- Hey YouTube world, it's me, Evelyn.
I know y'all all have probably made
your New Year's resolutions by now,
but I'm just here to tell y'all
that there's a chance that you will fail.
Like completely and totally.
And you'll end up being one of the people
this tweet is talking about.
Now me myself, personally,
I don't find anything wrong
with making New Year's resolutions, reinventing yourself.
And nothing's wrong with even
not reaching your goals right away.
I believe I said that in my last video.
(tape whirring)
No, you're not gonna fulfill them all.
That's not the point.
The point is relentless belief in oneself
despite evidence to the contrary.
(static buzzing) But as your internet cousin
I don't wanna see y'all fail again,
and again, and again, and again, and again, and again.
And again, and again, and again, and again, and again.
Especially if y'all don't have to.
So in this video I'm gonna share with y'all
a few of my 2019 goals
and give y'all some tips to hopefully make your own.
And actually maybe perhaps
with a lot of work, we'll actually achieve them.
(hip-hop music)
First tip: understand the why?
What's the reason that you're making a particular goal?
And what do you think it's gonna give you?
You know what I'm saying?
Are there some assumptions built into your goal making
that you need to unpack, as they say?
Understanding the why and the reason behind your goal
is also a chance for you to slow down,
and to figure out if that reason is hurtful
to you as a person.
So let's talk about health goals, alright.
Talkin' about gettin' snatched.
Ripped and stripped.
My main health goal in 2019
is to go to all my checkups,
because I'm that person who ain't been to the dentist
in do, do, doop, you know what I'm sayin'?
My eyes, I don't even know
the status of my sight right now.
You know, the ear, nose, and throat.
(snorting)
(laughs) (snorting)
We know my allergies is acting up.
You know what I'm saying'?
I should probably, like, check out my womb. (laughs)
So that's one of my big health goals.
My other health goal is to be able to take
a beginner yoga class without dying.
The why?
Because I want to feel full of energy this year.
Yo' girl is incredibly stiff, inflexible.
M'kay?
And I am tired a lot of the time for no good reason.
At the end of it all, when I thought about
myself and my health and my body,
I realized I didn't really care about weight or weight loss
because thinness is not what I'm after.
If that's a by-product of any of these things
in a healthy, you know, way;
cool or whatever.
But what I'm after in 2019
is to feel alive, and energetic, and vibrant,
and able to sit criss-cross applesauce
for more than five minutes
without every joint popping.
That brings me to my second tip,
which is to be specific with your goals.
Notice I didn't say I want to be more flexible
because more is not a measurable thing.
So I took something like a beginner yoga class,
that I have actually taken,
(laughs) and experienced.
Something that is usually very painful for me
and said that if I can take this same class
in a year with ease,
(hands clapping)
I accomplished my goal.
I can Shavasana without internally crying.
You know what I'm sayin'?
Another genre of resolution
that specificity really helps with is money and career.
I have a lot of financial goals,
but my main money goal for 2019
is to book and actually receive payment for
five, five-figure deals this year.
Essentially what I'm saying is
that I want to make $50,000 as my annual salary, minimum.
That is specific to the dollar amount.
My main career goals this year:
I would like to get writer's credit
on a piece of narrative, fiction, that is not my own.
And I would love to complete
my 30 minute comedy pilot script.
Now ain't nobody hired me
to be in their writers room, yet.
Mm, Amen!
And I don't have a Netflix deal,
so this goal is not tied to a contract
or deadline that already exists.
I'm talking from started from the bottom, now we here.
Even though I don't necessarily know where to start,
I am specific about where I want to end up.
When you're specific about what you want,
you're able to make decisions so much more quickly.
And you won't get distracted by
every little opportunity that seems cool.
So I didn't just say I want to write.
If someone approaches me and says, hey,
Evelyn From The Internets,
love your thing you do, love it, we're loving it.
Would you wanna act in our web series?
That sounds cool, but I'm gonna take it back,
and say, will this help me
write my own 30 minute comedy pilot script?
Will this give me writer's credit on a piece of fiction
that is not my own?
