I love the New Year. I just feel like it’s a reset. A chance to revaluate what you did last year and set some new goals. What worked, what didn’t, do you need to change anything, focus on something specific?
A lot of people can be overwhelmed by setting goals.
I am a firm believer in writing them down and breaking them down. If you don’t write them down then you forget about them or you don’t have direction.
As I am big goal setting fan, I want to share with you how I do it.
Here is what goals should not be, they should not be generic.
To lose weight To be healthier To earn more money To make time for myself To be more present To eat less meat
The actual goal itself if fine but we need to get more specific.
I want to lose 9kg by September as I am turning 40 – that’s 1kg per month I want to focus on my health more – I will do this by aiming for a daily step goal and eating 5 fruit and veg every day I would like to earn $10,000 more this year – I will focus on finding a new job in January that will pay me my worth I would like to make more time for myself – everyday I will do 1-2 things just for me such as go for a run, study, watch a Netflix show, paint my nails I would like to be more present – from 6pm until bed time I will put my phone away I would like to eat less meat – I will aim to have 3 meat free days per week.
The list above is much more specific. Each goal above will then need its own action plan but for the sake of your goal list let just stick to the goal or we will be here all day, but what I mean is once you have established the goal and the timeframe then you need to have a plan of how to get there. So, let’s take the 1kg weight loss per month. How will you do that? What diet will you do?
Let’s focus on the list first though.
What I advise is that you make your goals list a working document. So you can amend and change as you go over the year.
Here are the goal categories I have. Feel free to add or change. Try to add 5-10 goals in each category but don’t stress if you have less in one and more in another, all our lives are so different.
1. Career
What’s the plan here? Do you want to change jobs? Do you want to start your own business? When do you want to make these changes by specifically?
2. Finances
How much do you want to earn? How much do you want to save? When and how will you do this? Do you want to pay off your credit card, by when??
3. Health
My favourite of course. I have 15 in this category. This can be anything from getting your moles checked out, to making sure you drink enough water. Remember be specific with timeframes, also be realistic. This should include mental health too 😊
4. Relationships
This one is a goodie. It gets you thinking who you want in your life and what you need to work on. A good chance to get rid of the drainers. I made a few points on a few of my relationships and I also made a list of relationships I want to keep strong.
5. Materialistic
Stuff you want to buy and by when. This helped me declutter my brain a bit ad I went through each room in my house and wrote down the things that have been bugging me no matter how small or big. This could include you changing your wardrobe too.
6. Personal development
Do you want to study something, when will you start it? Do you take up a hobby? This is your year!
7. Spirituality
Do you want to start practicing yoga, meditation, do a mindfulness course? Journaling?
8. Your character
This is an interesting one as it gets you thinking about what you are like as person, what you like about yourself and maybe what you would like to change. For example – do you want to swear less, are you too bitchy, judgemental, defensive. Do you want to focus on being a happier person? Do you need to be nicer to yourself?
9. Experiences
What do you want to do this year, where do you want to go? Not just holiday but also places you’ve meaning to visit. Put a time on it.
There we have it, did I cover everything? If you sit down for an hour and work through these categories it can really get you excited about the year ahead. It will give you focus and from this you will get action points. Just saying we are going to do something is easy but it very rarely happens. Writing it down makes us accountable and we can reflect on the list all the time.
I recommend looking at it once a month and changing or updates as life happens.
Print of off and stick it on your wall so you can see it every day.
I hope this helps you xx