Making the most of 2021
By: Robyn Clark
Tags: New Year, Making The Most Of Life, New Year Resolution, Goal Setting, Productivity

Making the most of 2021

Mindset

The way in which you think can have a strong effect on your life. Thoughts can impact our emotion, social interactions as well as overall achievement.

It is important to have a growth mindset as opposed to a fixed mindset. A growth mindset is optimistic, welcomes feedback, embraces challenges and believes there is always room for improvement. A growth mindset encompasses a passion for learning rather than a hunger for approval. On the other hand, A fixed mindset ignores feedback, avoids challenges and believes failures define an individual. It’s important to foster a growth mindset as it can help you achieve your goals, learn something new and change the way you learn as well as think.

Treat obstacles, challenges and failures as learning opportunities rather than setbacks. In fact, Failure helps you become more competent. As you make mistakes, your brain learns to take different paths in which to act in the future. Failure is the springboard to growth.

Understand that setbacks are pathways to new opportunities. Setbacks are inevitable and by overcoming them, you will begin to grow.

Make goals — and stick to them!

The key to living a fulfilling year is to set challenges for yourself to achieve. A year with goals is a year spent more productively and as a result, you will feel more accomplished and satisfied.

When it comes to planning your goals, make them specific and be clear on what you want to achieve. Make your goals realistic and consider factors such as timing and the scale of the goal. It helps to write your goals down so you are constantly reminded of them. Habits, consistency and perseverance are all keys to achieving your goals.

Say ‘Yes’

So often, we let opportunities slide because ‘we aren’t bothered’ or ‘it’s too hard’. When in reality, we can achieve so much more however our fixed mindsets tell ourselves that we cant.

In 2021, Challenge yourself to say ‘yes’ more. Say ‘yes’ to opportunities which may come your way, say ‘yes’ to helping those in need out and say ‘yes’ to keep persevering.

Obviously, there will be circumstances where you cannot say ‘yes’. In fact, that would be stupid if you said ‘yes’ to every single prompt you encountered. And sometimes, we have to make sacrifices and cannot afford to be open to every opportunity presented. However, give things a go, try something new and take risks because you will never know what you may discover if you don't.

Opportunities don't often come along. So when they do you have to grab them. — Audrey Hepbrun

Organisation and planning

Plan your year ahead. Some things to plan before the year starts include:

what goals you want to achieve

new years resolutions

habits

habits to break

This way, you can kickstart 2021 with a clear vision and clear goals. As you venture through the year, constantly remind yourself of your goals and visions to help provide persistence and motivation.

Another essential would be a calendar or journal/diary. These are great as you can manage and organise your time as well as track the progress of your goals. Time management can help you achieve more in a shorter period of time hence increase productivity and overall achievement.

Learning from mistakes

You are going to make mistakes here and there. And that's good! Because you must make mistakes to learn. Making mistakes can help us identify our strengths and weaknesses. It teaches us what we are good at and what we may need to improve on. It's inevitable that you’ll make some mistakes this year and that's ok. Use mistakes as an opportunity to grow.

The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake — you can’t learn anything from being perfect. — Adam Osborne

Helpful Resources:

Website: Charis — ‘ Do my thoughts impact my life?’

Website: Appointment plus blog — ‘ Why is time management important?’

Podcast — The mindset Mentor with Rob Dial

Youtube — ‘growth mindset — how I changed my approach to learning’; Unjaded Jade