Make 2022 Your Year
Host: Eric Chow · January 2, 2022 · Episode 61 · 23 minutes
Transcribed from the episode audio and edited for names and terms. Wording can differ slightly from what was said; the episode itself is the record.
Quoted from this episode: 3 quotes on the quotes page.
Hey everybody before we get started with what this episode is going to be all about, here is a quick message on how you can start your own podcast if you want to. Yo, yo, yo, what is going on everybody? Thank you for tuning into this episode of the Eric Chow Empowers Podcast This is the new year episode 2022 episode number 61. I'm your host Eric Chow and man I'm excited for the new year and I just want to wish everyone of you happy new year. I hope you're Gonna feel as excited as I am if you're not already and Man, I mean I gotta tell you guys I'm recording this on the 27th of December even though this episode is going out in the new year and I've already got like four or five interviews booked for January just January several for my show couple of guest appearances on guest appearances on other people's shows and I'm working on booking several more of course and there's a lot of exciting things happening on a business side I just got done with sending some text messages and had a phone call and just working on some things looking at 2022 for my businesses and it's super exciting over there.
And of course, personal life is doing really, really well. So I've got a lot to be excited about. I really feel like I do. And hopefully you feel the same way. And if you don't, hopefully this episode helps you feel that way because this episode is all about your new year. It is your new year.
And there's a couple of things that I want to talk about on that regard and on that note. So let's just get right into it, right? If you want 2022 to really be a new year, then you have to be willing to change and become a new you. Otherwise, nothing is going to happen. I mean, I'm sure that you've done this before, right? You've done New Year's resolutions and you've also just had regular like tasks on your Days to do list and you've put it off Right. I mean you've done that I want to do this, but I'm not gonna do it today I'm gonna do it tomorrow or I'm gonna do it next year or whatever we've all done that and The first thing I want to let you know is this if you want something to change in your life You gotta decide that you are willing to change because if you're not going to then Look 2022. What does that mean right at a very basic level?
You're gonna put up a new calendar and the number the date on your phone and your computer is gonna change the number that last number instead of two two two zero two one It's gonna say two zero two two. That's the only thing that's gonna change Nothing else. I mean, whatever Nothing else is gonna change like everything The thing is if you don't change Then 2022 is gonna be nothing more than a continuation of 2021 so If you want something to change, you need to be willing to change. Otherwise, it is just going to be a continuation of this year. Now, if you're okay with that, then hey, all power to you.
You're done. If you don't really need to listen to the rest of this episode, if you don't want to. Okay. But if there's a part of you that says 2021 was awesome, or maybe it wasn't, but I want 2020 to be even better.
I want to make some changes. I want to be better. I want my life to be better. I want my relationships to be better. If there's any part of you that says, I want something to be better, you have to decide how badly do you want that thing to change? How badly do you want to be better? And if you want it bad enough that you are willing to change, then fantastic. You've taken the first step. to making 2022 your year. Okay, so let's say you're still here. Let's say you're still listening to this. You've decided, Hey, I am willing to change. I have decided that I don't want 2022 to just be a continuation of 2021.
I want it to be a new year. And I want it to be my year. If that's not you, then maybe you don't need to listen to this. Okay. And maybe you can just listen to it for the heck of it. I don't know.
I'm not your mom. I'm not your dad. But let's I'm just gonna I'm gonna continue assuming that you've decided you're willing to change. Okay, great. What do you want to be different? That's the next question, right? That's the next step. And I I hate this and I'd recommend you write this down. Step one is decide you are willing to change. Step two is figure out what you want. Maybe you want to take better care of your health. Maybe that's your physical health. You want to change up your diet and eat healthier. Maybe you want to exercise on a regular basis. Maybe you want to take care of your mental health.
I don't know what that looks like. Maybe that means you got to go to therapy. Maybe that means you want to pick up some meditation. Maybe that means you just need to spend more time with yourself. Maybe that means you want to read some books and work on some personal development. Whatever. You want to take better care of your health. Great. Maybe you want to.
be better at your finances. Maybe you want to make more income. Maybe you want to be better at budgeting. Maybe you want to switch your career. Whatever. Maybe that's something you want. Or maybe you want to improve relationships with certain people. You might want to be a better child to your parents, parent to your children, better sibling, better friend, better coworker, better boss, better leader, better whatever. Maybe you want to find a new circle of people to spend time with. Maybe that's something you want to do. Maybe you want to spend more time connecting with yourself for the heck of it, right? Maybe you want to finally ditch a few bad habits that you have right now.
