Further Your Lifestyle

EP.94 The SUCCESS formula to having your best year yet | Further Your Lifestyle Podcast

January 01, 2023 Your Host: Chris Furlong Episode 94
Further Your Lifestyle
EP.94 The SUCCESS formula to having your best year yet | Further Your Lifestyle Podcast
Show Notes Transcript

Have you ever made a resolution or set a goal at the beginning of a new year, only to find yourself struggling to stay motivated or on track a few weeks later? You're not alone.

Many of us struggle to turn our goals into tangible, achievable results. But what if I told you that there's a simple formula or approach for achieving your goals and having your best year yet?

 In this episode, we'll be exploring the SUCCESS formula for goal-setting and how you can use it to make meaningful progress towards your dreams and aspirations.

Smart Goals Template: view here

WATCH ON YT: https://youtu.be/NaOfurY1ty8

▬▬▬▬ CHAPTERS ▬▬▬▬

0:00 - welcome to 94
1:00 - the feeling of a new year
2:50 - Goals setting and what is it?
4:00 - there are a number of approaches to make progress
4:58 - what are the 5 magical steps, before picking an approach 
11:05 - lets now pick the approach to make it your BEST year! 
12:07 - Approach 1: Smart Goals
14:07 - Approach 2: Be Consistent
17:04 - Approach 3: Improve by 1%
19:14 - Approach 3 (ALT): Spend 1% of your Day!
21:30 - Approach 4: Embracing creativity and innovation
22:06 - Approach 5: Taking more risks and embrace failure
24:12 - Approach 6: Fostering a growth mindset
27:21 - Approach 7: Dabble with new opportunities / experiences 
29:16 - Approach 8: Stay curious, and pursue “always be learning”
30:27 - these are all Vessels to a destination
31:36 -  what are we doing? Why?
33:00 - when we think about making progress, think about PURPOSE
37:26 - wrap up and THANK YOU

  ▬▬▬▬ CONNECT ▬▬▬▬

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[00:00:00] Chris Furlong: Yo. Yo yo. Welcome back to the Further Your Lifestyle Podcast, conversations on lifestyle passions and hustles. My name's Chris Furlong. I am your host and I'm super excited to be back here having the conversation with you. Happy New Year. It is 2023 and I'm excited. I always get excited for a new year and we are kicking it off.

[00:00:18] Chris Furlong: Hopefully. Hopefully you are kicking it off. Just as excited as I am. Ready to rock and roll for this year, and that's what we're talking and how to. This your best year yet. And look, I just want to quickly, before we get into the details of what we're talking about and the actual episode, I just wanna quickly say, hey, if you're here for the first time, thanks for being here.

[00:00:39] Chris Furlong: Thanks for dropping by and you're in for a treat. We're gonna be talking about some exciting things. And if you're a regular here, thank you so much. I do really, really appreciate it. So episode 94, today we're in for a treat for today, and we're talking about the success formula. To having your best year yet.

[00:00:56] Chris Furlong: Now, I know this is , this is close to my heart because every year it can be a little overwhelming when it comes to, you know, going into a new year. And I wanna ask you, do you ever feel, you know, like that it's very overwhelming or can be a little overwhelming at the start of a new year? For me, over the last nine years, I've also been I've been.

[00:01:16] Chris Furlong: Types of people, which I, I get motivated, I get excited and get really dialed into the couple of weeks leading up to a new year, and I get, you know, really just dialed into setting that up, ready to get into the new year. Most of the time I would like to think that it makes my my years more successful, but there's been many years where, You know, of course they have been successful, but many years where maybe I thought they weren't as successful that they could have been.

[00:01:41] Chris Furlong: Now look, that isn't necessarily a bad thing when things don't go to plan, because there's many opportunities and many lessons from it. But at the same time it's, it's sometimes hard to. Identify that and understand that until we get to the other end of the year, but who wants to wait around for an entire year to find out that it was their best year yet?

[00:01:59] Chris Furlong: We want to go through that and experience it, but that is part of the journey. It is an experience that we have to go through. Now, before I start talking in riddles, that's what I wanna share with you today. I wanna talk to you. About some insights and I guess some understanding around the success formula to having your best year yet.

[00:02:16] Chris Furlong: We're gonna dive right into it. But before we do that, I just wanna say, if you have not subscribed, if you are not following the podcast, please go ahead and do that. You know, whether it's on Spotify, YouTube, apple Podcasts, all the great places, it's an opportunity for you to stay informed, to stay updated when a new episode drops.

[00:02:32] Chris Furlong: I do these weekly every Sunday, 9:00 AM and I would not want you to miss out. So if you haven't done. Jump on over there. It really does help support the pod. And of course if you enjoy this episode, you can jump in and leave a review, give it a rating or even leave a comment if you are watching on the YouTube side of things too.