And if the answer is yes, leggo!
And if the answer is no, I'll pass.
I respectfully decline.
We being specific in 2019.
I remember I was talking to Chescaleigh, Franchesca Ramsey,
maybe year before last, it was a while back, and,
I was going through it, I just, you know,
walked right up to her, and I was like, hey girl,
I have a question, do you know what you're doing?
Do you know what you're doing?
Because I'm lost, I'm lost.
And you look like you are focused.
Do you know what is that you're doing?
And she said yes, I was specific about my goal,
and literally everything that I do
helps me get to that goal.
Me being here at this conference
speaking in front of these people right now,
puts me in front of more people
and being more generally known,
amongst the general public, helps me pitch my TV show.
And I was like. (mimics explosion)
That was a aha moment, as Oprah says.
Goals are actually supposed to guide you
and filter out all that extra stuff.
Be specific.
Tip number three.
Work with your brain and not against it.
Your brain, your personality, you know, your tendencies,
your way, (laughs) you know?
Work with that and not against it.
One of my personal goals in 2019
is to read 12 books this year.
Notice I didn't say read one book a month.
Because that's not how I read.
I don't consume literature in that fashion.
Okay, some books, I'm done with them, I put 'em down,
and I need six solid weeks to decompress
before picking up another piece of literature.
I can't even read a tweet I'm so traumatized.
Some books, I blow through a trilogy in a month.
A lot of the times I'm reading two books at the same time.
And for the most part, especially last year in 2018,
I was listening to books
more than I was reading them with my eyes.
Putting myself on a calendar schedule for reading
just doesn't work with my brain
or the way that I like to read.
So I'm not gonna try, I'm not gonna do it.
Be honest with yourself and hack your brain so to speak,
so that you're much more likely
to actually accomplish your goal.
Last but not least, tip number four, start small.
For the love of God,
baby steps.
This shoulda been number one.
This is probably the main reason a lot of us don't actually
accomplish our goals or make any sort of headway.
You're going from zero to 100 too quick.
People do this a lot with health related
you know, fitness related resolutions, you know?
You can't even walk to your mailbox
but you wanna run a half-marathon?
(somber piano music) Baby.
Baby, baby listen, baby, it's not gonna happen.
Travel is also another common category for this mistake.
If you've never left your hometown,
planning a trip to Japan this year
might be a little ambitious.
Start small.
Plan a staycation in your own city.
Go through the process of figuring out the budget,
saving your money, booking an Airbnb
in a bougie part of town you never step foot in.
Go to a show downtown.
Eat at a restaurant that you have no business
being in on a daily basis.
Then, try a weekend getaway
and drive or fly.
Take a Megabus, whatever you gotta do
to a city that's maybe a couple hours away
from where you live.
Learn what it's like to navigate this new city.
Understand how to deal with a change of plans,
when the weather does weird things,
when you fight with your friends or family,
or whoever's on the trip with you.
If you start small, you're much more likely to do it.
You won't fell as overwhelmed
going to New Orleans for Essence Fest
as you would going to Japan.
Japan.
Fam, that's for the pros.
I'm tryna go to Japan in 2020. (laughs)
At the end of it all, if you understand the why,
if you're specific, if you work with your brain,
and if you start small,
you'll find yourself kinda chipping away
at the things that you want to do with your life.
And you'll understand that everything takes time.
The goals that you accomplish in 2019
will set you up for the big dreams
that you have for yourself,
one, three, five, 10 years from now.
I don't know who be planning that far ahead,
but if you do.
(claps rapidly)
So go be great.
How 'bout that, how 'bout you go be great!
Be gentle with yourself, m'kay?
Be nice to yourself.
It's a work in progress.
In the comments below tell me about all the resolutions,
that you just have not come close to ever achieving
over the years.
Be honest.
And hopefully this video helped you understand
how you can make better goals and resolutions this year.
So good luck,
and I will see you on the internet somewhere.
Bye.
Oh my God, shameless promotion.
Can y'all see that?
My internet cousin pin, anyway. (laughs)