And instead you want to develop some good ones, like working out regularly, like eating better, like reading books, like listening to podcasts that teach you something.
and help you feel inspired and empowered. Maybe it's just studying something that is related to your craft or your passion every day. Maybe those are maybe you want to develop some habits. Maybe the changes you want to make are character based. You want to be more confident and bold. Maybe you want to be more patient, more or more self-disciplined or charismatic or people oriented or thoughtful or whatever. Right? Decide kind of what are those changes you want to make and if you figure out a month down the line in February that you want to make some more changes Fantastic go for it. You can implement those two.
That's totally fine, but figure out right now After you listen to this episode or maybe you pause this episode and you think about it before you continue What are the changes you want to make?
And one way you can think about that, you know, how do you come to those conclusions? Well, one option is to think about what do you feel like you want to improve on? And you can think about that moving forward, right? You can think about, okay, if I project myself to the end of this year, would one want? And maybe that will help you get your answer. Maybe you actually project yourself backward and look at 2021 and think about What would I wish I could have done better? And maybe that will give you your answers. A third option is maybe you look at certain people in your life who you admire and look up to.
And you say, okay, this person. What do I most admire about this person? That I would like to, how would I more, how could I be more like this person? What would I want to change?
And maybe that will come up with an answer and I've done that activity. I've done this, you know, I literally sat down thinking about, okay, what are some things I want to change? And there was one person I thought of who was really good at a particular thing. And I was like, yo, let me actually talk to this person about how they do that. And actually there were two people who I did that for. And let me actually talk to these people like, hey, how do you do this? Straight up like let me just chat with you about the way you do this or the way you think about this and Let me see.
Can I start to develop that skill like you do it so? What do you want to be different if you want to pause the episode now is a great time? Otherwise you can do it after the episode totally fine, but you that's the second step number one decide you're willing to change number two What do you want to be different? Okay, if you're gonna pause it pause now Okay, I'm going to assume you're back or you're going to do it later. All good. The next thing I want to talk about is okay, great. You know what changes you want to make. I want to share with you the top two reasons I personally from my experience, Eric Chow top two reasons I personally put something off in 2021. Okay, this is what I've learned. The first reason I put something off was the change I wanted to make wasn't actionable.
Let's say I have five items on my agenda for the day to pick from, right? Five five things I'm supposed to get done. Most likely I'm gonna tackle the one or two tasks that I'm most excited about doing. That's what I'm gonna do first. You know, I wake up in the morning, I brush my teeth, I breakfast, whatever, right? First thing I'm gonna do, the one or two tasks I'm most excited about. After that, I'm probably gonna tackle the tasks where I know exactly how to do it. and I don't mind doing. That's the second thing I'm going to do. Then I'm going to tackle the task that, well, I'm going to look at the rest of my to-do list.
Let's say I have two items or three items left on that to-do list. I'm going to pick the item on the agenda that I can instantly know exactly what I need to do. Even if I'd rather not do it, if I can look at it and go, I know what I need to do for this, I'll be able to do it.
And what ends up happening is at the end of the day, I've run out of time for the remaining tasks, which I may have wanted to do, but I glossed over it because I didn't know how to go about it. It's great that you've identified the changes you want to make and what you want to do. And you've put it on your agenda for the new year. But if you don't, if you're not able to look at it and know exactly what you need to do, it's going to be damn hard to make anything happen because you don't know what you need to do. So what I've realized is I have to make sure I figure out exactly the specific actions to take if I'm gonna make something happen I realized I got to be able to read that task Write it down or be able to say the change I want to make and know exactly what I need to do You I I realized I can't do this like I can't Say I'm gonna be healthier.
You know, I can't do that. I can't say um uh Find more podcasts to get on That's not actionable enough for me now if somebody listening to this Can actually think about that and go I know exactly what I need to do then fantastic you're set But you need to make sure that for you You think about that? Item that change that goal that task and you need to be able to say I know exactly what I need to do for this I know this is actionable. I can do this because I have found in 2021 there have been so many tasks that I would put off again and again and again simply because I didn't know the action I needed to take.
I wanted that thing to happen but I didn't know the action I needed to take. And if I have the choice between two items or three items or however many items, I'm gonna pick the item that I know actually what I need to do. I'm not gonna pick the item where I have to sit there and think about what do I need to do. That's at least, that's personally for me, if you're different than hey, all power to you, I'm just sharing with you my mistake because that's what happened. The number of times where I have decided to edit a podcast interview, over some other task this year many many times and I'll let you know I actually really don't like Editing my own podcast interviews.
I don't enjoy I don't enjoy editing at all But because I know how to do it I would do that task instead of doing something More that in my head seemed more complicated it may not have actually been that complicated but in my head because I didn't know The actionable steps I needed to take seemed more complicated. So I would actually edit my podcast now that was great because I actually got to edit my podcast That was fantastic because I actually have something to upload now, right? but it took away from those other things that I also wanted to get done and that cost me so the first thing you got to make sure the change you want to make has become actionable you know what you want to do is it actionable Okay, that's the first one.
