Side hustlers are, understandably, driven by goals. And in January, New Years resolutions–whether vilified or acclaimed–top the list of goal-related topics.

I liked this theconversation.com post on keeping your resolutions, though, to ease the pressure, maybe just view them as ‘new week resolutions’.

See how they fit over the next seven days.

1. Clarify and honor your values. For the side hustle I’m working on, it’s about sending support to others.
2. Frame goals and your life in positive terms. The post mentions gratitude as one of those ‘positives’. I’m grateful right now that I’m using older, but still working, backup tech tools as my cranky prime laptop has been given a ‘timeout’.
3. Change your environment to make it easier. This very much reminds me of one of James Clear’s suggestions in his Atomic Habits book. For me, it’s setting out my work folder on the table that I pass by 20 times a day. If it was tucked away in my ‘quiet workspace’, I could go a day without even seeing it. It paid off yesterday with a productive half-hour editing session on a piece I’d avoided for weeks.
4. Be prepared with ‘if-then’ strategies.
5. Use a gradual approach. This tests my patience muscle, doesn’t it? But, as Chris Guillebeau, and many others, espouse: One small step each day pays off.
6. Imagine rewards and then enjoy them. (Oh, yeah, right now I’m seeing a steaming mug of Italian roast, its steam wafting over a chocolate chip-hazelnut scone…Excuse me, I’ll be back in a minute…or ten.)
7. Be kind to yourself, even during setbacks. (This might require one of these ‘imagined rewards’ on a small scale. Muffins and scones, be on alert!)

This post contains an affiliate link. If you use this link to buy the Atomic Habits book, I will earn a commission and I’ll be that much closer to buying that unclaimed island in the Caribbean. Thanks. Please don’t ask for the island’s coordinates. It’s mine and you can’t have it.