This is a great time of the year to think of new things and making a fresh start. I think that is because many of us tend to take a collective break from our routines over the Christmas and New Year period. This gives us a break to stop and think away from our lives on automation. The new year ahead is full of promise and unfilled potential. I love getting a new diary and all the pages are blank. What can I do with this brand new year ahead? In this blog post I want to share my best strategies for goal setting and achievement in 2022.

What is your ikigai?

Have you every heard of the Japanese concept of ikigai? This is akin to your life’s purpose and what author and researcher Jim Collins calls the hedgehog concept. If I asked you what is your life’s purpose would you be able to tell me clearly in a sentence? If you need help with this please have a read of a previous article on this blog ‘Find Your Life’s Purpose in 10 Minutes!’ The goals you set for 2022 should flow from your life’s purpose.

Break the year down

December 2022 is a long way off. We have all learned from the global pandemic that the future is an uncertain place. It is also hard to get motivated if we say we want to achieve x by December 2022. We may think we have so much time and the year can slip by until later in the year we have either forgotten about the goal we set at the start of the year or have given up on it. Instead break the year down and set a goal for the first quarter 2022. Set one big stretch goal for Thursday March 31st 2022 that is going to challenge you and push you out of your comfort zone. If you focus on too many goals you may end up achieving neither. Remember the old proverb: if you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one. There is a lot of sense in that. Focus your efforts on one big thing for this quarter (January to March 2022).

Planning Fallacy

The next thing that you need to watch out for is the planning fallacy. This is a particular bugbear of mine. I have written about the planning fallacy before on this blog. Basically this is where predictions about how much time will be needed to complete a future task display an optimism bias and underestimate the time needed. The planning fallacy results in not only time overruns, but also cost overruns and benefit shortfalls. It is possible therefore that whatever stretch goal you set for yourself to be achieved by the end of March 2022 will overrun that target to a considerable degree. The thing is that once you know about the planning fallacy you won’t beat yourself up so much if you fail to achieve your goal. You will simply reset your goal and keep going! The key is to keep going and not get discouraged.

Best wishes for 2022

I hope that these three strategies for goal setting will help you improve your planning for the new year. Most importantly I hope that you will achieve the results you want in the year ahead. If you would like more information on setting effective goals and achieving them please check out my course Goal Setting 2022: Set & Achieve Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals. I cover the topics presented here in much more detail such as life’s purpose and vision and also how to turbo charge goal achievement using tools such as mind movies and vision boards. You can get this course for the discounted price of $9.99 until January 14th 2022. Please check out the free course preview by clicking the link above.

Very best wishes for 2022!

Tom