The Dr. Josh Axe Show - 7 Things You Must Do to Make 2024 Your Best Year Yet

Episode Date: December 26, 2023

Are you ready to make 2024 your best year yet? Join Dr. Josh Axe today as he shares 7 essential things you must do before the new year to set yourself up for exponential growth and success. In this info-packed episode, you'll discover Dr. Josh Axe's step-by-step blueprint for transforming every area of your life in just a couple hours. From reflecting on the past year to creating a weekly schedule, Dr. Josh Axe provides the tools to open new doors and step into your full potential. You’ll discover: How to reflect on your past year and decide what to start, stop, and keep doing The importance of identifying and prioritizing your goals Why visualizing your end goal is so critical to your success Tips to develop a growth plan to elevate your skills and character You'll walk away motivated and prepared to make this year count more than ever before. Tune in now to begin laying the foundation for your best year yet! Want more of The Growth Lab with Dr. Josh Axe? Subscribe to the YouTube channel. Follow Dr. Josh Axe Instagram Twitter Facebook Tik-Tok Follow Leaders Instagram Twitter Facebook Email Newsletter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everyone, Dr. Josh Axe here. Welcome the show. Every week I cover the science behind how to grow yourself, your health, your wealth, and take your career, your relationships, and your spiritual wellness to the next level. You know, we're coming up on the end of this year. So today's episode, I'm going to be going over everything you should do before 20, 24. And I've found that if you start to do these seven things I'm going to talk about, it's going to take your growth to a whole new level. in my career and having success and relationships and other areas, these are the top practices that I have,

and I guarantee they're going to help you big time. And here's the big thing, though, as well. If you don't do these things, you're really missing out. I can tell you, I've studied the most successful people in the world and so many different categories, and these are the things that almost every one of them do to be successful. And so let's go out and dive in here. Number one thing you need to do before the end of 2024,

but before we jump into 2024 here, is spend time reflecting. Not enough people do this. We tend to run or are such in a hurry to kind of get to the next year or just do nothing over the holidays. And I can appreciate you. We should use this, and you should take some time all, relax, spend time with family, kind of get recharged for the next year, but also you want to reflect.

Anyone that's successful does this. And so I want to give you an example what this looks like for me what it can look like for you. The first would be, you know, I try and do this right around, just around, just between Christmas and the first of the year. So let's call it, you know, maybe it's December 30th, somewhere in there. And I'll take some time and I'll just spend a couple hours at least thinking about what are the best parts of my year, what were the worst parts of my year, and what do I want to do differently for next year? And I reflect and I'll think about, okay, what are the things in my personal life, in my relationship with my wife, Chelsea,

with my daughter, with my business, with my friend group? What are all those things that just, you know, were memorable things? I'm like, I love that. I cherish that from this year. And other things I'm like, that was a bad decision I made. I made a mistake. I, you know, and being aware of the best and the worst of the year. Okay, so reflecting on what worked, what didn't work. So that's number one. Number two. two is a practice related to reflect, and it's something I call stop, start, keep. Okay, well, based on my time reflecting on this past year of what was successful, it was not successful, what I need to do differently, okay, well, now put it into practice. What do I need to stop doing?

Okay, so you might think to yourself as an example. So, like, I was reflecting about my past year, and I thought, what were some things that were really meaningful that I think about for last year. Well, you know, I think my practice of listening to audiobooks and really diving for myself into a lot more psychology and listening to certain people, you know, everyone from, you know, again, like a Jordan Peterson person. And so saying, okay, and then going back and listening to some of the great psychologists and philosophers like Aristotle and reading ancient, you know, sort of older text by someone like Dante. And so, anyways, going back, I look, okay, I learned so much from last year.

So I want to, that's something I really learned. I want to keep doing. What's something else? Well, you know, spending time with Rwin. When I get home, I put down my phone, and I stop work at this time, and I play with her with my undivided attention for 30 minutes or an hour, you know? And so that's something else. What's something I want to stop doing?

Well, wasting time. Maybe it'd be scrolling on social media. I realize that we do way too much time doing that. So, okay. So now let's go into this exercise of stop, start, keep. What do we need to stop doing? Okay. Well, I need to stop scrolling on the internet.

I spent too much time on social media. So you can go to your phone. There's an area on your phone, and you can see how much time you spend on social media. With that, you can actually set a time limit on it. And my wife does this, and I know, because she shared it with me, she's like, she only does that. She gives herself one hour a day, total on social media.

