Any Head Start Puts You Ahead

Nine years ago, when I started my big 2016 project in the middle of December 2015, I learned that I wasn’t a calendar: “You can start a new year any day of the year,” I wrote soon thereafter.

Today is the last day of 2023. It’s too late to begin half a month early — but it’s not too late to get a head start. When you wake up ten minutes before your alarm in the morning and get up instead of snoozing, those ten minutes can make a big difference to your day.

The same applies to what you do on Monday, the first of the month, the first week of the quarter, and, yes, even the last day of the year. Any head start, no matter how small, still puts you ahead — and when it comes to big goals and daunting challenges, being ahead is all that counts.

What’s one thing you can do today that your 2024-self will thank you for? There’s still time to put the New Year train on its rails — and come tomorrow, while everyone else turns on the light in their maintenance hangar, you’ll just hop in and start rolling.

Nik

Niklas Göke writes for dreamers, doers, and unbroken optimists. A self-taught writer with more than a decade of experience, Nik has published over 2,000 articles. His work has attracted tens of millions of readers and been featured in places like Business Insider, CNBC, Lifehacker, and many others. Nik has self-published 2 books thus far, most recently 2-Minute Pep Talks. Outside of his day job and daily blog, Nik loves reading, video games, and pizza, which he eats plenty a slice of in Munich, Germany, where he resides.