STOP WASTING TIME: 3 steps to avoid failure this year
"I don’t want to waste another year. I need to make this year count.."
Sound familiar? That’s because it probably is.
Every year, so many of us, myself included, start out with big dreams and lofty ambitions.
We make promises to ourselves—“This is the year I’ll change. This is the year I’ll finally become who I want to be.”
But as the weeks and months go by, the momentum fades.
Slowly, we begin to drift back into the same old routines.
The fire we ignited at the start dims, and before we know it, another year has passed.
And we’re right back where we started.
But here’s the thing: it doesn’t have to be this way. This year can be different. It will be different.
You don’t need a complicated system, a crazy burst of motivation, or an expensive self-help program.
What you need is clarity, intention, and a method you can stick to.
That’s why I’m here to share a framework that’s simple, powerful, and will keep you on track throughout the year. It’s called the RGA Method:
Reflect. Goals. Action.
So if you’re tired of starting strong and losing your way, or if you’re done feeling stuck, then this article is for you.
1. Reflect
The first step is one that’s probably overlooked because people love setting goals and things because it’s way more exciting.
And you’re less likely to want to dwell on your shortcomings and mistakes in the year that’s just gone.
You need to perform an annual review because it lets you see how far you’ve come, what you’ve achieved and how you can improve for the next year.
And that is really important. Improving.
Because if you aren’t striving towards something, then you’re stagnating, and stagnation leads to regression, regression leads to being unsatisfied.
Reflecting can also tell you where you are right now, it allows you to identify areas that may require more attention and areas where you're doing well.
A simple way is using the wheel of life, its a good place to start and I’ve spoken about it before.
It’s not a perfect tool but it can give you a snapshot of where you are in life, you can see what’s lacking and the areas that you are doing good in.
I’ll leave a link below for you to download for free. So for example last year, my physical health was not where I wanted it to be. I rated that category a 6 out of 10.
And the rating doesn’t reflect how happy you are with that area, because if was a 10 then it implies there’s no room for growth. Instead, think about how closely aligned you are with that area.
I really wanted to shift some weight and pack on more muscle whilst maintaining a lean physique overall.
But my diet and habits were not aligned with the body I wanted to build
I ate way too much unhealthy food, especially when I was at work, I didn’t cook as much and didn’t exercise as much as I should’ve.
Something had to change.
I had evidence that my physique was not ideal and I needed to go about it objectively. So I sat down and reflected. Why was I not losing weight?
I wasn’t tracking my calories and I wasn’t consistent with my workouts.
I was staying up late a lot of the time, doing night shifts and I would binge eat sometimes out of boredom.
Reflecting on this gave me insight and it stops you from being deluded.
A reflection practice that I like doing at the end of each year is asking myself a few questions.
It’s pretty simple but it can have a big impact on your personal growth.
Give yourself an hour or two and answer these questions.
- What are your 5 favourite memories?
What were those moments that you enjoyed the most.
Was it a holiday with your friends like a summer road trip where every detour turned into an adventure.
Maybe it was a spontaneous party you went to where you had an unbelievable time or a weekend getaway where you tried something new.
Maybe it was a moment where you just couldn’t stop laughing with your best mate.
This is really important because your favourite memories are like a highlight reel of your life, full of memories and feelings that made you feel alive. What stands out most to you? Maybe you should aim to do more of those things this year.
- What 3 habits helped you the most?
I’ve spoken about habits before in another article but essentially, habits are automated behaviours that we tend to repeat all the time without much thought and because of this, they can make a huge impact on your life because you spend a large amount of time doing them.
Your habits basically shape your days.
And ingraining good habits in your life can be the catalyst for change you’re looking for.
I don’t know what your good or bad habits are.
Maybe you have some that are helping you move forward and some that are holding you back.
So you can actually ask the opposite question as well: what are the habits that have held you back the most?
What were the habits and behaviours that caused you to self sabotage yourself?
Was it a night out where you got too wasted and embarrassed yourself?