Then she doesn't do anything outside of that. Now, if it's watching an educational YouTube video, that doesn't count. But everything else, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, any of those out, those. And so she limits herself to a max of one hour a day, seven, seven hours a week total of time on social media. And so, so, so you know, okay, well, I'm going to stop spending so much time on social media. So, so that's what I'm going to stop doing for you. What do you need to start doing? Well, I want to start doing, I want to start reading my Bible in a morning, or I want to start this daily workout practice, or I want to start doing cold plunge, right? So you're right then what are some things I want to start doing? And then right then, what do you want to keep doing? What are some things that really worked for you this past year that you maybe did some on and off, but you're like, okay, I want to make this a rhythm and a daily routine and happen. Number three, prioritize.

Look back, and part of this is reflection, but looking back in your last year and then looking towards your future and saying, what are the things that matter most? When I get to the end of my life, I'll know that I spent the things on the things that matter most. So for me, it's my faith. I want to spend time growing closer to God. I want to spend time with my family. You know, every time I've watched interviews with a really high character billionaire, when they're asked about their what matters most or what their definition of success is, they never say money. In fact, most of them, most of them never say money.

I bet even someone like Elon Musk, even though I don't know what his level of morality would be per se, which I think generally in certain areas, I think familial. I may not admire him so much, but I would say I think when he thinks about society, he maybe has higher standards. standards than most. But with someone like him, if you ask him what his definition of success is, it's not, I don't think he's going to say to become a trillionaire. I don't think he would say that. I think he would say to put a man on Mars or to help create a level of free speech in a flourishing society, something like that. So all that being said, when you think about your priorities, it's important to recognize these are the things that matter to me. So most of these billionaires I mentioned that are virtuous people, they'll say, well, my family is more important than even my finances.

But for me, it's really, it's God, it's family, it's my health, and then it's sort of my work and life. This is a sort of mission I have in life, and then it might be my free time and just sort of enjoying and life. But these are all things that I have. They're a priority. And I also make sure they're in a hierarchy in their proper place and that one is it trumping another. I'm making sure that my work life is not constantly displacing my marriage or, my relationship with my kids or god and so but that's number three is sit down by the way write all this down it'll only take you you can watch this video and do this in everything i'm going to share with you at least most of it in a few minutes okay so what are your top priorities in life especially regarding your faith your family your finances your work your free time your health

write those down next up goal set now that you know what what your priorities are what matters most in life, set some goals. And I like to break my life into really five key categories with this, very similar to my invention. I have my spiritual goals. I have my relationship goals. So this is going to be with my wife and my family and all those. So I have my faith and my family goals. I have my health and fitness goals. I have my finances slash work goals. And I have my free time goals for recreation and those sort of things. So I have goals in those five categories. And within those five categories, let's say my business goals, I might have to write a book that hits to New York Times bestseller list and to make a certain amount of money and save a

certain amount. And so I have that so kind of finances and work goals that I have to get a new website up, to grow so much on social media, whatever it is, have those goals in place. By the way, there are studies that show that your goals should also be tied to positively influencing others. So it shouldn't just be about, for instance, if you set a social media goal, if I want to have 100,000 followers, if you have that sort of goal. You should say, have influence 100,000 people to live healthier lives. Okay, and that's tied to that social media goal. So when you're

goal setting, you want to be a little bit of altruistic and service oriented in those goals. You know, you might have a faith goal of, okay, I want to give 10% of our income, and I want to do a daily devotional, and I want to grow closer to God, and I want to improve my prayer life, something like that, right? And so you have those spiritual goals. And then you you have your goals related to your family. I want to go on a date night every week with my spouse and feel more deeply connected. I want to start doing a date night with my daughter each week. I want us to start doing more family meals together with no phones and everyone sitting around

and having a conversation, right? So think about what are some of those goals you have in these different areas of life, recreation. Hey, we want to go and visit, you know, by the way, I'm sharing some that I have on mine for next year. We'd love to do a trip to Europe. you know, maybe do, you know, play pickleball, whatever it is. Okay, so have those things on your vision board in those different areas of your life. So that's goal setting.

And then next, once you have your goals down, what I encourage people to do is create a vision board. So take your goals and then print off pictures for those. And so what I do is, I buy a big court board. I put my goals in the middle. And I also have a place for my plan, my strategy and plan. And then I put pictures all around those. And so if one of my goals is to write a New York Times best selling book, well, then I'll put a picture of that book up there with that. Or one of my goals is to, you know, tithe 10% and give to a mission and a charity that's saving, let's say, women from sex trafficking,

or helping dig clean wells in Africa or something like that or help out people in Israel or Palestine or somewhere. world wherever it is you know I have those on I have those pictures up on my vision board I also have vision board things related to goal setting so one of my things I do with goal setting is I have those five areas but I think of not only what I want to do but who I want to become as part of my goals so I'll give you an example if to give 10% is I want to be more generous and I want to give 10% right I want to be a better father and then so like I want to be So you have your to-do list and your to-be-list for a way with your goals.

