21 Ways to Succeed in 2021
Congratulations. You survived 2020, but have you thought about what is next? 2020 was all about surviving for most, keeping your business afloat, social distancing, keeping your mental health high, and so many more challenging tasks. 2021 should be different for you, your family, heck for everyone! Instead of surviving, try to succeed. Here are 21 ways that you can succeed in 2021.
1. Practice Gratitude
After the whirlwind that we call 2020, it is hard to believe that we survived it. Given everything that you have been through this past year, you may find it near to impossible to be grateful for 2020. I mean, what is there to be grateful about? Social distancing? COVID-19? The economies crash? If you focus on the bad of the year, you will never be able to recognize to good in the year. You could take the quarantine order for example. Instead of viewing quarantine as a rule that you cannot visit your friends or go to the mall, you could make it like a self-care year, where you focus on your mental and physical health.
Practicing gratitude is a skill that can benefit you for life. When you appreciate everything and everyone around you, you start to see the positive side in everything. Its like magnets when you think about it, negative thoughts attract other negative thoughts while positive thoughts can only attract other positive thoughts. TO start off 2021, I recommend reading The Magic, by Shonda Byrne. She challenges you to 28 days of gratitude, which is the best way to start off a new year! Amazon link down below — https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Secret-Rhonda-Byrne/dp/1451673442/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+magic&qid=1609545330&sr=8-1
2. Set Goals
Setting goals and action items is a great way to keep organized (see number 18 for more details on organization and time blocking!). Setting goals not only gives you a “purpose” in a certain field, but it also helps you get rid of procrastination (see #14). In 2020, a lot of my goals were destroyed. With the pandemic, I could no longer go to biology labs, or summer camps. My goals for the summer and the end of the school year were just gone. Everything was cancelled. Without the goals, I binged a lot of Netflix and Tiktok until I set new goals. Setting goals gave me a purpose in my life, and I want to pass the wisdom onto you.
Setting goals should start broad and get more detailed the father you go. I do not recommend setting yearly goals because you never know when the next pandemic is going to strike😉 Monthly goals however are a great idea. Set then at the end of each month, being as ambitious as you can. Then, break it out into weekly goals, making your ambitious goals way more realistic. Next, set daily goals so the end of your week is not swamped with an entire weeks’ worth of work. Finally, break it down into hourly goals so you do not end up procrastinating. Even thought his has now become a very detailed schedule, you should be able to be flexible just in case if something else pops up in your life.
3. Find Mentors
Guidance. We all need it. Whether it is a checklist for an assignment in school, or help succeeding in a company, its always easier with a little guidance. When you are doing a task that others are already proficient in, why not ask them for some help? Its always good to get feedback and advice. Even if you do not use It or like it, it good to have it in the back of your head. Guidance from people is more than just advice; it is also getting access to more connections, learning new technology, getting more opportunities, and the list goes on.
Having a mentor or someone to guide you is crucial in success. I recommend using you pre-existing network to gain more connections. You can have multiple mentors, just try to only have one mentor per field, just to keep a single stream of advice. If you do not have pre-existing contacts, get a LinkedIn account, and start building a network.
4. Have High Standards
Having high standards means a lot of different things for a lot of different people. If you break it down to the core, the simple meaning of high standards is learning how to say no. In 2020, a lot was forced on us and saying to a global pandemic is harder than it may seem.
Saying no and not giving in to regular standards is almost as hard as saying no to the pandemic, but as you have read from before, going around these roadblocks with positivity is very easy. One key thing with high standards is that you must have a balance. If you have too high standards, you will never get anything done, but if their too low, you will succumb to whatever the heck other people want. Knowing what you want and deserve, and now lowering the bar for anyone is what I call high standards. Always remember your worth, and make sure that any offer you get benefits you as well.
5. 5 am Challenge
With quarantine and online school/work the one biggest benefit is that you could sleep in. You did not have to get ready; you could just roll into your meeting. Well, that is what a ton of kids, teenagers, and adults did. Well, you know what a ton of people are not? Successful. If you want to be successful in life, you must put in the hours which means working a little before and after school/work.
6. Take Action
Taking action is one of the hardest steps in this process. To be successful means you must fail. Without failure, its hard to learn or grow past a certain point. You should never be afraid of failure; you will never get past a certain point in your life without the possibility of failure. Taking action is that leap of faith everyone is always talking about. Take that next step, you will not regret it, trust me on this one.
7. Always be Curious
This is not just a thing parents say to kids, this is one of the most helpful tips that has helped billionaires grow to where they are now. How, you might ask? Simple, they always asked themselves a simple question. Why? No, I am not asking why they asked themselves a question, I am telling you, the question they asked is why.
8. Build Your LinkedIn Connections
As I mentioned in #3, building connections with other successful people will provide you the steps to success. If you do not already have an account, create on eight now! It takes an hour and a half of your time. Find a company or person that you like and see who they relate to. Going down a “connection rabbit hole” is the best way to build your network. Tip: When connecting with a person, write a note. Tell then why you are connecting with them, and a little about you. This makes it much more likely for them to accept your friend request!
