Chris Hill blog: Ask These 4 Questions Instead of Making New Year’s Resolutions

Chef, author and blogger Chris Hill on auditing yourself not setting resolutions you will fail to keep!

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Every 365 days a new year scurries into our lives. The two things I know for sure are: 1. We will find ourselves scribbling the previous year well into March, and 2. Most of us will set New Year’s resolutions and almost everyone will fail to keep them til March.

Instead of setting resolutions, I’ve always just tried to use the turning of the new year as an opportunity to audit myself, my goals, and where I hope to be in another 365 days. There are four questions that have proven to be pretty helpful for me in figuring out how to properly approach the coming year.

I’ve intentionally left space after each question, hoping that you will print this out and spend some time on coming up with your answers. I hope for a stellar new year for you. In 365 days, you’ll be a different person than you are right now – the question is, will that be for the better or worse? If you spend some time with this and WRITE DOWN YOUR ANSWERS, it can be really powerful.

Before that though, here is a quick video explaining in greater detail the 4 questions.

4 Questions to Ask Before Starting the New Year

1. What do you want to learn this year? Personally? With my significant other? Career?
2. What do you want to change about yourself? What habits would you like to develop in order to be healthier, more productive, etc? What habits would you like to eliminate? What have you been putting off that you know that you need to take care of?
3. What change would you like to make in the world? Define what your world is (and you’re definitely part of more than one). Family? Workplace? Team? College? Organization? Community?
4. What does a year from now look like to you? Will you have a new job? Healthier? New house? Kids? Better quality relationships?

Use these answers to create some goals for yourself. It’s important to write your goals down, and keep them somewhere visible, where you are constantly reminded of them. You are 75% more likely to achieve your goals when you put them in writing.

Things to consider when setting goals:

Specific: Make sure that your goals are specific. You don’t want to have “losing weight” as a goal, but rather, “I want to lose 20 pounds come April by going to the gym 5 days a week and eating healthier. This helps you zero in and focus on the mission and by being specific, it’s much easier to track progress and feel accomplished. At the same time, it also helps keep us in check when we’re slacking off.

Time Table: It’s included above, but a bit different, it’s really important to have a deadline to accomplish your goal by, otherwise you will keep putting it off like that high school term paper that you waited until the day before to get started on. You also want to make sure that you stagger your goal deadlines throughout the year, so that you are consistently making progress and achievement.

Accountability: Surround yourself with people that will encourage you to stay on track. If one of your goals is a certain result from going to the gym 5 days a week, it will make it a lot easier to link up with a friend. It’s easy to hit the snooze button on yourself, but when you might be letting someone else down it’s a little bit harder.

Go Big: Even if you don’t hit your big goals, you will be further along than you would have been if you hadn’t had the bar so high. Go for it.

I’d love for you to fill this sheet out and then come back to either here (the blog) or to Facebook and share some of the goals that you are excited about for the new year.

About Chris Hill

Chef Chris Hill left a job in the business world to follow his heart and passion into the world of cooking and the kitchen. Chris opened his first restaurant at 28 and grew into the role of executive chef.

Having taken his experiences in the corporate world, as well as those in the kitchen, Chris has built a large social media following centred around TV appearances all over the Southeast U.S., his writing, TEDx talks, and his mission of helping industry workers to lead fulfilling successful careers.

Chris' first book came out in 2016 and is a dive into what makes for a successful career in the restaurant world, and includes exclusive interviews with some of the world's leading and most respected chefs.

You can follow Chris on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and read more of his work here.

Don't miss Chris' latest book 'Crush your career: A professional path to a sustainable life in the kitchen'. Available on Amazon