Get a Head Start Before the New Year – Beginner Guide

Getting a head start before the New Year even starts…

It’s the end of November, and how many times have we slowed down during this time of the year, and told ourselves that we’ll get things going once the new year begins?

That was me for sure. I would know the goals that I have for the next year, but in the last month of the year, I would slow down and just start fresh January 1.

By the way, this was me two years ago.

But last year was different, and this year will be different. Aside from probably taking time off the last week of December, I’m not going to wait until January 1 to start my habits. And this blog post will show you what I do instead.

This blog post will go through why you’d want to consider getting a head start before the New Year, and the steps to do that. While I can’t predict how much of a difference it will make compared to if you started in January 1, I can say that your future self will thank you later for starting now.

Let’s get into this!

Why you shouldn’t wait until

January 1 to START

1 – Starting now will give you MOMENTUM walking into the New Year

You know what’s even better than “starting fresh” and “getting things together” in the New Year? Walking into the New Year with momentum!

Think about this. If you started your habits or working on your goals in the New Year, you’re starting from 0. BUT if you started now, you’ll be walking into the New Year with some progress already!

Building habits and getting used to working hard on your goals take time! The best part about already building momentum heading into the New Year is that you’re already so used to doing them by then.

And besides, because by then you’re used to working on those goals, or doing those habits, they’re more likely to last much longer than January 2!

2 – Best time to make mistakes and learn!

When starting any new habit, or beginning any steps towards working on your goals, there are some mistakes we make along the way… and that’s okay!

The best time to make these mistakes and learn from them is when we get a headstart on our habits & goals before the New Year. Why’s that?

Well, when we learn & revise now, we also walk into the New Year with improved systems for our goals, and improved approach of our habits. For example, if you learned that you’ll more likely succeed in your healthy eating habit by doing more meal prep (and start doing so), you walk into the New Year already improving that approach to the healthy eating habit.

Another example is that a content creator may have learned that certain content platforms perform better than others, and therefore focuses on the one that performs better. It’s a good thing that they learned this before the New Year, because they can walk into the New Year knowing what to focus on more.

3 – You don’t want to waste anymore time!

And the most obvious reason is that you simply don’t want to waste anymore time.

Because honestly, why wait until an extra 20, 30, or 10 days (depending on how long it is until New Years) when you can just get started now. After all, you’ll have momentum and progress already walking into the New Year!

Time is a precious resource, right? Once it passes, you can never get it back, so let’s use it wisely!

4 Steps to Getting a Headstart

Before the New

Year!

STEP 1: Get Clear on Your Vision & Goals for the New Year

There’s practically no point of starting a habit if it’s not going to bring you closer to your goals. Instead, you want to focus on the habits that will.

But if you don’t know what your goals are, then it’s hard to decide what habits will bring you closer to your goals.

So, take the time to think about the vision of your life, and the goals you want to achieve in the New Year. If you want to take it a bit further, you can also go beyond one-year goals and do 3-year goals or 5-year goals if you want.

And make it clear. Getting clarity on this is extremely key because it’s hard to work with something that is vague. That’s why, write down your specific goals, and even the vision you have for the New Year. What do you see yourself doing? What kind of person do you want to be? Think about those things.

If you need help with creating goals, here’s a helpful post on goal-setting that you can read:

New Year Goal Setting Routine!

STEP 2: List the Habits that will bring you closer to your goals

Now that you’re clear on your goals & vision, it’s much easier to know what habits you want to focus on building.

For each of your goals, list down the habits that will bring you closer to them.

Now, obviously you’re not going to build those habits all at once. The next step will go through a plan that you can create to help you create momentum leading up to the New Year.

But have those lists of habits to refer back to whenever you’re ready to start a new habit during the next year.

STEP 3: Create a plan for the next X number of days leading up to the New Year

Now, it’s time to create your own 30-day challenge (OR the number of days leading up to the New Year by the time you’re reading this).

This can be either one of two things.

First, it can be a 30-day/20-day/10-day challenge of ONE habit. For example, your plan is simply to stick with a new habit such as drinking a gallon of water or cutting out junk food.

Second, it can be a list of habits (a mix of habits you already do AND a couple of new habits).

For example, I’m currently doing a doing a challenge that will help me with my personal growth and build my communication skills (which will help ALL areas of my life especially for my business and blog). Here is the 30-day head start challenge I created that will help me with my personal growth:

my personal growth non-negotiables:

• Read 15 pages of a book.
• Listen to minimum ONE podcast.
• Exercise (15 minutes minimum)
• Self-Care Time
• Prayers
• Affirmations

And here’s how I applied the first two steps:

• Most of my goals for the New Year are mainly goals that will improve me physically, mentally, intellectually, and spiritually. Once I made those goals specific, it made it easier for me to brainstorm habits that will bring me closer to them.
• After getting clear on that, I listed the habits that will bring me closer to those goals. There were already some habits that I have already been doing, but there was one habit that I haven’t done in a while (affirmations).

When you create your own plan, you can list habits that you’re already doing as part of it. Then, you can add a couple of new ones. If you feel like starting more than 2 at the same time will feel overwhelming, just add one habit. For example, a plan to bring you closer to your physical goals can look like this:

• Exercise 5 days a week (habit you already do)
• Sleep 7-8 hours a day (habit you already do)
• Drink 2 litres of water a day (habit you already do)
• Track your fitness progress with FitBit (new habit)
• Mindful Eating Routines (new habit)

Now, you can create your own plan! It can be a plan like the ones above, or just a plan to stick with a habit for however long it will be until New Years!

Step 4: Progress Over Perfection!

The most important thing to remember is that it’s always progress over perfection.

While it feels good to have a consecutive streak, it’s more important to look at the progress you made, rather than the perfect streak.

For example, if you decided to do a 30-day challenge, and you missed 6 days (because maybe you wanted to just chill in the last week of December during Christmas holidays), instead of putting yourself down, remember instead that you still did the challenge for 24 days!!

When you put that into the percentage, that’s 80% of the challenge! And that’s a pretty good percentage.

P.S I talked all about it in this blog post: The Game Changing Strategy for Your Habits! (it’s this percentage one! I definitely think you should read it!)

It’s okay if you missed a day or two because after all, we still want to chill and relax before New Years start. We still want to wind down and slow down a bit after all, and that’s okay! Just focus on the progress you have made.

Take a SMALL STEP

Basically, all the steps I had mentioned above are the small steps you can follow! Take your time with those steps :))

Here’s to more progress in 2023!

and let’s make it easier on ourselves by getting a headstart now!

Anyways, I hope this short beginner guide helped you get clear on your own goals & vision for the new year, and helped you think of some habits that will bring you closer to them. While we are encouraging you to create a plan to help you build momentum with those goals and habits, remember that it’s progress over perfection!

If you want some help with your goal setting, you can check out the Goal Setting Workbook that you can download for free in the Free Resources Library! It also has a few e-books on there (including my main book, Small Steps to Progression) that you can read to help bring you closer to your goals as well! Click here to access!

After all, the magic occurs when we apply what we learn! So hopefully this blog post had helped you in some way in making more progress for 2023!

-Lauren ☺

P.S I recommend you read these blog posts next!

• New Year Goal Setting Routine
• How to Build Life Changing Habits
• New Year, New Why? Why You Need a WHY
• 7 Fun Steps to Level Up Your Life
• 8 Practical Ways to Get Your Life Together

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