9. Persistence
There are a lot of keys to success, but this has got to be one of the biggest keys. When you stick with something that you believe in, it can make the difference. The difference between regular people and successful people is when you give up. Successful people stick with their idea or belief, and regular people give up at the first sign of trouble. Be successful and never give up on something that you truly believe in!
10. Consistency
This is the second biggest key to success. To do something right is one thing, but then to stick with it is so much harder. For example, you can exercise one day but to come back and do it again the second, third, forth fifth and so and is hard. Once you fall into a routine, being consistent is a little easier. Remember, even if you slip one day, its not the end of the world. What is the end of your routine is when you fall out of the routine the second day? This makes is 10x harder to get back into the routine.
11. Do not Fear Judgement
Do not fear what other people think. Let the think you are a nerd if you would rather read a book than watch Tiktok all day long. If you believe in yourself, you can soar higher than the clouds. A great way to get past peoples judgment and to be confident in yourself is to participate in a discomfort challenge!
12. Honesty is 2021’s Best Policy
Be honest. Do not tell white lies. They snowball into avalanches. When you are trying to build trust with others, you never want to lie. You will get caught; trust me. If your honest with your mistakes, you will be able to rebound from them much quicker. As people say, your lies can only hurt you. If you skipped day of work, be honest and catch up the next day; maybe even work harder. Honestly will help you feel better about yourself, a little bit at a time.
13. Think for Yourself
Do not let other speak for you, speak on your own. If you are always influenced by your friends and family, you can never be successful. Even if you somehow broke past these barriers, you might always be controlled by others, leading to an unhappy version of your life.
14. End Procrastination
This is one of the hardest items on the list. Even if you feel like you do not procrastinate, you do, it is a part of human nature. As I mention a little later in this article, organization and action is the best way to end your procrastination habit (or at least slow it down). In 2020 it was very easy to procrastinate, you had all the time in the world! To stop this nasty habit, start doing things that you like a little more, remove distractions, and organize your schedule (refer to #18).
15. Learn to Give up the Unimportant
I worded this weird, sorry guys. Let me rephrase it. What I am trying to say is you only have 24 hours in a day, choose how you want to spend it. A rookie mistake that I made is to think I could do it all, TV, school, sports, TKS, articles, videos, etc. I could not. It just ended in burnout, which is not the best feeling. I had to give up what want important to me, sports, and TV. Simply, you must prioritize your life.
16. Be Accountable for Your Life
Accountability may seem like another heck mark on your list but its your best friend. For me, whenever I am doing an incredibly boring task, its super hard to follow it through. When it comes to school, my teachers keep me accountable, and when it comes to work, my boss does. In the real world, when you are starting your own company or doing something different, you must be accountable for you. It can be hard, so I recommend getting a partner, a group, or some outside figure to keep you in check.
17. Work Hard, Play Hard
If you have been paying attention so far, a lot of these tips revolve around you working super hard. To avoid burnout, its important to take breaks, in moderation of course. Personally, I keep my hands off my phone until 8pm. This way I am not distracted by games or text messages. To help keep me accountable, I turn it off and store it in a drawer (highly recommend this habit if you do not use your phone for anything important). This way I can separate my work and play, making it easier to have a balanced life.
18. Organization is Key
There are four simple steps to being organized in my opinion. This is directed mainly towards scheduling however!
1. Time Blocking. Time blocking your day is a very commonly used technique around the world to organize your day. I time block my week on Sunday so I can have a structure to my day. I can be a little bit of a neat freak sometimes, so I like to color code my calendar for different commitments. At the end of each week, ensure to write three things that went well and three things that you can improve for next time.
2. Makers versus Managers. A manager’s schedule and a maker’s schedule are two very different and effective ways of organizing your time. A manager usually is sliced up into smaller portions where they are concentrated towards doing reactive work, such as emails, calls, and helping others. A maker, however, is made up of longer blocks with a focus. Both styles are super helpful, it just depends on personal preference.
3. Theme Days. This is a slight spin-off from the maker’s schedule but instead, you have an entire day dedicated to a certain activity. For example, you can dedicate Monday to calls, Tuesday to writing, Wednesday to learning, Thursday to calls, and Friday as a break day. I organize my schedule by color or themes. Some days are a lot more yellow than blue; this just helps me train my brain to what I must do, and the themes I have going on.
4. Google Calendar. With all these organizational techniques, I like to keep 1–2 places for all of this, one digital and one on paper. Digitally, I prefer to use google calendar. I can easily time block with colors, and it syncs with my phone and watches. I also use a calendar to schedule meetings, and google calendar lets you sync everything, which cuts your workload in half!
19. Put in the Effort
Always try your hardest. No matter the task, there is always room for improvement, learning and growth so it is crucial to put in extra effort. If you put in the hours, you will se results (make sure you are not wasting your time though).
20. Become 1% Better Each Day
Look at the image about. If you were to improve 1% each day you could be 37 times better than you were by 2022! Let that crazy fact soak in quick.
21. Surround Yourself with the right people
“You are the average of the top 5 people around you” — woah. I mean it is true. If your friends are al obsessed with their phones, you are more likely to be obsessed, just to fit in really. If you surround yourself with the right people though, its easier to make the right choices.
Thank you all for reading and I hope you have a great 2021 everyone!
