This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey there, what's up, friends, listeners, community. Guess what? It is 2021. Can you believe it? I mean, I cannot believe it myself.
I'm still kind of in shock over the year 2020, but I'm trying to put it past me. I'm trying to move on, right? So we've got a listener question today. This question is one I could have called into the hotline and asked myself. Basically, I'm curious about this.
I would like to know my answer to this question that I also have. So a lot of us are wondering what is this you're gonna look like, okay? Or at least what can we do to make it a better year? Because so much is outside our control. And we all know how 2020 went.
What can we do to make a fresh start in the year known as 2021? So I decided to make a list, making this show is my own therapy too, right? So I came up with five actions to help us improve in 2021, regardless of what happens with COVID-19, or is it COVID-20 now? How does that work? Or, you know, the next apocalypse or whatever else comes our way.
Who knows, we shall overcome. How can we get 2021 off to a better start? That's the listener question. It's coming up after this quick message from our sponsor. [Music]
Hey, Chris, this is Tom.
And I've been listening to this show for a couple of years now. Thanks for the helpful advice. What a year 2020 was. I fell off the side hustle wagon somewhere in the midst of the pandemic. After changing jobs and learning to work remotely, I had to focus on some family stuff for a while during the summer and fall.
I'm ready to try again though. How can I get back into things? I wanna start the year off with good habits. Can't wait to hear from you. [Music]
Tom, tell me about it, man.
You and me both. The struggle is real. Like, let's just say that first for anybody out there who has also struggled. The struggle is real. Acknowledge that, stay in that space for just a moment.
It's okay because it's been a rough year, all right? So what are some things we can do to get back on track? Remember, I'm talking to myself here as well, right? First thing is take a deep breath. Just kind of pause and take a deep breath, 10 to 15 seconds, 20 seconds, notice your breathing.
It's crazy how much this can actually kind of ground you and bring you back to reality. And you're like, okay, I've been kind of stressed out, but it's gonna be okay. And as a side benefit, this is cheap. You know, you can take deep breaths for as low as $9.99 a month, right? Or even less, perhaps.
Next, since we are talking about, you know, a better start to the year, create a word of the year. What's your word of the year? What's your theme? Maybe it's renewal, maybe it's revive, maybe it's persevere or thrive, or maybe it's just survive, you know, make it through. Whatever it is, make it through is three words, I guess.
But, you know, create a word of the year. And from that, maybe you can identify some goals. But as part of that, I also encourage you to not set yourself up for failure. You wanna set yourself up for success, not failure. And what I mean there is, you know, it's good to have big goals, but it's also helpful to make sure you have a path to be able to achieve those goals.
One of the big reasons why New Year's resolutions fail is that there's a disconnect between, you know, what the person is trying to do and what they have been doing, you know, for a long time. And so somebody who hasn't been exercising for months or years and then says, okay, you know, starting January one, I'm gonna go to the gym every single day for two hours. I'm gonna run five miles a day. That's probably not gonna work for them. They're probably gonna go for a couple of days and then they're gonna stop or whatever it is.
So they're gonna run into some problems, basically. So you wanna make sure you are setting yourself up for success. What is realistic for you? What is challenging yet realistic that you think you can achieve? And then I know this just sounds so basic, but as I said, I'm talking to myself here too.
Small steps every day. I remind myself of that all the time. I'm like, what is it that I'm trying to do? If I'm trying to write a book, writing a book is not that complicated. I mean, writing a good book, you know, there's a whole separate conversation, but just writing a book in general, it's just a sequence of steps.
It's just like, what are these small steps that need to add up over time, you know, to get me to the ultimate destination? And you can apply this analogy to whatever it is that you're trying to do. Everything has a series of steps, small steps every day. And then last but not least, this is probably the one that I have the most trouble with have patience, because so much is out of our control, you know, especially with the pandemic, but even otherwise a lot of stuff is outside our control. So I always try to ask myself, what is in my realm of influence or control?
What can I have impact on? You know, that's the thing I need to be doing and not stressing out about anything else. And if there's something that's not quite the way I would like it to be, like, you know, the world right now for lots of reasons, you know, I have to have patience. I have to do that breathing and work on those small steps and make sure that I'm moving forward. You know, that's my encouragement to you, Tom, and anybody else out there.
Let's get this year off to a good start. Let's build those good habits. If for some reason we fall off the side hustle wagon, you know, as Tom put it, let's find a way to get back on. Okay, so we're all in this together. Listeners, thank you for listening.
By the way, we're gonna do this every single day. That's right. Every single day, seven days a week. If you have a question of your own, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. We're gonna roll out an all new batch along with some new features and new segments.
A good time will be had by all. So be sure you are subscribed wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