The second mistake that I would say is forgetting the connection between the task and the vision. And I'll explain what that means. I think we have to let go of the idea that we can live our life only doing what we want to do or feel like doing. Let me repeat that. We have to let go of the idea that we can live our life doing only what we want to do.
Or that we can live our life doing only what we feel like doing. It's not gonna happen. We are going to have to inconvenience ourselves to create change. After all, by definition, change is doing something different, which means it's out of our comfort zone. So sometimes I would actually have those actionable items on my agenda. But because it felt uncomfortable to think about doing it, or because I would lose interest in doing it, I actually wouldn't do it. That's happened to all of us. I think So what I found is I need to keep the big picture Which is the end result in mind. I'll use a very simple analogy I don't like doing dishes, but I do the dishes so that I can have clean dishes to eat from the next time I'm hungry Simple right very simple What's another good example?
I don't know What's another good one dang I don't know. I don't like waiting in line to fill up the gas for my car, but I'm gonna do it because otherwise I ain't gonna be able to drive my car, right? Very simple. So we have to do things that inconvenience ourselves. And of course, those are two very small examples, but you scale them up however big you want. We have to do those things that we may not feel like doing, right? Have you ever gotten in bed and then realized you forgot to brush your teeth? Like...
You should probably get out and brush your teeth. Okay, maybe if you skip once maybe it's okay. I don't know Don't do that, but I'm sure you've all done it but for the most by like This idea is something we already do we already understand like I got to do this We already instinctively know Clean dishes mean I have clean dishes to eat for next time if I brush my teeth and before I go to bed then you know, I'm gonna have better teeth, right? I don't have to deal with some problems later on, you know, whatever. So with the tasks that I didn't necessarily want to do for everything else, right, beyond just like basic self care, with those tasks, I realized if I can remind myself of the end results, I find that I am much more interested in following through and doing it. I don't have to like the task. I just have to like something about the end result.
Another, I think, good explanation for the students out there or the recent graduates. If you think about school and you think about, there were plenty of tasks that you had to do that you didn't really feel like doing. You didn't want to do it. Why did you do it? Well, maybe you did it because that grade was important to you. That was something about the end result that was important to you. Maybe... It was some other reason, but whatever it was, there was something about the end result that made you end up doing the task. And if you didn't do it, then there was nothing about the end result that really was driving you.
So the key is this. If you want to make some changes in your life and you break down the tasks into actionable items, do not forget the end result.
Even if that actionable item is something that makes you uncomfortable or it is Something you'd prefer not to do it's something that you don't aren't interested in doing Remember the end result that you want and I think you'll find that you're much more interested in doing it guys 2022 The calendar on your wall has changed the year on all your devices has changed. But if you want something to change in your life, then you have to make that change. And let's get this straight, right? If you're listening, you might be listening to this on January 5th, you might be listening to this on the 10th, you might be listening to this in February 2023.
I don't know. Yeah, if this is February 2023 and you're listening to this, I have no idea why you're here, but I love you. Thank you.
Let's get this straight in 365 days from this moment you're listening to these words. It's gonna be a new year 365 days from right now. It's gonna be a new year Make it yours The new year starts right now. I don't care that you tell me technically Eric it started two days ago or Technically it started five weeks ago or technically it started three years ago. I don't know okay forget it. All right One year, 365 days from now, it's gonna be a new year. If you failed already, you can start right now. If you haven't done anything, you can start right now. And if you're doing great already, fantastic, keep going, okay?
It's fine. The last thing I'll leave you with is this. We all, everybody likes to talk about New Year's resolutions. What is a New Year's resolution? Well, let me start with this.
What is the definition of the word resolution? Well, according to Google, according to Oxford, a resolution is one, a firm decision to do or not to do something, or number two, the quality of being determined and resolute. That is the definition. Resolutions. Making a resolution is about renewing your resolve and determination that your life can be better, that you can be better. Which means that a new year's resolution is making a few solid decisions with resolve and determination to make some changes right now. to stick with those changes for a year and then look back on the amazing things that have happened. That is a New Year's resolution. New Year resolution. New because you are making new decisions, new choices, new resolutions, right?
It is a resolution that means you you have your you've solidified your resolve and determination and you've made a strong decision and You're willing to stick with that for the year Because you know that it's gonna bring you some really amazing results 2022 is gonna be awesome I am so goddamn excited and I hope that this episode will help you make 2022 your year. Because it's gonna be Eric Chowsier, I guarantee you that. It's gonna be Eric Chowsier. But I hope it's yours too. Because this doesn't just need to be my year. This can be yours too. It can be a lot of people's year. And I'd be more than happy to see that. So, Happy New Year to all of you. But more importantly, make this.
a happy new year for you. Thanks for listening.