goal setting

{image source}

Lately I’ve been (re)thinking a lot about what my short and long term goals are. Looking back on old blog posts, I wrote a lot about goals from the perspective of a newly married twenty-something with a new career life, new house, no kids, and lots of personal time on my hands (to set goals, follow through, and document the progress!).

I’ve always loved sitting down and evaluating my life and what could make it better. Lately, however, it’s been difficult for me to see past the present moment or set goals beyond the next weekend, let alone next year or longer. And I think it’s completely ok that I took a break from making goals just for the sake of it. But in this new chapter, I feel like it’s time to reevaluate.

I have read books and blogs on goal making and the method that has always made the most sense to me for long-term goals is to choose a few for each facet of life. It just helps focus the mind and filter resources and energy toward the things that matter. Different people have different ideas of what those life facets are, but for me they would include:

1. Health
2. Personal Development
3. Marriage
4. Family
5. Social
6. Career
7. Finances
8. Fun
9. Spiritual

These are what I feel are the key areas of my life – for the long term. I have listed 1-3 goals for each area.. Some of these goals have an arbitrary deadline, some are within a year, and some are 5 years or more. I plan to reevaluate frequently, so a consistent timetable isn’t necessary (or productive) for me.

{Also worth mentioning is this list does not include the steps I plan to take to accomplish these goals; I will work on those later. This is simply a beginning list which I will further break down.}

Health
1. Achieve a healthy weight. Deadline for goal is September 2015 (yes I have a number in mind, but it’s meaningless to disclose it here).
2. Eliminate as many environmental (household and food) toxins as possible. Ongoing, but something I’d like to have made 80% progress on by the end of the year.
3. Sustain a yoga practice! Ongoing.

Personal Development
1. Challenge myself to try/learn new things continuously through research, travel, education, etc. Ongoing.
2. Define and write down my values; something to refer to for decision-making in the future. Goals are part of this; does ____ contribute to/align with my goals/values? Deadline for having something written down is June 1, 2015.

Marriage
1. Connect more; set aside monthly date nights. Begin this immediately.
2. I read something once that said having a good marriage is as much being the right person as finding the right person. Always try to “be the right person.” Ongoing.

Family
1. Grow our family. We plan to have two kids and will start to try for #2 later this year.
2. Create great family traditions and memories. Ongoing.

Social
1. Become more community involved. This is something I need to put more research and effort into because my time is limited and I want to use it wisely. I not only want to be involved but also make a difference and make real connections. Ongoing, but I want to make some type of step forward on this by the end of the year.
2. Spend more time nurturing friendships (and trimming some of the toxic relationships- set boundaries). Ongoing, but I’ve been working on this for the past year. I’ve put some distance where needed, and reached out when equally needed.

Career
1. Figure out my niche; what would make me happy and productive? This requires some real soul-searching! Ongoing, and this period away from working full time should allow me some time to think about it.

Finances
1. Pay off my car early. Deadline of February 2017.
2. Set a reasonable budget to stick to for the remainder of the year (then reevaluate). Deadline of April 30.
3. Look at retirement needs/goals vs savings so far. Deadline of August 2015. Reevaluate our retirement savings plan. Deadline December 2015

Fun
1. Go to Yellowstone & Jackson Hole. By the end of 2015.
2. Catch up on scrapbooking from previous years, using pocket page-style scrapbooks and/or traditional albums. Deadline of December 2016.

Spiritual*
1. Work to see things more positively (especially myself – I’m incredibly self-critical) and think of in terms of how I can change a situation rather than begrudge it. Ongoing.
2. Do what I can to encourage an atmosphere of positive vibes within my household. Ongoing.

*It took me a while to decide if I should include a section for spiritual goals, as I do not have religion. But because I do believe, however, in the importance of feeding the soul, this section is important to me and stays. Maybe it needs another name?

This list is not complete, nor completely edited. It will be a living document on my hard drive I will change at will. But this draft covers some important steps, in that it’s 1) written, 2) shared “publicly,” and 3) is helping me to begin creating milestones and steps for each goal. As I break these down further I’ll share some of my plans and progress.

I love hearing what other goals and plans people have, and their process/progress, so feel free to share in the comments any insight.

Advertisement