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January 1, 2021

Goal Setting

Over the years, goal setting has become the one habit that has brought the most deliberate success. One of these days we will dive a bit deeper into why goal setting did not originally come natural to me and how I have cultivated my mind to want to sit down and organize my life in this way.

Yesterday’s post was potentially more fun for most. I can assure you I would much rather dream big, and find pictures that represent the aesthetic I’m going for rather than sit down and write out specifically what I am going to do to get where I want to go. As much as the writing out part is not as fun for me, it does produce massive results through specific focus and solidifying the potential steps.

I have also found that writing my goals and plans allows me to truly reflect on what I actually want. The process of writing out the words allows me to put the intangible into a tangible form where I can fully express truly what it is I am wanting and why.

Let’s get started:

Fortunately we live in a time where information is so accessible and goal setting doesn’t have to be a re-creation of the wheel each time, HOWEVER, and that is a big however, I do believe finding ones own techniques to get to your goals is most important. What works for me, or anyone else, might not necessary work for you.

If you are new to this, please use this as a guide but always remember to put your own spin on things, test different ways out and determine what works BEST for you. When it comes to goal setting, something I found is that the harder I had to ‘effort’ to make something happen, the more likely it just wasn’t for me. The things that were for me came with hard work, small attitude adjustments and once in awhile a pep talk but I wouldn’t feel like I was uphill the entire way.

This post will go through a goal setting strategy using the focus areas from my vision board creation. Enjoy!

Be present.

Whether it be my daily journaling, monthly reflections or yearly goal setting, my first step is to fully be present. Meaning, set aside any distractions. Give yourself an ample amount of time to complete this exercise.

Typically, I will make some coffee or tea, put some soothing music on and do even 5 minutes of meditation before I begin.

Theme & Focus Areas.

Theme

It is helpful to have already selected a theme for your year, this should be something somewhat broad, potentially just a word that means something to you. I talked a bit about this in my vision board post and gave some ideas, check it out here. My theme for 2021 is: CREATE.

My word of the year came easily to me this season because I knew I was ready to step into a season of decreasing my consumption of media and increasing my output. Being a creator has been something long overdue for me and I knew by using this word to theme my year it would be a daily reminder of my purpose in life.

In years past my word of the year has not come as easily. Last year it was ‘Celebrate’ and well… we all know how that went (insert laugh track here).

The important part when selecting your theme is that when you read the word or see it, it speaks to you and has meaning to you.

Focus Areas

If you have created focus areas during your vision board session, or have particular categories of goals in mind, start by writing those down, almost as an outline.

As an example my focus areas for 2021 are:

Mindfulness
Fitness, Nutrition & Self Care
Hustle & Create
Enjoy Hobbies: new & old

Sometimes I create my focus areas AFTER I write down all my goals, but always after I brainstorm. It can be more straight forward to have some goals in mind and then simply categorize them versus starting off with your focus areas already known.

Something to keep in mind, especially for those doing this for the first time – try to keep things in smaller lists, dream big but organize into manageable bites. For this reason, I have decided this year to have only 4 focus areas.

In previous years I was not organizing my goals in this manner and often would feel scattered or overwhelmed. This way, each day when working toward my goals I can do even 15 minutes of an activity and feel accomplished!

Goals.

It’s time to set your goals. At this point, you have given yourself the space to DREAM BIG, organize your thoughts and get clear on how you want the year to feel, as well as categorize into your top focus areas. Now is the time to be realistic and most importantly, EXCITED. Once this step is complete you will be well on your way!

Using your previous brainstorm and theme for the year. List up to 3 goals per focus area. It will be important that each goal has 3 parts:

Name
Specific Description
Date Expected to Accomplish

Let’s get real.

Whenever I have embarked on any type of personal development or goal setting, the most encouraging examples are personal and from the heart. To keep things real, here are my goals, by focus area for 2021; I have decided to timebox my goals into month, so these are specific to January 2021. I will provide updates on progress 🙂

1. Mindfulness

Daily Meditation Practice
Daily journal, prayer and bible study before the day begins
Read at least 15 minutes per day

2. Healthy Body

Yoga 2x per week for an hour each
Strength & Cardio 3x per week
Hiking 2x per month

3. Career & Hustle

Create realistic individual development plan using tool at work & update system
Create blogging schedule & expand audience x 3

4. Hobbies (New & old)

Improve upon photography by taking class
Try one new thing with a friend and document experience

I tend to be rather intense when I set goals, so one of the things I’d like to keep in mind as I go about January, is to make sure I am enjoying the process and not just making a tick mark at the end of each day!

Okay! Now it is your turn!

If you are up for it, comment below your top goals or just one you are most excited about!

Inspiration & Purpose

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Happy May!