[00:02:48] Chris Furlong: Alright, let's dive into it. Getting into the whole premise of this topic. If we do a quick Google around. What is goal setting and , the first thing that you're, you're probably most likely going to find, and it's the most common system that exists, which is the smart goal system. And I'll talk about this shortly, but I wanna help you get straight to the point in understanding, you know, what is this magic formula?

[00:03:08] Chris Furlong: I don't wanna beat around the bush. I don't wanna, you know, make you stick around to actually find out what it is. But I want you to get to understanding how to make your best year yet so quick and so, and just give it to you straightaway. So I'll be honest, , it really comes down to actually understanding, you know, a number of different options.

[00:03:27] Chris Furlong: But that's what I'm gonna take you through. I'm gonna help you understand these options as quickly as possible, but also as detailed as possible. And that's really what it is. It's understanding your options, picking an approach and leveraging a process. I'll say that again. The success formula is understanding what options you.

[00:03:45] Chris Furlong: Picking an approach and leveraging a process. Now, you don't have to follow the norm. You don't have to do the usual process to be successful. You have options, and these can range from a number of different things. We're gonna touch on all of these today. These could range from being. Setting the smart goal system that I just mentioned before, which is specific, measurable, and achievable, relevant and time bound goals.

[00:04:08] Chris Furlong: It might be just as simple as being consistent and having a habit or setting up some routines. It might be about taking the approach to focus on improving by 1% or leveraging 1% of your day. It might be around embracing creativity or using in. At your advantage. It could be about taking more risks and embracing failure.

[00:04:30] Chris Furlong: It could be around taking the approach of fostering a growth mindset. It also might mean dabbling with new opportunities and experiences, or it might be as simple as just staying curious and pursuing the idea of always be learning now, and that's what I want to take you through today and help you understand today that the success formula for having your best year yet is a combination of five steps that I'm gonna mention.

[00:04:54] Chris Furlong: Plus choosing your approach, right? So let's get into these five magical steps. Let's help you understand what they are in detail above. I said that, you know, it is going through. Around understanding your options, picking an approach, and leveraging a process. So that's what you need to do before you can actually start to lock in on your approach.

[00:05:13] Chris Furlong: You need to understand exactly where you are at. You need to understand, you know, what are your options and what are you even actually working towards. And sometimes this can be a little fluffy, but I've got a five step process here that will help you. Clear all that fluff, all that fog outta the way, and then we can get straight into the detail of making this as simple as possible for you.

[00:05:35] Chris Furlong: So what are these five steps of understanding where you are at? Well, it's this simple. Step one is start with what is your vision for the actual new year? What do you want to achieve? and what does that look like? Break it down. Now, I know this can be very, very scary and very, very, oh, it's one of these, you know, usual things.

[00:05:54] Chris Furlong: What do you actually want? Well, I'm sorry, but that's the reality of it. If you think about what you wanna do for the next 365 days, it can be a little overwhelming to think, I'm gonna do this every single day. And that's what I want to do because sometimes, you know, we're gonna go through this journey and then you realize it's not really what you want.

[00:06:12] Chris Furlong: But if you can zoom out and think about, you know, what did you do last year? What did you enjoy? What went really, really well? What are you motivated at the moment to actually continue to achieve? It might be maybe you're starting university, maybe you're starting a new job, maybe you've just gotten into a relationship or maybe you're wanting to earn some more money.

[00:06:29] Chris Furlong: Maybe you're wanting to start a new hobby, whatever it may be. Think about at a broader perspective, where would you want to be a year from now? You know, is it you want to be fit? You know, it could be that cliche of, I wanna hit the gym and I wanna be fit, and I wanna be healthy. Or maybe it's just you want to be having a side hustle, earning a bit of dollars on the side, or maybe you just want to be in a relationship that is.

[00:06:51] Chris Furlong: Pure and, you know, really enjoyable and it is growing, right? There's so many things. I don't, I don't, I don't get to choose this for you. You have to choose what it is and you need to understand what that vision is for your year. It can be as detailed as a paragraph and dot pointed out, or it can be as simple as saying, I just want to be the fittest I've ever been.

[00:07:10] Chris Furlong: Right. It can be broad and bold like that, so understand what that is, right? You gotta do it. I'm sorry. It's, it's annoying, but that's the reality of it. Once you have this, once you have some idea of this, step two is to focus on your own goals and not others' expectations. So now that you've picked what that looks like, you now want to actually understand, okay, what does that actually look like for you and not what other people would portray it to be.

[00:07:37] Chris Furlong: So again, what is it that you want? Not what others think you should be doing or think you should have. And that's why I'm saying I can't pick this for you. You need to really understand, well what do you really, really want? Like I said, you know, it might be you might be motivated because other people are going on a challenge to lose weight.

