Have your best year ever: 4 Simple Tips To Make 2016 Your Best Year Yet

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Here are the top 10 New Years resolutions for 2015 (which I’m betting aren’t going to change much—if at all—when they report the results for 2016 around the same time next year.)

Top 10 New Years Resolutions:

1. Lose Weight
2. Get Organized
3. Spend Less, Save More
4. Enjoy Life More Fully
5. Stay Fit and Healthy
6. Learn Something Exciting
7. Quit Smoking
8. Help Others With Their Dreams
9. Fall in Love / Find Relationship
10. Spend More Time with Family

(Source: University of Scranton. Journal of Clinical Psychology)

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For most of us, a New Years Resolution is nothing more than a way for us to psychologically wipe the slate clean and start fresh—which, you don’t have to wait for January to do. You can start fresh whenever the hell you want.

But for those that do decide to start fresh every January, only 8% actually succeed in seeing their resolutions come to fruition.

Why so few?

What’s the gap and how do we bridge it?

The purpose of this piece is to share four simple questions with you. Four questions that I want to challenge you to ask yourself as you set/reset/re-visit your goals and resolutions for the coming year. They help me every time I ask them, and I think they can help you, too, if you allow them to:

The first question is…

1. Why?

So often people ask questions like:

• “how do I lost weight?”
• “how do I make more money?” or
• “how do I develop more discipline?”

But they forget a really important piece of the puzzle—we need to start with WHY. Because with a strong enough WHY, you can make any HOW possible…

You wanna find a better job? Don’t start by asking, “HOW do I find a better job?”

Start instead with, “WHY do I want to find a better job?”

Your HOW directs you. But your WHY fuels you.

It doesn’t matter whether you’ve got the best, most efficient directions in the world to help you get to where you want to go… If you don’t have any gas in the tank to get you there, you’ll never be motivated enough to get moving in the first place.

Your HOW directs you while your WHY fuels you. Doesn’t matter how awesome your car’s GPS is—without fuel in the tank you’re not going anywhere. — Click to tweet

We’re wired to look for reasons to do (or not to do) things.

And not just any old reasons, either. They need to be strong, powerful, compelling reasons that move us and motivate us.

If you tell your friends that you want to pursue a new career path because you’re looking for “more fruitful career advancement opportunities,” you won’t be inspiring any body. More importantly—you won’t be inspiring yourself.

But if you say instead:

“I’ve finally decided that it’s time for me to move on to something more meaningful and exciting… WHY? Because I’m not willing to waste away another year of my life working for a company that doesn’t give a damn about what I can contribute and bring to the table. I’m going to start looking for a company that cares about my ideas and opinions about making things better. I’m going to apply for a job that pays me what I’m worth, and fosters my passions and helps me make a real difference with the work I do.”

You get the idea—which version do you get more fired up about?

So, use both WHY and HOW to achieve your goals and resolutions in the new year and onward.

Far too often, people say things like: “But why should I take the time to do all this work, and learn all these skills, and list out all the WHYs for achieving my goals?—Why do all the work?”

Here’s a better question…

2. Why not?

Why not learn all you can?

Why not earn all you can?

Why not do more? Be more? Give more?

Why not become the best possible version of yourself?

Nature created a pretty damn powerful thing in the human body… It’s got a heart that beats 100,000 times a day without you asking it to. It can think. It can move. It can jump and dive and do all sorts of crazy stuff.

Your body + mind is capable of creating unimaginable things. And each of us was given one from the moment we took our first breath. And not only that—each of us was only created once. There’s no one else on this planet like you. You’re one of a kind. Limited edition, baby.

Your creator/nature/God/or whatever you wanna call “it”—only made one of you. So why not use everything you’ve been given?

Which brings me to the third question I think you should ask yourself as you contemplate your goals and ambitions…

3. Why not ME?

Why not YOU?—be the one that climbs the highest mountains and breaks the biggest records?

Why not YOU?—be the one that goes where no one else has gone and does what no one else has done?

Why not YOU?—be the one that makes a meaningful mark on the world in a way that only YOU can make?

And finally…

4. Why not NOW?

Every single week, hundreds of thousands of people listen to my podcast, and millions more read my personal development articles online. And I’m insanely grateful that I’ve been able to build up a platform like this to share what I’ve learned with people (and in many ways, the act of sharing my ideas and the inspiring ideas of others helps me learn even more…)

But you know what most people do after they learn a life-changing idea?

Most people will listen to a podcast, read an article, crack open a book—get all inspired and fired up about making a big giant change—but then something comes up and they don’t actually DO anything to help them make that big giant change.

And that’s friggin’ sad to me. It’s incredibly sad to me.

So the final question we always need to ask ourselves is quite simply this:

“Why not NOW?”

Every time we set a goal or start to feel those feelings of desire and ambition stirring up inside—let’s ask ourselves: “Why not NOW?”

Why not now? What’s stopping you from writing down a goal and doing a little research about making it happen?

Most people don’t take action on their dreams because they make them harder to achieve than they need to be. Don’t do that to yourself.

Instead, ask yourself: “Why not now?—What can I do RIGHT NOW to help me make this happen?”

Doesn’t matter how small of an action it is. Write it down. Schedule it. Never leave the sight of a goal without doing something—anything towards its achievement…

… Make the call. Order the brochure. Start the damn website already.

As the old saying goes: “if not now—when?”

2016 is your year. You can do it.

Use the 4 WHYs

1. Why? Write down all the reasons WHY you want to do something before you dive into HOW you’re going to do it.
2. Why not? You’ve been designed for greatness. Why not strive for it?
3. Why not me? Imposter syndrome? Get over yourself. Everyone’s got imposter syndrome. It’s how great things get made.
4. Why not now? Just F-ing do it, damnit. Now.