Happy 2019, everyone! It’s the new year and everyone is setting goals, and most of them will fizzle out before the month’s end. Here’s some steps you can take to ensure that your goals are more than dreams, and actually help you create the lifestyle you desire this year. I’ve tried and tweaked so many methods of goal-setting and achievement over the years, and these are some things that I’ve found to be absolutely key to getting them from the page and into my life.
- Goals should be specific, measurable and exciting enough to make you really want to go for them. Example: “Get in better shape.” is unacceptable, hard to know when you’ve achieved it, and more daunting than motivating. “Workout for at least 20 minutes 5x/week” or “Eat 7+ servings of vegetables and fruit daily” or “Lose 2 inches from my waistline by February 15th” are specific and have measurement so you’ll know when they can be checked off your list.
- Don’t set goals because you think you should, set goals that make you feel a little nervous because of how cool it would feel if you achieved them. Ask yourself if you really want it, or if you just think it would look good to others. Often the goals that end up left unchecked on my lists are ones it turns out weren’t really that important or meaningful to me after all.
- Break it down, then break it down smaller. Even smaller! Create a “Brain Dump” list of all the things you would have to do to make these goals happen. Aim to create a task list of short actions that would take only about 20 minutes each to complete.
- Each week, choose tasks to add to your schedule, only 2-3 each day. I’ve actually had a really hard time working a real schedule since becoming a mom, and moving items forward into the next day over and over makes me feel like I’m failing, so a game-changer for me this year has been time-blocking and using it to outline my days (below is an example of what mine looks like). I have different categories of time-blocking that include the major areas I need to work on during the week. It’s still hard to hit every block, but if I hit 80% of my blocks my week is on fire.
Other pro tips:
- Whether you set 5 goals or 10 goals, identify one priority goal to focus on first that would help all the other ones start to happen faster, and knock them down like dominos. Often this is a financial goal because some other goals (vacations, hobbies, date nights) need some money behind them to gain momentum. For me, in this goal set, it’s maintaining my time-blocking routine.
- Keep your goal list where you can see them on a daily basis, especially your priority goal that will help the others become more possible.
- Make your list well-rounded by first examining your satisfaction level with each area of your life: Health, Relationships, Environment, Career, Finances, Recreation, Spirituality, etc.
- I personally have found more success setting quarterly goals rather than yearly goals, but both could be done. Just make sure your short-term goals are nurturing your long-term ones.
Happy New Year! Now let’s go get it!