[00:07:53] Chris Furlong: And I said, you can pick that cliche if you want cuz if that's genuinely what you want, then do that, but don't do what other people are suggesting or portraying for you. You know, goals are great or setting visions. Having all these things that you want to complete, but if they're not your own, you're going to not have purpose and you're not going to have passion to even go out and do them.

[00:08:13] Chris Furlong: So you really need to understand what is it that you really re really want. Step three of this is you then need to be realistic and patient so quickly just reflect right now. Does the above make sense logically with everything you currently have going on? And remember, it's also okay to shelve. and put them to the side until the right season comes along, or the right time comes along.

[00:08:36] Chris Furlong: Now, what I mean by this is, you know, I, I, I, I can be the first one to put my hand up. As you know, my, my biggest priorities is my reselling business, my business in general. Then my podcast, which is this, you know, the podcast, the Feather Your Lifestyle podcast, and then I have my running and my YouTube. Now, these are all basically what I want to juggle and what I want to maintain in terms of progress to a long-term thinking approach.

[00:09:04] Chris Furlong: Of course, I have. All the other things within my life that I wanna manage, especially my relationship with Carla. And that's, that's my girlfriend and also, you know, with my friends, with my family, and there's other smaller subset goals and things like that. But you need to understand what are the main core focus areas that you wanna be working on, and are they realistic?

[00:09:22] Chris Furlong: Can you actually manage them? Can you juggle them? Can you actually take the time to spend what is going to be required on them? And if it might make sense that you have to shelve something until you've got a bit of wiggle room, that's okay too. Step four is then don't be afraid to ask for help.

[00:09:37] Chris Furlong: Understanding all these things that we've just been talking about. You need to acknowledge this now because the sooner you understand that it's gonna be okay to ask for help when you. Getting to the point where you have to ask, it can be scary, but if you acknowledge it now, you're not gonna freak out when you need to ask for help, and you're not gonna be too scared to do it.

[00:09:53] Chris Furlong: So just soak that in at this moment and really understand that it's okay to ask for help. And then five of this five step process of you actually understanding where you're at is. Use setbacks as opportunities for growth. What were some things last year that didn't go as planned? You know, whether it was with goals or just in general, what did not go at plan?

[00:10:15] Chris Furlong: So how can you take these and turn them into lessons to ensure that this year you're gonna be stronger, better, smarter, wiser, and not make the same mistake, but you can build whatever you need to to mitigate yourself from actually making these mistakes again. Okay, so we've. Taken yourself through the five step process of actually understanding where you are at.

[00:10:36] Chris Furlong: You now have an idea, a clear vision. You've set some expectations around, you know, what are some of the, I guess, objectives along with some of the, I guess, guiding principles to help you move forward of where you are, but where you want to be going as well. So if you have not done that, press pause. Go back and complete this section because I think it's super.

[00:10:56] Chris Furlong: Crucial that you understand what it is that you want and some of the, I guess, parameters or boundaries that you need to set to make sure that this happens. Now it's gonna be the time to understand and choose what the approach will be for you to actually make this year your best year yet. And as I said, you know, the formula to this is understanding those five steps above and then picking these approaches and following a process.

[00:11:19] Chris Furlong: Right? And don't stress, you don't have to picture just one of these. We're gonna go through all of them. You know mentioned, I mentioned at a high level before. We're gonna go through these approaches in detail and see what makes sense for you. Of course, you can jump into the show notes and you can read the transcript of this, and there'll be some insights there that you can take away as well, because at the end of the day, this is the beauty of it.

[00:11:39] Chris Furlong: There's no one way of being able to be successful. You all get to choose your own part, and I wanna make sure that you understand that there's lots of simple ways that you can continue. To show up and get the results that you want without having to do what everyone else is telling you to do. Again, I'm not telling you which one to do.

[00:11:56] Chris Furlong: I'm here to share with you what would be some approaches that you can do. All right, let's dive in. This is, this is gonna be a bit of a long episode, so buckle up. Let's, let's do it. Approach number one is smart goals. Now, if you're not familiar with Smart Goals, the way they work is smart. Goals are specific, they are measurable, they are achievable, relevant, and time bound.

[00:12:17] Chris Furlong: Now, if you do a quick Google, you will find so much on this, but I'm gonna help you quickly understand what they are. In short, they're designed to help you stay focused and to help you stay motivated and a simple. I guess a simplified breakdown of each of the elements within the smart goals is this. So S is about being specific.

[00:12:35] Chris Furlong: Make your goal specific and clear so you know exactly what you're working towards. For example, instead of saying, I want to be healthy, Say I want to eat an apple every day for stack time. For measurable, it means, you know, you wanna make the goal measurable so you can track the progress and see if you're actually achieving it or making that progress.

