Have you set your goals for 2020 yet??
I don’t know about you, but I have a feeling 2020 is going to be AMAZING.
We can make the best of our time and the most of our opportunities. Setting goals, planning them out, and tracking them is one of the best ways to guarantee progress and success!
Take advantage of the inspiration you feel around the New Year and set some big goals!!
A dose of motivation
I want to start this goal setting strategy with a bit of motivation for you.
You are at a point in your life where you have the MOST experience, knowledge, and accomplishments. Despite what you may think, you have so much to be proud of.
This moment is also your biggest opportunity to start designing the life you truly desire. Whoever you want to be and whatever you want to achieve is possible.
You can start that journey RIGHT now. You can start taking little steps to reach each of your goals.
Take advantage of your life. Stop letting the time go to waste and start taking advantage of everything around you.
Whatever has happened in the past, forget it. Learn from it and move on. Get EXCITED about your present and future. If you think New Year goals are bogus, I want you to put whatever you believe or have experienced to the side.
As cliche as it sounds, allow this new year and DECADE to be a fresh start. You can make it the best year ever if you actually create it to be.
This means setting big, meaningful goals, planning them out, taking massive action, and tracking your progress.
Your thoughts and mindset
You can set all the goals in the world, but if your mindset isn’t right you won’t reach any of them.
2019 may have been a rough year for you. Maybe 2018 was too.
You set goals in the past and worked toward them for a few weeks. By March you fell off and never looked back.
Despite what has happened this year or any others, this is a new one.
If you think setting goals is a waste of time and not worth your energy, that’s exactly what they’ll be.
If you believe you can never achieve your goals, you never will.
Your mindset is POWERFUL. Take the time to do some thought work and make sure you’re not sabotaging your own success before you even begin. Do some brain dumps, journal your feelings, write down your limiting beliefs, get everything out of your head.
Then invite positive energy and thoughts in instead and focus on those.
Before you set and plan your goals, I don’t want you to even think of the phrases, “I can’t,” “too big,” “too hard,” etc.
You know yourself better than anyone else, what do you TRULY want the most this year?
Enter a peak state
When setting your goals, I highly suggest entering a peak state first.
Have you ever had a moment of overwhelming motivation or excitement to do something? That is a peak state.
If you set your goals while you feel sad, tired, or negative, you’re starting them off on the wrong side.
So how do you enter a peak state?
1. Your why
Think about your why. Why do you want to make a change in the first place? Think about who you want to be and what you want to do.
2. Visualize
Imagine yourself achieving your goals. How excited would you feel?
3. Get hype
Listen to music or motivational speeches that energize you. Dance around, put your hands in the air, get excited!
In simple terms, you want to raise your vibrations as high as possible. Your goals should flow right out of you without hesitation.
Do a year/life audit
Next, you’ll want to reflect on the past year or so by doing a life audit.
I have a whole post explaining how to do this.
A life audit is super important so you can determine if/where you need to make changes.
You may have set a goal last year to lose 20 pounds, but you still weigh the same. This is not an invitation for you to beat yourself up, this is just an exercise to figure out if you actually want to achieve that goal and how to do it better.
By the end of this exercise, you should be able to see where you did things right and where you did things wrong. Then you can go into the new year and crush your goals.
Goal Setting
Finally, we’re ready for the actual goal setting!
I prefer to set goals by the areas of life. You’re probably used to seeing about 8 different areas, but I like to add/change a couple in order to be more detailed.
Areas of Life:
-Finances
This is pretty straight forward, but this would include your debt, income, savings, money mindset, etc.
-Health/Fitness
Your physical, mental, and emotional health. What you’re eating and your physical activity.
-Career
Your full-time job or business. You could break this down into two separate areas if you have a full-time job AND online business like I do.
-Relationship (with significant other and/or yourself)
Your romantic relationship, dating life, the relationship with yourself.
-Family/friends
Relationships with your family and/or friends.
-Recreation/fun
Leisure activity, going out, travel.
-Environment
This includes your physical space. The cleanliness of your home, office, car, etc. The energy a space gives off.
-Personal Development
Personal development can include so many things such as reading books, getting coaching, going to therapy, journaling, thought work, etc.
-Spirituality
Your spirituality/religion would include meditation/prayer, visualization, various practices.
-Contribution
Contribution to your community or the world through volunteering your time, your energy, or donating money.
This looks like a lot because it is! You may be thinking, “There’s no way I can achieve goals in each area,” but you absolutely can. HOWEVER, this is your journey and you get to decide which areas you want to prioritize.
You could either set one major goal in each area or choose a few areas and have multiple goals in each of those.
Just keep in mind that you won’t be able to create balance in ALL areas of life. You have different seasons of life and each season comes with different priorities. That is up to you to decide.
For example, if you’re working on increasing your income by working more or starting a side hustle, you’ll probably sacrifice fun/recreation.
The most important thing here is that your goals need to be for YOU. Don’t set goals just because you see other people setting them. They should mean something to you.
Write your goals down
Writing your goals down is way more effective than just thinking them. I suggest writing them down regularly, whether that be every day, week, or month.
Place your goals in front of you, somewhere that you will see them and be reminded of them daily.
Personally, I have a weekly meeting with myself. This year I’ll be hanging those goals up on my bathroom mirror each week.
I also will have a vision board for the year and other things hanging around my apartment to keep me focused.
I suggest writing your goals down regularly though. Writing them down the first time will help you clarify what you want to achieve, but regularly writing them down will keep that focus in front of you.
Sometimes it can be easy to forget the goals we may have written which is why constantly keeping them in your focus will help you achieve them.
Break your goals down and plan them out
Now for the really fun part, you get to break your goals down!
You probably have set some pretty large/broad goals. This includes things like lose 30 pounds, make $10,000 in extra income, find a new job, graduate from school, etc.
These are great goals, but without a plan in place you may not achieve them.
Start by breaking your goal down.
If you want to lose 30 pounds by the end of the year you would just need to lose 2.5 pounds every month or 7.5 pounds every quarter.
If you want to make $10,000 in extra income you would need to make $833 each month or $2,500 each quarter.
When it comes to goals that aren’t as specific and direct (finding a new job or graduating from school) you can break these down into steps that will increase your chances.
In order to find a new job I need to:
-gain experience/skills
-improve my resume
-develop relationships so I have references
-apply to # jobs each week
Once you break your goals down, it becomes easier and more apparent what you need to do.
What are you going to do to lose 2.5 pounds this month?
How can you make $833 extra this month?
Without a plan you’ll find it difficult to achieve your goals because they’re easy to set in your head or write down, but that doesn’t create results.
As you go into 2020, you’re thinking about what you want to accomplish for the year.
However, I prefer to set quarterly goals as well, which I then can break down regularly into monthly and weekly goals.
Keep track and evaluate regularly
Find a way to keep track of your goals.
This can be calendar/habit trackers, weekly or monthly meetings with yourself, a journal, spreadsheets, charts, etc.
By tracking your progress, you’ll stay motivated and focused.
Many people fall off from working toward their goals because they don’t give them enough attention. Simply writing them down isn’t enough.
By keeping track and then evaluating those results, you can determine what you need to change, what’s working, how to improve, etc.
Recognizing that you’ve made progress in an area should keep the momentum going.
Make your goals a priority and dedicate the necessary time and energy to them.
Don’t let another year pass where you don’t take action.
Make this your best year ever!