Si Muddell: 4 steps to making 2014 a year of action

Goodbye 2013 & hello 2014

Firstly - Happy New Year.

For me personally, 2013 was amazing. My partner and I travelled around the world for 10 months, visiting 19 countries, learning (some) Spanish along the way, meeting endless interesting people, being immersed in old cultures and traditions, and reaping memories and experiences that will be with us for the rest of our days. The fella on the left is a shot I took in Borneo, Malaysia.

That, however was 2013 - this is 2014 where I have new goals, dreams, ambitions, and experiences to be had.

This is a short post to help inspire you to set and achieve your goals, and to make the most out of life and the moment, without wasting valuable time and energy on unfounded beliefs and negative thoughts.

Having literally just moved back to Sydney, and looking for a new challenge myself - this post is as much for you the reader as it is for me the author; we are on the same boat, and our actions and beliefs will determine the consequences.

4 steps to making 2014 a year of action:

SMARTER Goals recap
Action, belief, consequence
Don't complicate life - just act
Live for the moment

1. SMARTER Goals:

At the end of 2012, I wrote an extensive article on 'Goal Setting' - New Year, old ways - A short guide to goal setting', which explained where most people fall down in achieving their goals - aka their new years resolutions - and how this disappointment can be averted simply by using a SMARTER approach to goal setting.

To quickly recap that post, it is isn't good enough to simply to write a list of goals and hope for the best. You need to think about and create a bigger plan with benchmarks, have real targets - measurable, attainable, and relevant ones - and have fixed time deadlines.

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-sensitive
Evaluate
Re-evaluate

For more detail on the above, have a read of the original post.

Also, here is an excellent post by my friend Greg Beazley about creating vision boards, which are essential to goal setting; well worth a read.

2. Action, belief, consequence:

Life is often hugely overcomplicated, our efforts can be wasted, and opportunities can be lost by complaining and focusing on the negative.

It needn't be this way.

In attitude psychology there is a thought process known as ABC, which stands for:

Action > Belief > Consequence

Consequences are the results of actions and beliefs.

Example:

Sarah's friends hadn't called her for a week, she believed that they didn't like her anymore, and therefore became depressed, upset, and insular.

The negative consequences could have been easily averted if she had just changed her belief. Sarah could have taken initiative (acted) and just called her friends, and/or changed her belief that her friends hadn't called simply because they had been busy. We shouldn't always think the worst, and let our un-founded beliefs determine the consequences.

If you don't like the consequence, you have to change the action or belief.

3. Don't over complicate life:

Below is a great summary approach to act and make things happen.

4. Live life for the moment:

Are mobile phones making us a little bit anti-social within a real-life context, to the point where perhaps we are missing the moment itself; despite our efforts to catch it digitally, and share it 'socially' ?

I think yes, and at times I am a huge culprit of this.

I recently watched the short clip below, and it definitely struck a chord with me in that our mobile phones really do sometimes take over a little too much and ruin the moment.

If you are looking for some extra inspiration, check out another recent post called '4 short videos to inspire you to make the most of life'

Here is to a happy, fulfilling, and goal smashing 2014.

About the author
Si Muddell is a Digital Strategist who has worked extensively both agency and client side. Si is fascinated about marketing, psychology & what motivates people, and loves guitar, surfing and travelling.

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