How I Am Planning For 2024 To Give Wings To My Dreams — This Might Help You Plan Yours Too

It’s not even close to mindless resolutions

I was pondering recently about my improvement in 2023. I guess that’s what we all feel like doing when we hit the last month of the year.

These days people have given it fancy names like : Annual progress review, annual audit. It’s supposed to provide us insights on how successful we were in achieving our targets or how we wasted another 365 days to nothingness.

I thought this year would become a massive game-changer in my overall improvement (work, life), but it didn’t turn out as I had imagined on the 1st January, 2023.

There have been incidents that changed my perspective towards life( for the good) and there are those that have stopped me on the tracks ( that I’m planning to get rid off in 2024).

I’m not a journaling person. I had never found solutions to my problems by writing stuff in a notebook.

But over the years, I’ve learnt to identify my strengths and weaknesses in the act, so I have made a short and actionable list of what needs to get done before I step onto 2024.

Managing the time I spend on YouTube

As someone who has stopped using Instagram and Facebook for over 2 years, this is not something that I’m proud of.

Being an online writer comes with its own set of pros and cons. I had spent countless hours on YouTube this year, both for the sake of collecting ideas for my projects and entertainment.

Although I love watching and listening to long formats of content, I love taking notes and including my perspectives on topics while watching the videos, but I’m ashamed to accept that this has been one of the reasons why I have not achieved some of my goals this year.

The problem is not consuming content on YouTube, but using it as a means to neglect the priorities.

You cannot deny the immense possibility of idea generation from watching relevant videos. You get to listen to various perspectives of the creators, understand their point of views, and nurture open-mindedness.

At the same time, you need to balance between consumption and implementation.

That’s why I have decided to:

— consume not more than an hour of content during the weekdays.

— implement what I learn immediately

— watch entertaining videos only during the weekends.

This would keep my behavior in check before I turn into an addict.

Taking action on everything I want to improve

I’ve a serious problem when it comes to shortlisting tasks and implementing the actions.

For example, I know that in order to sharpen my craft and become better at articulating my thoughts, I have to dedicate a few minutes to writing everyday.

I had even decided to start my newsletter this year to achieve my goals. But I found myself entangled in a spidey web of more information — perfect processes, perfect ideas, perfect execution.

With new information flooding my feed and email, I was unable to make up my mind on the strategy for my new project.

The unsurprising fact is that, if I continue to follow the exact procedure in 2024, I will inevitably find myself standing on the same spot, whining and feeling guilty.

“True hell is when the person that you are, meets the person that you could have been.” — Chris Williamson

What surprises me the most is that you are aware of the consequences of your habits. Even then, you allow myself to get carried away by such obnoxious behaviors.

I want to change that. This year, I’m going to sit with my notebook and pen and;

• break the huge intimidating tasks into manageable chunks so that I can measure my progress and take necessary actions to turn my dreams into reality.
• Re-asses the echo chambers to gain a clear sense of self-direction
• Analyse the fears that are hidden beneath
• and, measure the potential cost of every inaction

Outlining 3 priorities that can be achieved in 365 days

I am not a fan of making high-end resolutions. I’ve learnt from experience that they boost your ego, keep you high, and make you feel miserable once the effect of the new year extravaganza minimizes.

I wrote a post a year ago on LinkedIn circling around the topic that gained an impressive engagement from the audience.

The good part is I have been successful in practicing 80 percent of what I preached. Envisioning anti-goals have helped me in focussing on my priorities when I felt like giving up on my writing endeavour.

The bad part is I still have a long way to go before I become adept at managing my big dreams and targets.

Although I have spoken about this in the previous point, I would like to pay special attention to outlining my priorities.

Because when you build a framework around the goals you want to achieve, it prevents you from slipping into anxiety and helps you to stay on track.

I have decided to follow a principle by Joseph Campbell to understand how to shift and transform what I consume into practical lessons and also have a lot of fun in the process :

“Find what excites you. If it doesn’t excite you…..it’s not yours.”

Also, I have limited my priorities to three only because ‘less is more’.

I know it sounds cliche. But it is what it is. That way, it’s easier to reject the options that don’t matter.

Starting a Lindy library

I came across this term a few weeks ago while reading an article by David Perell. Immediately, I was scourging the internet to learn more about it.

The original term ‘The Lindy Effect’ was coined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book Antifragile.

The idea is that the older something is, the longer it’s likely to be around in the future.

David Perell is also a huge fan of old knowledge that has stood the test of time and he weighs it more than novelty. If you look closely enough, you’ll observe that every creator and writer who has made it to the top rungs of the success ladder has built their knowledge base on the older ideas.

If you want to become an author, you are advised to read the classics.

If you want to learn any musical instrument, you are told to study the work of the maestros.

If you want to become a successful entrepreneur, you are asked to observe and analyse their way of doing things. Why? So that:

• you don’t have to reinvent the wheel and fast track your progress.
• you can escape the noise
• and, save yourself from the never-ending now.

Being a writer, having a system to generate ideas is crucial. You can’t stay consistent with writing if you falter at collecting and connecting diverse ideas and share only regurgitated content with your audience.

One problem that I faced during my first year of writing is succumbing to any and every advice available on the social media platforms.

I became a collector of random information that messed with my writing system. That’s why I’ve decided to create my own Lindy library to make content generation easier in 2024.

Stop breaking promises to myself

I’ve been toying with the idea to roll out my own digital product for one year.

Every time I think about creating my first e-book, a huge wall of ‘lack of confidence’ stands in between me and my goal.

A bunch of narratives like “I’ve nothing important to share”, “People will reject what I have to offer”, “My content seems so silly and predictable” start playing on a loop inside my head. And I’m left with nothing but self-doubt and uncertainty.

On the 1st of January, 2023, I had promised myself to go on a solo trip. Even after long discussions and planning sessions, I had stepped down from my decision.

This chain of events have somehow made me realize that I’m hesitant while taking decisions.

And it boils down to one major element — Fear of unknown territory.

More times than not, it’s the habit of not doing stuff that gives birth to timidity and reluctance. The key is : lead with action.

It’s very challenging to commit to activities that require hard work and tenacity. Guillaume Moubeche has said it the best:

“The enemy is not the work. It’s not the difficulty of the work. The enemy is how much your brain will try to resist taking these actions.”

Which means, you gain confidence every time you push through the limitations and keep the promises you made to yourself.

And this would be the most important goal that I have planned to achieve in 2024. The last thing I want is regretting not trying out new things and wasting my potential for fear of failure.

I don’t know if I would be able to fulfill my targets in 2024.

But I definitely know what to avoid that could keep me in the same place.

I’ve come to the conclusion that if you are ultra clear about how you want your life to look like in the future, it can create a massive change in your outlook towards your goals.

It’s easy to get carried away while planning for the upcoming year.

It’s easy to get overexcited about re-inventing life in the new year.

It’s easy to prepare a huge list of to-do’s without studying the logistics.

The only question you should ask yourself before planning out your new year is : what are the recurring things that have kept you stuck and drained your energy the most in 2023?

I’ve unearthed mine.

Now, it’s your turn.