Editor’s note: This article was first published in January 2014, on 1 January. References to “this year”, 2013 and 2015 reflect that date.
Billionaire Richard Branson has published his first advice for the new year, 2014, on Virgin’s corporate blog. Borrowing a line from author Nora Roberts, “If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place”, Branson stresses how important it is to know exactly where we want to go this year.
Among his points (paraphrased here):
Take time to think about how your life changed in 2013 and how you would like it to change in 2014…
…although any time is a good time to make positive changes, the new year always seems the most fitting moment to make changes and think about a fresh start…
…No matter how big or small your plans are, they are all worth considering.
Confucius once said that “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. A small change could have a profound positive effect on other people’s lives as well as your own, whether we’re talking about your personal or your professional life.
Allow yourself a moment to reflect on some of the things you hope to have achieved by the end of 2014, and how you are going to achieve them.
It doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about exercising more, eating fewer biscuits or starting your own business. They’re all achieved the same way and in the same stages: 1. first we decide to aim for a specific goal, and 2. we do what it takes to reach it.
If you’ve struggled to meet your goals in previous years, Branson suggests writing them down and keeping them in sight: on the fridge, on your computer…
If you stick with it, before you know it you’ll be drawing up a new, more ambitious list for 2015.
Basically, Branson is telling us that we need more goals than wishes. A wish is just that: wanting something to happen and waiting for it to happen. A goal is wanting something and starting from the premise that we are the ones who have to take action to make it happen.
Wishes probably make us happy in the short term, thanks to hope and the magic of the new year, but in the long run they create the greatest frustrations, when we realise it was all a matter of chance and luck wasn’t on our side. When we fight to reach a goal, on the other hand, sometimes we get there, and other times we learn why we didn’t.
Further reading
- 7 steps to reach your goals in life and business
- 14 science-backed ways to be happier
- 40 universal truths for success
Featured image: Steve Jurvetson, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
