There is one month left in the year. Most people are ready to coast to the finish line, but one good month can make the whole year feel like a success. What can you do in the next 30 days to build momentum and finish the year on a high note?
The beginning or end of the month is a good time to do a monthly review. Review your goals, review your system, review your habits. What worked for you? What not? What should you quit? What should you reinforce?
For example, by the end of the last month I realized that meditation and breathwork don’t give me benefits as before, so this month I will use this time for morning walks, workout, more reading, learning, and writing. I think it’s totally okay to drop habits that don’t work for you, and go back to them when you need to.
Last month I had to be super focused, disciplined, and motivated, so I had a strict routine. It did help and I reached many great milestones. But life goes on, new opportunities pop up, new things to learn and to explore. So I decided to keep the stuff that works for me and give up on something that doesn’t. That’s The 80/20 rule, or Pareto Principle – roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes.
And even if you were a whole year in a dump, or in a rut. Sometimes the last 30 days can make a big difference and worth the whole year.
For me, it was the end of 2021, when due to the pandemic and massive lockdowns in China – it was one of the worst years. But just one online course I signed up for at the end of the year changed the whole picture.
30 days is only 8% of the whole year. But those 8% can bring more than 60% of the result and build a great momentum for the next year.
As James Clear aptly puts it in his 3-2-1 Newsletter: “What can you do in the next 30 days to build momentum and finish the year on a high note?”