[00:12:56] Chris Furlong: For example, instead of saying, I want to read more, say, I want to read one book. Per week achievable. You wanna make the goal achievable. You wanna make sure that it's actually possible to reach with effort and dedication. So an example for this one would be instead of saying, I want to be the best soccer player in the world, say I want to practice soccer.

[00:13:15] Chris Furlong: For 30 minutes every day. You then also wanna make sure that your goal is relevant, which is the next one to your interest and to your values. So it's meaningful, it's motivating, and it has purpose. For example, instead of saying, I wanna be a scientist, you might want to learn about. Planets and stars again.

[00:13:32] Chris Furlong: It keeps it interesting, it keeps it aligned. And then the time bound part of this, which is the last part of the smart goal system, is set a deadline for your goal. So you have, I guess, some sense of urgency and some sense of purpose when working towards it. For example, instead of saying, I want to learn how to ride a bike, you would say, I want to learn how to ride a.

[00:13:51] Chris Furlong: By the end of summer. Now I have a template for this in the show notes. You can jump down to it and go through it. Again, you can Google this stuff. It's a very simple, it's very, it's pretty much used across the board in most industries, in some form or another. All right, so approach number two. Now we're getting into something a little different.

[00:14:10] Chris Furlong: Now. This one was, Just being consistent and having a habit or routine. Now, I know it might sound a little, oh yeah, that makes sense, or, yeah, that's easy enough. And look, it really is. But the beauty of being consistent, is, you have to be consistent, right? And that's easier said than done. It's easier to put on paper, but actually when it comes to actually doing it, it's not as easy as one would think.

[00:14:32] Chris Furlong: So how do we be consistent? How do we have a habit or a routine? Well, there's five steps on how you can do this, and I'm gonna break it down for you. Step one is set a schedule, right? Having a consistent schedule can help you stay organized and help you stay on track. For instance, consider setting specific tasks or activities or things related to your goals at a certain time so you can stick to them as closely as possible.

[00:14:59] Chris Furlong: That is king. If you have a schedule, it becomes muscle memory and it starts to just come a normal workflow that you just do. in auto mode right now. It's not about making things in auto mode, so you're not paying attention to it, but you wanna make these things easy, and that's why 0.2 is like a schedule, is you want to establish a routine.

[00:15:18] Chris Furlong: Again, this helps you stay focused. It helps you make progress efficiently. For example, if your goal is to exercise more, you might establish a routine. Of going for a run at the same time every day. It, it's like why people go to bed at the same time every night and get up at the same time every morning because it just becomes clockwork.

[00:15:35] Chris Furlong: It just becomes something that you can rinse and repeat. It makes it easy, but it gets results. Number three is make it a habit, right? Very similar to schedule and routine is the more you do something, the easier it becomes. You can see I'm tell talking about making things easy. By consistently performing a task or activity related to your goal, it can become a habit.

[00:15:56] Chris Furlong: and that means it requires less effort to maintain. So how do we get a habit set a. Establish a routine, and then it becomes a habit, and then it becomes simply that muscle memory mentality and it becomes something that you don't have to spend so much detail in actually making it happen. Now, to make this work even better is you want to keep it simple, and I like to think about keeping it simple, stupid, but don't try to do too much at once.

[00:16:20] Chris Furlong: Start small and then gradually build up, and then you can add to consistency and add to your routine. And the big kicker, number five of. , how do I stay consistent? Is you gotta be consistent , even when it's hard, right? And this is where the reality sinks in, is because there's gonna be days where it's going to suck, and that's where you're gonna have to dig down deep and go hard, right?

[00:16:41] Chris Furlong: So there will be times when you have setbacks and things don't go as planned. And you need to realize, don't get discouraged, you gotta. and gotta work through it, but continue to show up the next day. That's what you need to realize. That progress will happen over time, and it happens gradually over time.

[00:16:57] Chris Furlong: It can be a grind, but the time will pass anyway. So that is approach number two is just being consistent. Approach number three is improving by 1% each day. Now this one is all all about focusing on small incremental improvements. Again, very similar to what we've just been talking about, but it's, it's, it's really just making sure that you are doing that little bit better every day.

[00:17:20] Chris Furlong: Now, there's a deep dive on this one from the book called Atomic Habits, and that's by James Clear. Really, really good book. I highly recommend it. And. Just to break it down in a short, sweet statement is improving by 1% each day results in a 37.8% improvement over the course of a year. Now that is crazy.

[00:17:38] Chris Furlong: If you think about that, you can be 37.8% better by the end of the year by simply doing 1% better every day. It's simple stuff. It really is. So how do we do this? How do we make this as simple as possible? I'm gonna break this down for you and then we're gonna dive into another lens and perspective of one.