And so on a vision board, you know, I put up, I put up pictures in the past of someone like, like a Mother Teresa showing. I want to be more compassionate. I want to be more service order. I want to be more selfless, right? And so I'll put pictures up on my vision board of what I want to accomplish, but also who I want to become, right? So vision boards are great. I mean, you can put them up.

And I recommend just look at them once a day. You can put them in an area where you're brushing your, your teeth or just somewhere where you go once a day. But I think that's, do a vision board. I've done other videos on this in the past, but I'm telling you, doing a vision board is something that will make your 2024, absolutely amazing. But it's so important that you have a vision. A vision is like a finish line. You want to know where you're going. What's that thing you're trying to achieve? And when you can see it, it becomes that much more real. Number six thing you want to do before 2024 to make it your best year ever is have a plan, have a growth plan.

All right, everybody wants to grow. In fact, psychologically speaking, a lot of people believe that the road to happiness is by trying to be happy. So doing things that are all that you like to do, okay? Studies show that actually will make you more than happy. Isn't that crazy? There are studies that show if you try and be happy, you'll be less happy. Versus what most studies show, if you want to be happy, you should focus on serving others and your own growth. So if you can become more wise, more loving, more generous, higher in character, that is actually what will make you happier and live to the best life possible.

Is your own character growth and growth in the unique skill and talent you have? That's it. If you want to live your best life possible, make 20, 20, 20, 40, the best year ever, write down this. What are the areas of character you want to grow in? It could be leadership. It could be love. It could be courage. It could be whatever it is for you, compassion, empathy, whatever it is.

down those areas you want to grow and write down what is your unique skill that thing that god uniquely made you do maybe it's write music maybe it's uh be a teacher and teach others whatever it is social media influencer right right down how you can write down that skill that you need to grow in and write down the character you need to grow in and then write up a plan in order to do that so the way that i would do this is let's say for instance i said to myself okay i want to grow in my to, in my leadership, that virtue. I want to grow in leadership and acting with wisdom.

So wisdom is one of those virtues I want to operate with making really good decisions and understanding the depths of things so I can help create a better world. I know my gifts, so I know that that's the character, wisdom and leadership. Okay. So those qualities, in order for me to grow in those,

there are certain people I should listen to, books I should read, things I should do, and I'll make a plan on it. By the way, similar thing with skill. Okay, I want to become a better communicator. I want to become better at, you know, podcasting or social media. I want to become, so there's some things, right? So if I want to grow in these areas, I'm going to say, okay, who are people that I need to model in order to become wiser? Well, who are some of the wisest people I know? Well, for me, it's going back to the Bible. I might read Solomon, you know, and so I'm going to

say, I'm going to read the book of Proverbs once a month, so 12 times this year. And then I'm just going to say, some other people I think that are wise people. You know, I might say someone like, I think Jordan Peterson has a lot of wisdom and sort of how he analyzes things with psychology. I think there's a lot of spiritual people I really admire. It could be a Bishop Barron or Jonathan Pejiao or it could be, you know, another church leader, you know, somebody I follow. And then maybe Abraham Lincoln and realizing he was, he showed incredible leadership in his time and life. And so I'm going to write down and go, okay, what are the books I'm going to read? I'm going to write down 12 books. I'm going to write down three podcasts I'm going to listen to. I'm going to put those in during

my week. And then also, hey, I want to get better as a podcast. I need to listen to great podcasts. Maybe it's someone like Ed Milet, okay, or someone else like that. So I'm going to write down, who are those people that I want to follow, that I want to listen to, and I create a growth plan based on it? What are all the things I can do to grow in this area from what I'm reading, from what I'm listening to? So podcasts, what I'm watching on a regular basis on a channel like YouTube. And so then I create my growth plan. And then here's the last thing. Step number seven for you to have the best 2024 of your life. And think about that. And let me say this. If you do these things I'm sharing with you, I guarantee you will get to the end of one year from now.

And you'll be like, I have grown so much. I'm a totally different person now. The way that people respect me, the amount of finances I'm bringing in, the way that I am as a parent or as a friend or a leader, you'll grow through the charts. And then if you do that same thing for three years, you'll grow astronomically. I experienced myself before, I used to just go through life and just say, well, I'm going to read something. I'm going to watch something. I'm going to work. I didn't have a plan. When I created a growth plan, by the way, John Maxwell is the person who first asked me, he's like, Josh, do you have a growth plan? And I realized I didn't. And then when I started doing this when I was in my 20s, my growth, my personal growth, my spiritual

growth, everything started growing and exploding. And I couldn't believe. I looked back three years later and I thought, I'm not even the same person at all. That's the power of what can happen if you follow these seven steps. Now, here's step number seven. Time block by creating a weekly war plan. This is a mentor, another mentor who's really successful, multi-millionaire, incredibly, you know, spiritually, just strong person, great father, great husband.