Are you sometimes too argumentative and had a moment where you snapped at someone and regretted it after?
But to focus on the positive, maybe you start your mornings with a good habit, like exercising or journaling alongside quiet reflection, which helps you set a positive tone for the day.
Recognising the habits you’ve formed is the first step to shaping them into a lifestyle that aligns with your aspirations.
Which ones are serving you, and which ones aren’t ?
- What were the 3 things that drained your energy the most?
What moments or days really sapped the life out of you?
For me it was a run of night shifts when I was working in surgery earlier in the year. It was relentless, several nights in a row that pushed me to my absolute limit.
I remember journaling during that time, questioning everything, and thinking, what has my life come to? The exhaustion was pretty much constant.
The bleep going off every few minutes meant there was no real downtime.
I’d be assessing unwell patients in A&E, managing referrals from other hospitals, rushing to the theatre to assist in operations, and then dealing with a seemingly endless stream of calls and demands from the bleep.
By the end of those 13-hour shifts, I was physically and mentally drained.
After finishing a shift, I would drag myself across the car park, drive home and collapse into bed, only to get around 4-5 hours of sleep.
And then I’d have to get up and do it all over again.
By the time I reached the end of the set of shifts, my body was fully adjusted to working in night mode, but flipping your body clock back to a normal schedule would sometimes take days.
On top of that, my social life became nonexistent. Friends were at work during the day when I was trying to catch up on sleep.
My diet went off track too—eating at awkward times, constantly feeling hungry, and grabbing whatever food was easiest, regardless of how healthy it was.
I could feel the toll on my body, and it wasn’t just exhaustion—I actually got sick during one of those stretches.
But then like so many other healthcare workers, I was back on day shifts just a couple of days later. The cycle felt never-ending, and those night shifts were one of the most draining experiences of my life.
So, take a moment to reflect: what are the things in your life that leave you feeling like this? Whether it’s work, a challenging relationship, or even your own habits, figuring them out is the first step toward finding balance.
There are other pretty useful questions you can ask yourself like:,
- What books helped you the most?
- What people gave you energy and supported you the most?
- What people drained you the most?
- What were your top achievements in work or business?
Give yourself the time and ask those questions Reflect on your year, it’s really important.
2. Goals
Goals are important because they provide you with direction and purpose.
Without them, it’s easy to drift through the year without making any meaningful progress.
There’s been years where I felt like I’ve not really accomplished anything meaningful.
But then again I wasn’t always reflecting at the end of each year, that’s only something I’ve started to do in the last year or two.
Your goals should strike a balance between being ambitious but achievable at the same time.
They should challenge you, but not feel so far-fetched that they leave you feeling overwhelmed.
A good framework that works well for me is to set goals in three core areas: health, wealth, and relationships.
For example, this year I focused on weight loss and muscle building, while maintaining a lean physique.
One of my goals for the year was to improve my overall fitness and achieve a body I felt strong and confident in.
I broke it down into smaller milestones, like hitting a specific weight or lifting target every three months.
This system kept me on track and motivated throughout the year.
Start by asking yourself:
- What is my ultimate goal?
- Who do I want to be by the end of the year?
- What’s most important for my physical and mental well-being?
Write down a couple of goals for each area of your life.
If that feels overwhelming, just make it simpler by choosing one big goal to focus on for the year. Then, break it into smaller, more manageable steps by setting three-month goals.
These shorter time frames allow you to make steady progress and adjust if needed incase you’re way off course or ahead of schedule.
For each goal, figure out why it matters to you. This is really important. For example:
- In Health: "I want to lose 5 kilos and increase muscle definition to feel more energetic and confident."
- Wealth: "I want to save £2000 in 6 months to feel more financially secure and reduce stress."
- Relationships: "I want to spend more quality time with my family and friends."
Including a reward for achieving your goals can help, but usually, the satisfaction of hitting the milestone is enough motivation.
Consistently working toward your goals—big and small—will not only bring you closer to your ideal self but also build momentum that carries you through the year.
