Set your mind…

By Daniel Francis

The idea of a new year excites us until we get into the work and realise what’s required. This is typically why, by February, many New Year resolutions fizzle away.

In December, we are motivated over the prospects of a fresh start. We begin imagining what new, amazing things we can achieve, and the allure of potential creates a level of momentum that encourages goal setting. We say we will be better than the previous year, and we list off all the many ways that we will conquer the future.

We start off ‘hot and sweaty’ in January, riding off that wave of the new year momentum. Yet, why does the motivation typically dissipate for most within a month or two?

What we miss is adjusting our mindset because we cannot experience an external change without a proper internal shift.

In December, I took stock of my year. 2025 saw pretty good progress, and I was very proud of my spiritual, physical, mental, social, and financial growth. But I asked myself, what’s the difference between doing ‘pretty good’ and doing ‘great’? Was the gap in effort so huge to create great results? ‘Doing good’ takes effort. ‘Doing great’ takes effort as well.

I rationalised that if they both take work, why not aim to be great and at least reap more results? So, I began the preparations for what making my year great would look like in every facet of my life.

I remember a book called 10X Rule. I read it some time back. It talks about multiplying the targets of your goals by ten to truly be great and challenge yourself. I began considering 10X thinking with the majority of my goals.

Now realistically, I could not 10X all of my goals but the translation looked like pushing myself to do things like read 2-3 books per week, join a very involved committee in my church, invest double or triple the time to my exploration of the Bible and catechism, and one extremely daunting plan of multiplying my revenue for my book publishing business by 10.

The latter target was where I would put most of my efforts because more revenue meant more profits, which meant I would create more options for myself and my community.

To raise my company to the new heights, the preparation alone took all of December. I noticed that laying out the plan was not the problem, nor was organising my staff. The real problem was me. I did not truly believe I could do what I was setting out to do. My mindset was already projecting that I would not hit my targets.

For example, I set a goal to start a membership programme for aspiring authors who are in the early phase of writing. The membership is meant to set the tone for the rest of the year for the company and, for the aspiring authors, it would fill a gap that I see many writers experiencing where they have no guidance, support or accountability in the writing phase, so they get stuck.

I put in all the work to plan it out, but then I set my initial target very low. Why? Because I did not believe I could attain higher. I caught myself, and I multiplied the target by ten. I initially was aiming for 20-30 sign-ups by the end of January, so I adjusted to 200-300.

Even within the first few days of January, I could tell that I had not truly steeled my mindset yet. Each day, I set a daily target, and each day I missed it. I kept trying to rationalise to myself why I should move the goalpost, as we often do when we aren’t hitting our targets. But this is why the right mindset is so important. In those moments where our efforts don’t yield the desired results, we should not contract our efforts but expand them.

We can only decide to expand our efforts if our mindset is in the right place. I could have said, “Well, I’m not hitting my daily targets, so I should just be happy with my current results.” But that would have left me at just “good enough.”

I challenged myself and asked, “What can I do to hit my target? Is my level of effort enough?” I had to work on not changing the target just because things got hard.

Let us not move the goalpost anymore. Let us match the level of effort necessary to achieve our goals.

God calls us to be our best selves in all facets of life. We stray from the path that He sets for us when we decide to give up or shrink our efforts when we don’t get the results we were expecting.

Proper mindset dictates an unfaltering will to succeed. This means increasing your efforts in the face of lacklustre results. This means truly believing that you will achieve what you set out to do.

Always remember that you can truly do your best and then leave the rest up to God. Trust in His aid, but you can only do so if you truly believe you gave it your all.

Daniel Francis, author of The Millennial Mind, The Millennial Experience, and How to Write and Self-Publish Your Book, is an entrepreneur passionate about leadership and storytelling. As a leadership development coach at Rebit Limited, he has spent the last four years equipping individuals to thrive personally and professionally. He also leads One Momentum Publishing, a hybrid publishing company through which he has guided hundreds of authors on their journey from idea to published book.

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