[00:17:56] Chris Furlong: So you wanna focus on small and incremental improvements by improving just by 1% each day, right? So steady progress over time. Now, to do this, you actually need to identify, well, what is the area of improvement? Now, this works really, really well for micro goals, like things that are tangible, things that you can really put some data and metrics behind, but you can apply it across everything.

[00:18:16] Chris Furlong: So number three is you need to determine what is 1% or what is 1% improvement look like for whatever it is that you're doing now to give you some. Guess example or inside of this, and I'll just read this out, is if you wanna improve your physical health, 1% improvement might mean exercising an extra five minutes each day.

[00:18:34] Chris Furlong: If you wanna improve your career, it might mean learning one new thing each day or spending an extra 10 minutes on a task or researching it. So really simple stuff. Make a commitment by improving 1% each day. , and this might mean you need to have an accountability partner. So if you want to make a commitment, you need to have someone keeping you honest to that commitment.

[00:18:55] Chris Furlong: And then step five of this to help you make sure that you can do this 1% better every day, is you need to celebrate the small wins as you make progress, as you, you know, tick off some of these goals as you achieve them. Celebrate the small wins because it keeps the momentum, it keeps the excitement, it keeps the joy, and it helps build that purpose.

[00:19:13] Chris Furlong: So another way that we can look at the 1% perspective is leveraging 1% of your day to the items that you wanna achieve. And what I mean by this is, and I'll break it down, I've got some examples that I've written down here. I'm gonna read 'em out to you. But just to give you some perspective, so 1% of a day is 14.4 minutes, or roughly about 0.24 hours, assuming a 24 hour day.

[00:19:34] Chris Furlong: So 1% of a week is about 1.68 hours. 1% of a month is about 432 minutes or about 7.2 hours from my understanding. And then three months or a quarter, that's about 1,296 minutes or 21 hours, you can see where I'm going this. And then a year is about, Thousand 256 minutes, and, and that's the equivalent of 87.6 hours.

[00:20:00] Chris Furlong: Now, to help you then take this a little further in a better understanding. So if you were to read 87.6 hours for the year or doing 1% every day, so 14 minutes. That's equivalent to reading about 43.8 books. Now, I'll be frank here this year, I've read 12 books. I've done that while running. But outside of running and reading or listening to audio books, I suck at reading books just because I'm just not motivated to do it.

[00:20:25] Chris Furlong: But think about this, if you spend 14 minutes every day, every day for a year, you're gonna end up with, on average, based on, you know, words and you know how big the book is, you're gonna end up around between 40 and 44. By the end of the year, that is just incredible. Right now, if we put the same lens of exercise on it is, that's equivalent if you are running, you know, an average pace of six kilometers, which is, you know, it's not super fast.

[00:20:51] Chris Furlong: It's not super slow either. It works out to be about 876 kilometers just by doing 14 minutes. every day. Every day. Guys, this is, this is what it is, right? This is as simple as it can get. And you, if you wanna break it down, that's the way to do it. However, if maybe this doesn't work for you, I've got some better ways for you as well.

[00:21:10] Chris Furlong: And these next five, they're, they're probably short of things that you can do, and they do overlap a little bit, but they actually. Make even more sense when you actually apply them in a way to your own thinking, you know, when you apply them to your yearly progress making. So let's dive into approach number four, and that one is embrace creativity and innovation.

[00:21:31] Chris Furlong: Now what this means is simply don't just follow the norm. And that's what we're talking about here, is trying different things. Think or leverage out of the box thinking or getting out of your comfort zone. A great way to achieve more or to do more is to try things that haven't worked. Leverage outta the box thinking, seek input from others.

[00:21:50] Chris Furlong: Try new ways of approaching progress. Exactly what we're talking about here today. That could be approach that you could take is, you know, if you've tried one of these other approaches over the last couple of years. Try something different this year, maybe that will work for you. Approach number five would be to take risks and embrace failure.

[00:22:06] Chris Furlong: Now, failure and mistakes, look, they're gonna be naturally part of your life and part of your learning and growth process, regardless of what you want or not, whether you want it or not, is what I'm trying to say. So you need to learn to leverage these lessons because it will enable you to grow quicker.

[00:22:22] Chris Furlong: In the moment, you'll think this sucks. It's not what I. This isn't cool, but afterwards you'll have the hindsight to realize, huh, now I'm not gonna make that mistake again, and now I'm better from doing that mistake in the first place. So as a generalized outcome, and once again, just being generalized here and just doing a bit of, you know, research and looking around on the internet and things like that, on average individuals who on a regular basis seek out opportunities for learning and.

[00:22:49] Chris Furlong: right? Whether it's through risks and embracing failure, they see about a 20% increase in performance over time. For those that seek feedback on their performance, again, you know, they might go out, they getting people telling them what isn't working, which means they're embracing that feedback of you can do this better if they actually take that feedback and actually, Put it into practice and actually put it into play.