Talking about goals and things can be quite motivating, but something else I’ve found that can be just as powerful is to create anti-goals.
They are basically the things that we don’t want to happen.
Think about your life and what you really don’t want.
- Waking up tired.
- Having a long commute to work.
- Working with people who you don’t like.
- Not making enough money.
- Being unhealthy and overweight.
- Working at a job that doesn’t fulfil you or give you energy.
- Not being in control of your day.
You get the gist.
Let’s use the unhealthy example since we’ve been chatting about fitness.
If one of your anti-goals is not being overweight and unhealthy, you can work backwards to figure out the habits or behaviours that make you overweight and unhealthy.
- Eating too much junk food or mindlessly snacking.
- Skipping workouts and being lazy.
- Getting poor sleep or staying up late scrolling on your phone.
With these anti-goals in mind, you can take action to avoid them.
For instance.
- Plan balanced meals and batch cook to avoid reaching for junk food.
- Schedule workouts into your calendar to ensure they happen consistently.
- Create a bedtime routine that helps you wind down and prioritise sleep.
By defining what you don’t want, anti-goals help you create guardrails for your life.
They keep you focused and intentional, ensuring that your actions align with the life you want to live—while at the same time, they help you stay clear of the things and pitfalls you want to avoid.
3. Action
Imagine that you get up in the morning and sit at your desk, ready to start the day.
You feel good, you’re not tired, you’ve got your coffee and you’ve got a good feeling about the day.
There’s a lot that needs to get done today and so you fire up your laptop, it loads up but then you just sit there, staring at the screen.
Thinking of what to do.
So you start by creating a to do list of the things you think you should do, but every few minutes you get distracted.
You open up a youtube tab and start watching videos, then a few minutes later you grab your phone and check social media.
You want to get work done but you’re overwhelmed and don’t know where to start.
So you end up procrastinating most of the morning and by lunchtime, you haven’t achieved or done any meaningful work.
We give in to resistance. We get discouraged and we get derailed. I can’t tell you how many days I’ve done this. It’s frustrating and it really stops you from taking action.
That is why it’s important that you set your intentions every single day, ideally the night before.
It will save you so much grief.
Just take a minute or two and ask yourself, what are the most important, lever-moving tasks that you need to tackle.
The things you just have to get done.
Prioritising helps you to approach the day with a clear plan, rather than fumbling about not knowing what to do and when.
So set your intentions.
Time blocking is also a useful tool for taking action. You divide your day into chunks of time. Each block is dedicated to specific tasks. So for instance:
- 8-9am, I’m gonna go through all my emails.
- 9-10am I’m doing sales calls.
- 10-11am I’m doing client work.
- 11-1pm I’m going to the gym.
It can help you avoid “winging it” and give you a sense of control over your day.
Another thing that works well is having an accountability partner and I’ve touched on this before.
When you share your goals with someone else, it adds a layer of commitment that’s hard to replicate on your own.
I have a friend and every morning we send each other a short message outlining our main aim for the day. It could be something like, “Today, I’m going to the gym for a leg workout,” or “I’ll finish that project that’s been sitting on my desk.”
Knowing that someone else is expecting to hear from me keeps me focused and less likely to make excuses.
There’s also a sense of encouragement when you see your accountability partner sticking to their goals—it pushes you to do the same.
It’s good, positive energy. So find a person in your life that wants to be that 1% better every day and push each other for more.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to this.
You need to build daily systems and habits that keep you in motion.
Every single day, you need to take action.
Do the work.
Get it done.
And if you don’t want to look back at the end of the year feeling like it slipped through your fingers, then remember:
Reflect on where you’ve been.
Write clear, purposeful goals for where you want to go.
And most importantly, take consistent action every day to move closer to the life you want.
The future isn’t something that just happens—it’s something you create.
So take control, and make 2025 the year you stop drifting and start living with intention.
I really hope this is your year.
A quote from a great
Have a great day mate,
Z
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