Insight with Chris Van Vliet - How To Actually Accomplish Your New Year's Resolutions In 2022

Episode Date: January 7, 2022

Happy New Year my friends! I hope 2022 is off to an amazing start for you! It's that time of year again where people make resolutions that they don't actually plan to keep. These seem to be set up more like a wish list for the year, rather than things they actually resolve to change. In this solo episode, I list off 5 simple things you can do to stay on track and actually accomplish your goals this year. And by the way, it doesn't have to be the start of a new calendar year to start making change. Get after it! As Aristotle said: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests. For more information about CVV and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are going. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Bleas! So good to see you. Welcome back to another audio adventure here on Insight. I'm CVV, Chris Van Fleet. I'm sure you already knew that because my name's in the title of the show. Also, Justin Roberts, so eloquently said it there in that intro. But thank you for being with us for another solo episode.

And as much as I love talking to some of the most fascinating people in the world and picking the brains of people who are the very best at what they do, nothing's better than this. Nothing's better than being able to chat one on one with you. And I just felt like now was the perfect time to do this one, to talk about this topic because it's that time of year again when everyone makes resolutions that they don't actually plan to keep. You know, instead of making resolutions where you resolve,

and that's the key word here, resolve to change the habits that you have and then take actionable steps to get there, these end up being more like a wish list for things that you think might sound nice. More on that in a second, but first, a big shout-outs who are a fan of the week, Big Tasty, Z. He left this review on Apple Podcasts that says Van Vleet is great. My favorite podcast, always a great time. It's like hanging out with buddies.

CBV is smooth as butter on pancakes. Breakfast is delicious. It actually says that. Breakfast is delicious. So thank you for that. And I agree. Breakfast is delicious. And pancakes,

sounds so good right now. Although I guess if you follow me on Instagram, you know this. It's a good time to let you know that I'm doing this thing now called No Sugar January. Because I have a confession. I have a serious addiction to sugar. We're talking candy, cookies, ice cream, donuts, pies, cakes. You get the picture.

So I'm doing the entire month with no added sugar. And I'm going to need you to hold me accountable to this because I get some serious sweet cravings after eating something salty. Maybe you're with me on this. But thank you so much for the Big Tasty review there from Big Tasty Z. I read one from Apple Podcast on every single episode. And if you're listening on Spotify, did you see that Spotify started adding a rating system? Yeah.

So if you could go in there, just go to the page for the show, click the five stars. I'd be so, so appreciative if you could do that. So did you know we're almost at Quitters Day? Yeah, you know what Quidders Day is? January 19th is Quidders Day. Research shows that this is the day that most people are likely to give up on their New Year's resolutions. That's sad, isn't it? But I put together five quick tips here that have helped me,

and I hope they'll help you achieve your New Year's resolutions and actually crush them this year. Number one, write it down. It's that simple. Write it down and write it down in the present tense, like it's already happened. And if you haven't written it down yet, write it down today and then write it down every single day

until it happens. A recent study by the 3M company shows that humans, process visuals 60,000 times faster than having to imagine things. So when you write down your goals, it means you can visually see them. And this is important because when you can see something, it affects how you can act upon that. And you're more likely to be productive if you can actually see what you have to do instead of just thinking about what you have to do. So number one, write it down. Number two, be specific. And I know you've heard me say this, a thousand,

thousand and 28 times before, but let's make it a thousand and 29. Vague goals get vague results. So let's flip that and its specific goals get specific results. So setting a goal, setting a New Year's resolution like, I'd like to lose some weight this year is an awful goal because if you lose one pound, congratulations, your goal has been achieved. So instead make it in the present tense of I am 15 pounds lighter on July 15th. How specific is that? And instead of a flimsy goal like, let's get more downloads on my

podcast, which is a nice goal. But how about you? How about you say something like, I have double the downloads on my podcast on December 31st, 2022. People who vividly describe or picture their goals are anywhere from 1.2 to 1.4 times more likely to accomplish their goals. People who vividly describe, or picture their goals are anywhere from 1.2 to 1.4 times more likely to accomplish their goals than people who don't be specific. Number three, hold yourself accountable. So in addition to writing things down, put it out into the world. Make a social media post about this. I actually just saw Drama King Matt do this, Aden English, if you will.

He was very specific about his goals. He put him out into the world, and now he's accountable for them. Tell your friends. Tell your coworkers if you don't want to put it on social media. Because if you're really serious about losing those, 15 pounds, when they see you eating your fourth donut of the day, they're going to slap that out of your hand. They're going to be like, what are you doing? Thought you want to diet here. So hold yourself accountable. Number four, engineer your environment. So pay for a gym membership or a

personal trainer. That's going to make you accountable to it. And it's also going to make you go, oh, man, I don't want to lose out on these $50, $100, however much it ends up costing there. put your workout clothes next to your bed. You're engineering your environment here. It's the first thing you see when you wake up. How are you going to walk past your running shoes? If they're right there, how are you going to make that excuse to yourself? If your running shoes are right there and you step over them to do anything but work out.

Want to eat more fruit? Well, just keep a bowl of apples on your desk or on your counter. Want to eat less ice cream? Yeah, I know I do. I was talking about that earlier, right? Well, then just make sure you don't buy ice cream. It's that simple. Engineer your environment.

If you have sweets in your house, you're probably going to end up eating sweets. Number five, be consistent. If you have goals, put them in your calendar. If you want to go to the gym tomorrow instead of saying, I'm going to go to the gym tomorrow, go, I'm going to go to the gym tomorrow at 7.30 a.m. 9 p.m., whatever time it happens to be, make an appointment in your calendar and then stick to it. If you want to, for example, Maybe you want to write a book this year.

Figure out how many pages that is. Maybe it's 200 pages. We'll write one page every single day for the next 200 days. And guess what? You finished your book one page at a time. Then you can take the rest of the year to proof read it and edit it. Be consistent. Aristotle famously said, we are what we repeatedly do.

Excellence then is not an act, but a habit. there you go. There's the five there. Let's run them down again. Number one, write it down. Number two, be specific. Number three, hold yourself accountable. Four, engineer your environment. And finally, number five, be consistent. There you go. I can't wait to hear what your 22 New Year's resolutions are. And I certainly hope that you are not a victim of Quitters Day on January 19th. certainly hope not, but I just, I love hanging out with you one-on-one in these solo episodes like this. So let me know what we should focus on for the next one. Shoot me a message. I'm on social media at Chris Van Fleet. I'm on TikTok at chris.com and of course,

you can go to my website, chrisvanvleet.com for any updates that we might have. Also sign up to our newsletter on there. I've been putting those out every two weeks with all kinds of information that you don't see anywhere else. But thank you, so. much for being on this audio adventure with me. I love that we're on this journey together each and every podcast. I can't wait for the next one. Be great. Be grateful. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do with rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe

the air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spit spitfire of sports smack. Take advantage of it, get up in here. The Jim Rome show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.