[00:23:13] Chris Furlong: You can expect to see about a 30% increase in performance and then, and then in general, on a regular basis. By practicing or reviewing a skill, you can expect to see about a 50% increase. Now that one's not necessarily relevant to risks and embracing failure. But it is also because it's like the whole cliche, generalization statement that people always say that if you want to achieve something, you just gotta keep working at it.

[00:23:35] Chris Furlong: With Thomas Edison, you know what, what was the saying That, you know, he designed 999 ways of Howard. Light bulb doesn't work. And then the thousandth way is how it does work. So did he fail? No, he just. 999 different solutions to that problem. But essentially, yes, he made that many failures before he got the one that was right.

[00:23:56] Chris Furlong: So this is all based on, you know, general generalized data, but it could be less or more. But the, the key point here is that I wanna try to make is, is the consistent application of rinsing and repeating, of learning and improving. That's where you will land. Approach. Number six is foster a growth mindset.

[00:24:13] Chris Furlong: A growth mindset essentially means that you're taking a belief approach that you can improve and grow through the effort and learning very similar to what we've been talking about. But by cultivating a growth mindset, you can be, I guess, more open to new ideas and approaches, and you're gonna be more resilient.

[00:24:29] Chris Furlong: You know, you're faced with challenges and setbacks. So again, I'm gonna break this down into a bit of an understanding here to help you have a. Inside of it. But when you embrace challenges and setbacks, it helps you take a positive outlook. You can see opportunities to grow and to learn. And you're not looking at it as a negative thing, or this isn't gonna work out for you.

[00:24:50] Chris Furlong: You're looking at it from a approach of like, okay, how do I now leverage this? How do I take this? How do I adapt with it? How do I adjust with it? And how do I bring it into my into my journey? And when you can do that, it means that when more things come up, you're able to, you know, Take the punches and continue to move on.

[00:25:08] Chris Furlong: It's the same thing of, you know, when we, how we look at risks and trying new things, this mindset encourages us to be more open, right? It encourages to be willing to try new things. The beauty of this is when we do try new things, they might be things that get us ahead. They might slingshot us ahead because you don't know what you don't know, but at the same time, It might not always work out that way either.

[00:25:30] Chris Furlong: Again, you need to be open to thinking, will this get me ahead? If I give it a shot now I'm not gonna go say, go do some gambling. But essentially what I'm trying to say is like, take some understanding around what the opportunity is that's being presented to you and see does this align to where you want to be going.

[00:25:46] Chris Furlong: And then think about, okay, this could actually get me ahead. Learning from failures and mistakes, right? I think when you realize that failures and mistakes are opportunities to learn and grow, that's when you change the way you operate because it helps you do two things and helps you build a fortified mindset that you can push through tough times because you're going to embrace those tough times and you're gonna be more resilient.

[00:26:08] Chris Furlong: But the other thing is, When you actually realize that those things are going to enable you so much further ahead in time, because you're never gonna make the mistake again if you embrace it, if you understand it, because it's like, you know, if I'm two years ahead of you in doing something, if you actually take the information that I share of you and you understand it and you go put it into practice, you're not gonna have to spend the two years to get to where.

[00:26:35] Chris Furlong: Am in two years time, it might only take you one year time, so you save a year because you've been able to take my bread crumbs and run with it. And that's why, you know, it's so important that we can leverage from those failures and mistakes or other people's. And then focusing on effort and learning again, the power of compounding your learning and lessons, this stuff is just, just incredible, continuous, improve.

[00:26:58] Chris Furlong: You're never gonna have it all figured out. You're never gonna have all the answers. So you should be striving to always be learning whether it is that 1% learning or just looking at, okay, how can I do this better? Is there a ways that I can operate differently? Am I doing this the best way that I possibly can?

[00:27:13] Chris Furlong: Do I need more help? These are all relevant and I think really important questions to be asking approach. Number seven. Now this one is seeking out new opportunities and experiences. Now you're probably starting to see there is a. Crossover and a lot of trends here in the same area of do this to get that.

[00:27:29] Chris Furlong: But the reality is sometimes we need to hear it in different ways or take a different approach to get us to where we want to be. So seeking out new opportunities and experiences. Essentially what we're trying to look at here is this path means to being open, to trying new ways of doing things. You know, whether it is doing things that you would never have expected of doing, but it's, it's, it's more about expanding your horizons.

[00:27:52] Chris Furlong: and to develop new ways of doing so, what this may mean. It might mean that we take the process or the journey to go educate ourselves. It might mean we go ask for help. It might mean we go get a mentor. It might also mean finding a different way to how to get to our end result, or finding ways that aren't necessarily the usual way of doing it.