He taught me how to do this. and he said, Josh, you need to sit down before each week, and you need to make a plan. He said, generally you need to make a plan of what your week would look like, but also you need to plan for each week. And so he said, you know, what does your best week look like? If you're going to grow and have an impact, what does it look like? And so what I would do is I would time block and I would sit down and say, okay, the first thing I'm going to do is get done to God, and I'm going to time block one out. And it depends on your amount of time, right? So for me, it might be one hour to God and growth.

Okay, so I'll read my Bible, maybe even a leadership book. I'll pray, I'll have a gratitude practice, but I'll do that from, let's call it 530 a.m. to 6.30 a.m. Okay. And then I'm going to go and work out. Let's say, you know, for the next hour. And then I'm going to spend time eating a healthy breakfast and time with my family. Okay. And then let's say I get to 9 a.m. and then it's, okay, I'm going to work. I'm going to do the most important things first.

By the way, study show that, that if you want to be. the most productive, do the things that take the most creativity and that are the most important first. So I schedule, let's say, prepping and writing and doing things for podcast first. And then I'm going to do my most important meeting. And I'm going to do that from 9 to 11. And then maybe I'm going to film right afterwards. Okay. Then I'll eat lunch.

And then the afternoon I'll do the meetings. Okay. And then, you know, when I get done with work, I'm going to play with Arwen for 30 minutes straight. and then we're going to eat dinner, and then I'm going to play again with my kids, and then we're going to maybe watch, let's say we'll watch a show for, you know, call it 45 minutes or an hour,

and then we're going to kind of prep, get the kids ready for bed, do all that, then I'll listen to an audio book for 30 minutes before I go to bed, do my red light therapy, something like that. But I have, but it might be different certain days, but I know generally what an absolutely awesome day looks like, and also when I'm working out,

I'm also listening to a podcast or a book on audio or something like that. But I have my whole day plan generally, what are the most, what are the, what are the activities I need to do? I just block them out for my weekend. I have a real plan there with that as well each week. And listen, some weeks look different. I was like, okay, well, Arwin has a school play or we're going on vacation. So I know what generally I have, I'm going to modify it for this week and do the best I can. move forward in that way.

So I want to go back over this. Here's the seven things you need to do to maximize your 2024. Now listen, if this seems overwhelming, which I promise, if you just write these down and just spend a few minutes on each, it's not that overwhelming. Okay.

But I would say if you have two hours, you could do most of this in two hours. If you just blocked out two hours sometime in December or January. But ideally in December, because this is before 2024. But number one, reflect. Reflect on the past year. What was beautiful? What was amazing? What was fantastic? And what was not so great? What mistakes did you mean? What can you learn from? So spend time on just reflecting that. I just close my eyes and sometimes I ask guys like, go, you just show me. And I think back back when I passed year, the best and the worst of it. The next thing I do is based on that information, based on that vision and that reflection, I just said, here's what I'm going to stop doing for next year. Here's what I'm going to start doing. Here's what I'm going to keep doing. So write down just a list. Here's three to five things I'm going to stop doing, start doing, and keep doing. Number three.

I'm going to prioritize. I want to make sure that my priorities are in the right place, that my family is where it should be in my priorities, as an example. Number four, I'm going to set really specific goals, and there's five different areas of life. Number five, I'm going to create a vision board, okay? And listen, if that's too much, then just put your goals up, at least just put those up on your bathroom mirror with just a couple pictures of your biggest goals next to those, okay, if you don't want to do a full on vision board. The vision boards are great. Number six, write down a plan for growth. Basically, what are the books you're going to read or listen to?

What are the videos you're going to watch? What are the podcasts or the audio things you're going to listen to? And what are those areas you need to grow in? And number seven, have a weekly war plan to maximize your time and effort, use that time blocking technique. If you can do that, your 2024 is going to be incredible and the best year of your life by far. I want to mention as well, if you like this video, hey, you should subscribe with the channel.

You know, I put out new videos several days a week. on how to grow yourself, your health, your wealth, and take your career, your spirituality, relationships to a whole new level. And did you know that if you're not subscribed, you're only going to see a fraction of my video, so make sure to subscribe. We've got some incredible videos coming out

that's going to help you live the best 20-24 ever. Hey, thanks so much for watching. I'm praying that your 24 is blessed.