarantee that these habits will work in your life.

What will work is to study their habit-building processes and then adapt them to suit your own life.

The final result might be different — just like Japanese and Scottish whisky, but you can take inspiration on how to find your best habits.

CONTRIBUTED BY Jack Krier

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