[00:28:12] Chris Furlong: It might mean taking an internship somewhere to get an experience. It might. Volunteering somewhere to get some, you know, skills that is going to boost your resume. It's doing things outside of the box or seeking new opportunities that are going to enable you to get experience. Now, the key winnings from this is it builds confidence and it gives you a huge self-esteem boost.

[00:28:31] Chris Furlong: The other one is it enables you to be a bit better of a problem solver because you're putting yourself into situations where you're going to have to adapt and be flexible. Now, the other kicker of this is when you leverage new. Of things that you've never ever done before. That can be a huge motivator because you'll have a driving force, you'll build some momentum and you'll be super like amplified in terms of your, you're gonna be super amplified of encouragement to yourself and think, oh my gosh, all of a sudden you can do this.

[00:28:59] Chris Furlong: All of a sudden you've got confidence and then you're gonna roll with it even more and you get that snowball effect. Again, there's so many possibilities with these different approaches and seeking out new opportunities might be one for you. Now, the final approach that I wanted to share with you is staying curious and open to learning, and it's very, very similar once again of the above.

[00:29:21] Chris Furlong: However, the major benefit of curiosity means we dive deeper into understanding and a lot of the time, curiosity turns back to asking better questions to understand and. Left click at something of why we are doing it or why will it help us? How will it enable us? A lot of the time we just do things because people say, here I am on a podcast, sharing you these different ways that you can go out and execute and have an ex your best year yet.

[00:29:48] Chris Furlong: But if you're not asking the questions to yourself, okay, does this work for me? Or What do I need to consider here? Well, that doesn't, you know, if you're not actually being curious about it. , it might mean that you're just doing something because I said to do it now. I don't want to tell you to do it because I'm telling you to do it.

[00:30:03] Chris Furlong: I want you to take this information, run with it, go do some work, and understand what is the best one for you. And that's where curiosity really comes in as well, because it helps you make better decisions. It helps you understand what are the factors, what are the things that our at play, what are the things that I need to take in and how do they align to where I actually want to be going?

[00:30:23] Chris Furlong: because these are all vessels. These are all vehicles of, of how we could get to our destination or where we want to be. Approach eight, approach seven, approach five, approach three. All these different approaches, they're all different ways that we can get to our destination. You have to choose it right?

[00:30:40] Chris Furlong: You have to decide. So rather than just follow a, do this to make progress, asking the why. Understanding the why and breaking down the process of making progress then ensures you are actually understanding what you are doing and also why you may be doing it. I wanna say that again. That's a lot to take him rather than just following a, just do this to make progress.

[00:31:05] Chris Furlong: Ask the question of why. Understand why am I doing this and understand or break down the process of making that progress. And by doing this, it actually ensures that you actually understand what are you having to do to get to where you want to be. Doing or to get to be where you want to be. And it also helps you understand why you may be doing it right.

[00:31:32] Chris Furlong: A lot of the time we say, I want to be this or I want that, or by the end of the year I'm gonna be doing this. But we don't actually think about what is the work or the energy that is required to actually make these things happen. And. , a lot of the time we actually achieve a lot of the things that we subconsciously didn't realize that we were working towards.

[00:31:53] Chris Furlong: But we don't actually celebrate it or we get to that top point. Cuz I guarantee you, you're gonna get to your goal and then you're gonna be already thinking about the next goal. And sometimes we, we forget to zoom out and actually understand what are we working towards. Because if you had everything today that you wanted in 10 years time, what would you do?

[00:32:11] Chris Furlong: And you're not going to know what that is until you've gone through that experience of 10. because things change. Life comes at you. And I, I think that's, that can be something, and I'm not trying to, you know, confuse you at all, but I think it. Really is something that you need to understand and now I'm hoping, I'm really hoping that with all these approaches in all the different ways that we can actually progress, I hope that gives you some clarity.

[00:32:35] Chris Furlong: But these are all said and good, right? Again, these approaches are one way that we can do something or different ways that we can do something, but there is no one way, which will mean it's going to be easy or to be the best. It may be one for you. You might need to pick multiple approaches of this, or bits and bobs of different things that I've just shared.

[00:32:53] Chris Furlong: I've said this a few times, but one thing that I want to leave you with before we finish up is I wanna ensure that you leave this episode with, when thinking about wanting to make progress for a new year or just in general, even it doesn't even have to be about a new year, is think about purpose now being dropping purpose quite a lot through this episode.

[00:33:15] Chris Furlong: We should be thinking about it because it's so important. Why? Because one, it provides direction and focus. Remember at the start I said about vision? If you have a vision, it can help clarify, you know, what are your values, and it can help clarify what are your priorities. It can help provide you direction and focus, and that's what purpose does.

