In the New Year, I hope students are motivated to improve themselves, their academic success, and most importantly, their future. New Year’s resolutions are great, but we often fall off the wagon without self-discipline, consistency, as well as help, guidance, and encouragement from people who care about our success. What are your big, audacious goals in 2025? To earn straight A’s in school? To improve your SAT/ACT score? To score a 5 on the AP Calculus exam? To run a five-minute mile? To bench press 200 pounds? Go from brown belt to black belt in karate?
Don’t be afraid to dream big. In martial arts, there is a principle of striking through the target rather than at the target. For example, to break a wooden board, instead of thinking to hit the board, one must think of hitting an imaginary target six inches beyond the board. The board just happens to be in the way of your fist on the way to the imaginary target, and thus you can break the wooden board more easily. We can apply this same principle to achieving goals. For example, as a young salesman I recall our manager once discussing the sales goal for the week. Instead of aiming merely to hit that sales target, he set our goal to a target well in excess of the original sales target – in this way, we should be able to easily meet the originally goal.
If a goal is too easy, you probably aren’t thinking big enough. For goals to really help you improve, they need to be audacious enough to force you to grow beyond your current limits into the person who is capable of achieving those goals. The Navy SEALs call this the 20x factor. Instructors will tell SEAL trainees that they are capable of 20 times the physical effort that they think they are capable of. Mark Divine discusses this in detail in The Way of the SEAL.
What is one big, audacious goal that will stretch your perceived limits? How can you break that down into smaller subgoals that are SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-limited? Arm yourself with this game plan, post it somewhere you will see it regularly, review it at regular intervals, adjust as needed – and go after it! For example, perhaps your goal for the semester is to write a 30 page term-paper about the war in Gaza. The first week you might set yourself a target of completing a rough outline. The second and third week might be occupied by researching and reading everything you can find that has been written about this topic. The fourth week might be occupied with adding exquisite detail to your outline, including notes from your reading. Week five might see you writing the introduction. You can see where this is all leading, right? By taking things step by step with a clear plan, you will be equipped to achieve your big goal of finishing that term paper on time and with a high standard of quality.
Exercise self-discipline in taking consistent action towards your goals. For example, athletes all know the importance of regular training. They know the importance of consistently doing conditioning (e.g. strength training and running), skill and sport-specific drills, periodic rest, and so on. Making a 1% step forward every day is better than trying (and likely failing) to take a 100% step only once a year, or once in a decade. Soldiers similarly understand the value of regular, consistent discipline. Every morning at 5am a soldier might wake up and exercise as their first task of the day. I recall reading in a science fiction short story the line “A [warrior] cannot rely on luck. He must rely on the steadiness and the training and the discipline of his [teammates]” (emphasis added by me).
Ask a trusted person to help keep you accountable. For example, you could arrange to go to the gym regularly with a friend to exercise. When your motivation is lagging, your friend can help remind you to stay on track with your planned exercise routine, and you can provide similar encouragement to your friend. To help you stay on track with your study goals, you could prepare a schedule, hand a copy to your parents, and ask them to encourage you to stay on track with your goals and tasks. If you play on a sports team, your coach is a trusted resource who can encourage you and hold you to the goals that you have set for yourself.
If you’d like me to help you achieve your goals in the new year, why not schedule a NO COST one hour lesson today? I look forward to helping you succeed.