Every new year, Tyler and I set goals for ourselves. It’s honestly one of our favorite things to do because we love measuring our progresses and growth, and celebrating our accomplishments along the way. I will be breaking down for you the way we set our goals and how we prevent ourselves from getting discouraged if our goals aren’t met. However, with this system, I must say, I have been able to cross everything off my list every year! Soooo, it’s damn near flawless in my eyes 🙂
We bought a little booklet from Home Goods and divide our goals into different lists on different pages. Now, the biggest thing is to be REALISTIC. Yes, shooting for the stars and the moon is great, but also, understand and know your true ability. How have you been with meeting goals in the past? If you’re not the best, start small. It’s way healthier to cross off and celebrate small victories. From then, once you get into a good habit of accomplishing those baby goals, make bigger ones. If you’re always falling short of goals year after year, you’ll more than likely never mentally push yourself to meet any goals ever in the long run.
Below is the system Tyler and I have created for ourselves that we see work best:
- ANNUAL GOALS – Because my job is a little more flexible and intricate than Tylers’, I have several annual goal lists – one page for ‘Work Goals’, one for ‘Travel Goals’, and one for ‘Big Expense/Purchase Goals’. These are simply things I want to cross off before year’s end, nothing too time-specific. Also, some can be more wishful thinking than a goal I really think I can attain, and if so, I put a star by it so that I know if it’s not crossed off by year’s end, it’s fine because it wasn’t that serious.
THE KEY with annual goals is to NOT look at them until the end of the year. This applies only for your annual goals. It just makes it so much more fun because a lot of the time, Tyler and I forget what we wrote and we surprise ourselves with what we accomplish, sometimes without realizing or remembering that we even made that a goal. Also, so much personal growth is done in a year’s span that it’s neat to analyze where our mindset was at the beginning of the year when making the goals versus where it is at the end (if the goal ended up being something important to us or if it was just something made on a whim) - QUARTERLY GOALS – These are more short-term tasks to complete within a 3-month time frame. I don’t like to use the word ‘resolution’ as I feel like no one really keeps resolutions anymore. To me, that word just doesn’t hold as much seriousness as task or goal. Therefore, if I make something a goal or task to complete, I am so much more likely to be motivated to cross it off because I see it as something that HAS to be done!
So I have one page for each quarter:
– 1st Quarter (Jan-Mar)
– 2nd Quarter (Apr-Jun), and so forth.
I ONLY fill out the 1st Quarter list at the start of the year. I may place one or two items in my 2nd Quarter list but I don’t like filling anything out on any other quarter’s list until the previous quarter has finished. This is for many reasons but mainly because you always want to start fresh each quarter and because so much can change within a few months time/a lot of ‘life can happen’ that you don’t want to overwhelm or discourage yourself if something doesn’t get complete. Now, if anything doesn’t get completed in one quarter, I just write it in the next and almost always, I will get it done in the next quarter because, at least for me, I hate seeing things not crossed off and it gives me the motivation to get it done. Crossing things off is just one of the most satisfying feelings and pleasures in life for me lol.
So I definitely hope this helps! I feel like just making ONE super long uncategorized/unorganized list of annual goals sets you up for failure. Or maybe not failure, but you can’t compartmentalize your goals and therefore they can be forgotten. By making short term goals for yourself, you are so much more likely to been your way to crossing off the big ones!