With the beginning of a new decade upon us, 2020 represents a significant spot on many calendars because it’s a year that has been heavily discussed and anticipated for so long. In fact, one might even say that it’s kind of like a mini Y2K in terms of the hype that is surrounding this particular year. Many tech manufacturers and brands have opted to postpone the upcoming releases of their newest consoles and products, opting specifically for a 2020 release date. For example, Sony recently announced that they would be launching the PlayStation 5 in late 2020.

This is also the year that we may just see the first hint at a multi-purpose artificial intelligence, as projects like Google DeepMind, IBM Watson have been making tremendously rapid progress in that field during the past few years. Also, virtual reality systems are expected to receive a dramatic boost in realism thanks to next-gen computing and graphics. So, with all of that technological advancement going on, what exactly are you doing in your own life to make big plans for this year? To provide some motivation, here are 15 reasons why 2020 is the perfect year to activate your plans and achieve your goals:

1. Affordable Online Educational Options Make Advancement Easy

Advancing your career used to be something that you could only consider if you had the time to study for a degree on a college or university campus. The idea of being tied to any physical location in order to facilitate an educational process seems a bit ridiculous when you consider the fact that most course frameworks can be completed online nowadays. Likewise, the advent of such online degree programs has led to a situation in which students have many more options on the table in terms of which schools they choose. This competition is driving tuition prices down to the extent that you can even find cheap master’s program on the web. For example, Florida State University is known to have the cheapest online MSW program in its region.

2. Everyone is Stepping Their Game Up

Topics related to self-improvement and lifestyle management are trending all over social media as the people become more connected, more informed, more capable of making smarter decisions. As society rapidly accelerates towards an interesting and bright future over the next decade, you don’t want to be left behind in poor physical condition, poverty, or just baseline mediocrity. In essence, you don’t want to be one of the only people thinking “It’s now 2020, what have I done with my life.”

3. Skilled Worker Shortages Are on the Rise

Many industries are in desperate need of skilled workers like nurses, electricians, and plumbers. Some of these careers can be started in just 6 months to 2 years of education or training. You can even enter into many trades just by obtaining certification through an online curse that can be completed in weeks or months. More specifically, there are expected to be about 20 million additional jobs created in 2020 across all industries. With so many employment options available, you’ve got every reason to embark on your career path as soon as possible.

4. Starting the Decade Off Right

At the beginning of every year, people have New Year’s resolutions that let them plan for the next 12 months. At the beginning of the decade, you’ve got to be thinking bigger than that. The arrival of 2020 signifies the beginning of whole new era, so it makes sense that you would want to completely reimagine who you are and what you’re capable of during this time.

5. Keeping Up with Tech Trends

Technology is advancing so fast that some people are having a hard time keeping up with what’s going on. For example, did you even know that IBM’s Project Debater can debate against human opponents at a university level of logic and argument presentation? Most people are completely unaware of the fact that 2020 could even be the year that we see major AI breakthroughs that have been widely worked towards for years. Start following some tech blogs and getting involved to make sure you get all the benefits of being part of the early adopter group.

6. Having More Money to Enjoy the Coming Luxuries

With so much new tech and automation coming to the scene in the 2020s you won’t want to be sitting there as bored and broke as you were in the 2010s. Even if you’re already somewhat successful, why not take the initiative to go to the next level in business or your career? You could also try establishing residual income streams. Any steps you take to start generating extra income and elevating your annual earning potential will equip you with extra spending money to enjoy all the luxuries to come.

7. Safeguarding Yourself from the Threat of Automation Taking Your Job

Automation will make our lives easier and more enjoyable, but it could also be partly responsible for the loss of your job to robots or software systems. It seems far-fetched to start thinking about this so soon, but you could be underestimating just how quickly corporations could start implementing widespread automation systems over the next 5 years. Start looking for ways to diversify your income in ways that won’t be vulnerable to automation.

8. Joining the Tech Fitness Movement

Wearables like fitness bands have made it possible to track every aspect of your exercise and weight loss progress. If you haven’t started using this kind of technology to get into shape, the beginning of the 2020s would be an ideal time to go ahead and join this movement. Even tech moguls like Jeff Bezos are getting into great shape, so you might as well follow in the footsteps of the world’s richest person.

