Austin Scholar #46: How To Set Your Kids Up For Success In 2023
& My 2022 Wrapped
Hey, y'all!
Goal setting for the New Year can be hard and overwhelming–especially for teenagers.
But it doesn’t have to be.
My dad has helped me create the best goal-setting exercises that have set me up to crush 2023.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
This week from Austin Scholar...
Austin’s Anecdote: My 2022 Wrapped
How To Set Your Kids Up For Success In 2023
Scholar’s Sources: The Top Three 2023 Goal-Setting Sources
I’m back! I had an absolutely incredible Christmas break. I did an insane deep clean of my room, bathroom, and closet (in which I got rid of over 10 trash bags of stuff), ate waffles my Mimi made on Christmas morning, and watched way too many Hallmark movies.
School has started again, though, so it’s time to get back to work.
Austin’s Anecdote: My 2022 Wrapped
2022 was an absolutely life-changing year.
But, let me tell you: it didn't start off that way. The very first week of 2022, I tested positive for COVID, was quarantined, and got dumped by my long-distance girlfriend (she wasn't in a good place in her life for a relationship anymore).
Yeah, it was a rough start.
I cried in my bedroom, alone, with no hope for the coming year.
But I didn’t want to be miserable in 2022. I wanted to have a great year. A year that I would be proud of.
So, I wiped my tears and started the year during the second week of January.
And, honestly, my motivation and momentum really paid off.
In 2022, I was able to...
Launch Austin Scholar on March 2nd
Get de-platformed from Substack for being too young
Re-launch Austin Scholar on March 30th (my birthday)
Publish my newsletter every week
Get my first 1,000 Twitter followers
Do a summer internship with Write of Passage
Help launch Write of Passage: Liftoff
Finish Calculus BC
Get a 5 on AP Language & Composition
Go to Oxford for two weeks
I achieved such powerful things in every aspect of my life–though it wasn't easy. At all.
I put in so much work this year. I was at school many nights until 8:00 pm working through my academic apps and writing newsletters and tweeting.
I faced my fears of promoting my work online and DM'd a bunch of Twitter writers that I looked up to.
I put in the hours. I proved to myself that I can, in fact, accomplish something if I really do my best. That my effort does pay off.
I am so proud of myself for what I did in 2022.
2023, though, is a fresh start. I want to use the momentum I have from last year to launch myself to greater heights than I would have thought possible.
So, on December 31st, I asked myself what I really wanted to do this year. What I wanted to pour my heart and soul into achieving. What would add meaning to my life.
In 2023, I am going to...
Reach 100,000 Twitter followers
Get 5,000 paid Austin Scholar subscribers
Get a 1520+ SAT score
Apply to college
These are all insanely challenging goals. I'm not totally sure, yet, how I'm going to achieve them, but I know I will put in the time and energy to do it.
2022's got nothing on 2023.
How To Set Your Kids Up For Success In 2023
There are thousands of articles, Twitter threads, and motivational speeches with different exercises and goal-setting techniques to help you prepare for the coming year.
As a teenager, this stuff is super overwhelming. When I'm alone with my thoughts, a year seems like an insurmountable amount of time–time that's hard to prepare for.
But, for the past five years, my dad has helped me set my New Years' Resolutions.
He's asked me fantastic questions and offered me the support I would need to achieve my goals. Every January 1st, my sister and I would sit in my dad's office drawing out our goals on his whiteboard.
After years of setting New Years' goals with my dad, I’m going to share the most helpful strategies I’ve learned, so you can help your kids set theirs.