Hello 2022!

So it’s a new year and you may well find yourself thinking about what will happen, and more importantly what you want to achieve, this year. So you think about setting targets for yourself. I have already thought of some of myself which I’ll tell you about later. While I was thinking about what targets to set for 2022, a story came back to me which I found helpful to bear in mind when target-setting.

It was the early 90s, in year 5 at junior school, during one of our story-writing sessions (my highlight of the week – I should really have another go at it sometime!), that I remember a classmate writing about being transported to the year 2022. This was a whole 3 decades away at the time – some far-off era it seemed like we’d never get to. So it makes finally arriving at that seemingly distant, faraway era feel kind of… strange.

Predicting the future… or maybe not!

I don’t remember much of the classmate’s story, apart from him taking a ride on a hoverboard (it was only two years since Back To The Future III with its trip to 2015) while surrounded by flying cars. You see, a lot of people in the 80s & 90s were convinced flying cars would be commonplace in the 2020s. As 9 and 10-year-olds, we had no concept of how expensive a flying car would be to produce, insure and run, and how all the Private Pilot’s Licences in the world wouldn’t stop a few getting stuck up trees or some poor soul’s bedroom window.

Putting aside what’s actually been happening in the 2020s so far – pandemics, loo roll shortages etc – the point is, although some engineering teams have come up with designs, widespread use of flying cars is still a long way off. The truth is, in the 90s it was never an attainable prediction to start with. There was no timeline of how and where they would be mass-produced, how and where we’d get fuel/parts/insurance, and that’s even before we’ve thought about learning how to drive one. Put simply, it was the complete opposite of how targets should be set.

So how should we set targets?

We often hear about SMART targets – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound. As we’ve discussed, mainstream flying cars were none of those things!

When I thought about what I wanted to achieve this year – look into getting a voiceover agent and an acting agent, and get a TV role – I knew that these all require planning. This planning involves researching which agents and casting directors to write to, then what information to include when writing (it’s very tempting to include lots of information but ultimately you have to keep it short and sweet!), and when to send a follow-up letter (because they don’t often sign you on the strength of one email; in fact they might not get to read it at all).

Any target/resolution – whether it’s to be more organised, eat healthier, learn a new skill – needs to be broken down into stages in this way. My key tips would be:

• Keep a diary or log of what you’ve been up to. This can be a paper diary or a phone app – just be sure not to get distracted by other things on your phone when you should be recording your progress!

• Set goals within goals. Maybe you could jog without stopping for a certain distance or time. Maybe you want to be able to do 10 burpees in a row in under a minute (harder than it sounds!). Maybe you want to get the first 50 pages of your novel written. Or you could limit yourself to a number of cigarettes or beers a day and cut down from there. These are much easier than just saying you want to run a marathon, write a full novel or go teetotal by the summer.

• Be open about your targets and find others trying to achieve similar targets. Keeping each other accountable can help you avoid self-sabotage as well as remind you the positive impact your work can have on those around you.

• The most important tip though is to START! Otherwise, nothing happens and nothing changes!
  I recently chatted to Richard from RGHB Fitness about how to make positive changes at the start of the year, or indeed at any time of year – and the importance of starting didn’t go unmissed! For plenty more great tips, watch the video below, and listen back to the full show on the Phoenix FM website.

Following these tips and you’ll find that, unlike flying cars, your aspirations will be more than just prototypes, they’ll be a full blown reality!
Here’s to 2022!