[00:33:35] Chris Furlong: It gives you direction and focus for your goals and for your. and this helps you stay motivated. It helps you stay committed to making progress for when times get tough. You know, why am I doing this? Why have I chosen to do this? What is my vision and what is my purpose? So if you have purpose, it gives you direction and focus.

[00:33:54] Chris Furlong: And as I said before, it also increases your motivation and engagement. It gives you, when you have a clear sense of purpose, it gives you that enlightenment of like, okay, I know why I'm doing it. I know why I'm doing, I know why I'm trading this hard work because I know I'm going to get this in the. at the end of it as an outcome, and you know why you're working towards something because it is meaningful, it is important to you.

[00:34:16] Chris Furlong: The other why of why you should have purpose around it or making sure you're bringing purpose into this conversation is it also increases your resilience and perseverance. When we have a a sense of purpose, we, we tend to do things with better willpower. We tend to do things in a way where we can push through setbacks and challenges.

[00:34:36] Chris Furlong: Again, it helps us stay motivated, it helps, helps us have willpower and a reason to push on. And the final part of why you should have purpose is because it enhances your decision making. Thinking about your purpose can help you make decisions that are aligned with your values and priorities. And one thing that I like to think about is when you have a clear vision of where you want to be going, whether it's purpose, a North Star or just an end game as you go through milestones and checkpoints of achieving things or just life.

[00:35:05] Chris Furlong: Whether it's an age thing or career thing or just just different parts of life. When you are presented opportunities, you're then given the opportunity to then ask yourself. , does this get me closer to where I want to be? Does this get me closer to my vision? Does this get me closer to my goal? And you can make a decision and know that this does not align to those values or those priorities or that end game.

[00:35:26] Chris Furlong: So you can with confidence, say, this is not for me. Now, it might be an amazing opportunity, but if you choose that opportu, When it doesn't align to where you thought you wanted to be going. Maybe you didn't have purpose or that vision in the first place. Maybe you didn't really have a clear understanding of what you actually want.

[00:35:47] Chris Furlong: And look, sometimes we will take side quest, sometimes we will get distracted, but sometimes things change, right? And that's why I said it's okay to shelve things at certain time and also to be open to exploring what is your purpose? What is your vision? What is your goal? Because then when you apply it with a.

[00:36:04] Chris Furlong: These approaches, but when you apply it with a mentality of purpose and when you actually understand what you want. You can take these approaches, you can take this formula and you can go rock and roll with whatever vision, whatever goal it is that you have for the new year or for the next 60 days, 90 days, or for whatever time it it may be.

[00:36:25] Chris Furlong: And that's what I want to leave you with, right. It really comes down to purpose. But then once you know what you want, as I said at the start here, once you have a better understanding of what you actually want and setting those parameters and boundaries of understanding around it needs to be realistic.

[00:36:42] Chris Furlong: It's okay to ask for help. There will be setbacks, and once you have that understood in your mind, picking your approach. That's just your vessel, as I said before, and then you can just start to move along this vessel to your goal, to your purpose, to where you want to be, and adjust. Enjoy the ride. It's, it's, it's gonna be bumpy, it's gonna be a bit of a challenge, but I guarantee you, if you stick to one of these approaches, if you ride these approaches out, learn along the way, you're gonna have the time of your life.

[00:37:15] Chris Furlong: You're gonna go through an experience which will be life changing. It's definitely going to be worth it. Alright, team, that is it. Th the first episode of 2023, episode 94. And again, if you've enjoyed this episode, please leave a review or jump on over and subscribe. And make sure you follow the podcast so you can find and hear more of these episodes as they come out and be informed first.

[00:37:39] Chris Furlong: Really do appreciate those that have already done that. It means the absolute world to me that you are here listening and you know, continuing the conversation. And if you would like to continue the conversation, you can reach out to me on the socials over at Twitter, over at Instagram. All this is in the show notes.

[00:37:54] Chris Furlong: The best place to probably find me the quickest is at further your lifestyle on I. That would probably be the best place to do it because it's probably where I'm most active. Regardless, you can reach out in so many different ways. All that is in the show notes. If you do have any questions, also reach out.

[00:38:08] Chris Furlong: Let's, let's continue the conversation around questions or comments or anything like that. Go check out the show notes. There's a few more things in there that I've chucked in. That might help you continue to execute into this and to make this year your best year yet. And it doesn't have to be about years.

[00:38:22] Chris Furlong: It can be just setting it in smaller timeframes. But I know, I know if you're listening to this, that you're excited for the new year. You want to get the best outta this year, and I want you to get the best outta this year. So let me know when the comments below what approach are you taking? How are you tackling this year?

[00:38:37] Chris Furlong: How are you going to. And make 2023 your best year yet, or whatever year it is that you are listening to this episode. Really do appreciate you. You have a wonderful day. Cheers.