9. Dissolving the Defeats of the Past Decade

If you’re yearning for a lifestyle change, there’s a good chance that you didn’t achieve what you had in mind during the past 10 years and you’re looking towards the coming decade for redemption. Thus, for many people, 2020 represents a much-needed new beginning. It’s a brand-new opportunity to make enough progress to where you can say “the 2020s was my decade.”

10. Your Car Will Be Driving You Around Soon… What Will You Do with the Extra Time?

It’s no secret that companies like Google, Tesla, and Mercedes have been working on self-driving cars for a while, but advancements in this field are expected to make the technology widely available to the average consumer over the next 1-3 years. The question is not whether your car will be able to drive you around, the question is what are you going to be doing as you sit there idle in the driver’s seat? Sure, you could watch TV or play a game, but wouldn’t it be better if you actually had a useful hobby or a profitable business you could work on during your commute?

11. Humans are Building a Robotic Moon Base

Japan is expected to establish a robotically maintained autonomous moon base in 2020, so the moon landing conspiracies might just finally come to an end once and for all as a matter of semantics. Whether or not we went to the moon before, 2020 is the year humans are expected to establish the very first permanent moon base. You might wonder what that has to do with you making a lifestyle change, but it’s simply a reminder that there are people on this planet who know how to set up a moon base, so what are you doing in comparison to that? If you have big dreams or crazy invention ideas, 2020 is the perfect year to join the global movement of pursuing the loftiest goals.

12. Biofuels Will Start Competing with Fossil Fuels on Price

This is also expected to be the year when biofuels and alternative energy start to become economically feasible for individuals, businesses, and government organizations. In fact, the U.S. military has pledged to ensure that it is getting at least 50% of its energy from renewable resources by the end of 2020. The Navy is expected to be using 50% biofuel to power the national Naval fleet. This could also complement the advent of electric vehicles by offering consumers are comparable alternative at the pumps, so auto manufacturers may start to release more hybrids that run off of a combination of electric, solar, and biofuel energy.

13. Flying Cars Might Soon be Pushed into the Mainstream

How can you walk around living the exact lifestyle you’ve been living when people are going to be piloted around by AI within the next decade? The flying car has been the quintessential tech milestone mentioned in sci-fi movies and discussions for many decades. Its arrival won’t just represent a new era in personal transportation, it will also give humans the confidence that anything really is possible through science and technology. As such, you might as well start joining the tech revolution now so that you can be prepared for the Jetsons-like future that is to come.

14. Cyborg Implants are Becoming a Reality

The thought of humans becoming cyborgs any time soon seems a bit unrealistic, but it’s actually inevitable that some level of cyborg technology will be implemented by the end of the 2020s. There have already been a number of projects that proved attaching a digital implant to a human is possible. With the realization that you could soon be biologically interfacing with a portable supercomputer, it doesn’t really make sense to continue living the life of a simpleton. You can prepare for the higher abilities that cyborg may provide over the next few decades by getting into great shape and becoming more technically inclined this year.

15. Enjoying This Reality Before It Becomes Obsolete

If you check out some of the trailers for the next generation of virtual reality games, it’s hard to believe that this technology is still in its infancy. Game consoles that are set to be released in 2020 will take VR to the next level by providing even more immersive and entertaining experiences. Eventually, it’s reasonable to assume that by the end of the 2020s, we could see VR that is convincing and engaging that it becomes even more appealing than our base reality. This could lead to a situation in which people are spending more time in virtual realms than they do in the real one, sort of like the plot of the popular sci-fi movie Ready Player One.

16. Computers Will Have the Processing Power of a Human Brain

Finally, did you know that computers are expected to reach the processing potential of the human brain within the next 1-3 years at the latest? This means that the quest towards general AI is becoming a technical eventuality as researchers simply need to find a way to make the computer utilize all of that processing power via neural networking that functions like a brain. With computers catching up to your brain, what are you doing to make sure a robot won’t be better than you in every way ten years from now?

Can the World Really Change That Much in Just a Decade?

Think about how different the world was in the 1990s than it was in the mid-2000s. Now consider the fact that YouTube and Facebook have only been around for a decade. Those are platforms that have become so ingrained into everyday life that it has become difficult to remember what life was like before the days of social media. If we extrapolate and apply that same degree of change to the next 10 years, it’s hard to even predict how much change that will initiate in every aspect of our business and personal lives. Knowing that such rapid advancement is right around the corner, it makes sense to use the reasons listed above as motivation for kick-starting your own lifestyle improvements in 2020.