Here it is again- the start of a new year. As 2021 draws to a close and the Earth completes one more revolution around the sun, it is time to get serious about our goals. What do we want to accomplish by the same time next year? How do we set DECA goals that we can achieve? And, more importantly, how do we keep them? Well, these are all questions that I aim to answer today.

The first step is recognizing what exactly you want to achieve. Do you want to reach new heights at CDC? Is your primary concern with your chapter’s enrollment numbers? Do you want to increase member engagement? These are all important questions to consider when deciding to choose a goal to pursue. Yes, you could focus on all of them at the same time, but I would recommend focusing on one at a time as that allows you to give all your focus towards one goal which makes it much more likely that you will achieve it.

The next step is creating an action that can be done reliably and repeatedly to help you achieve this goal. They say it takes 30 days to form a habit, so if I take a career cluster test for 30 mins every day for 30 days, I am much more likely to continue this habit and get closer to my goal than if I were to just do it whenever I feel like it.

Once you have this down, what I would do is get a DECA buddy to do this action with you. If someone is building a habit with you, you are much more likely to keep each other accountable than if you are just doing it alone. After 30 days of persistently forcing yourself to enliven the habit, rain or shine, it becomes second nature to you. Keep it up and soon enough, you can conquer the world.

-Aarav Jilka