The New Year is almost upon us and like most new beginnings we are hopeful for what this new year will bring! Will we finally reach our fitness goals? Will we land that dream job? Will we buy our first home?
Although we may be very hopeful for the future, hope alone is not enough for us to accomplish our goals. It’s important to approach your aspirations with a plan and that is where goal setting comes in! So let’s get into some effective ways to set your goals for the new year so we can enter 2022 with intentionality!
Start By Creating Life Categories For Your Goals
Before you get started on setting the goals that you plan to crush in the new year, you need to asses the areas of your life that you want to create goals for. Which areas of your life do you want to see improvement or growth? Determining these categories ahead of time will make your goal setting easier and help keep you more organized.
Goal Categories To Consider
- Fitness
- Education
- Career
- Family
- Spirituality
- Financial
- Social
Five Guidelines To Follow For Effective Goal Setting
1) Make Sure Your Goals Are Your Own
This seems like a no brainer, right? But how often do we get swept up in what others have going on in their lives to the point that we think that we want that too. Do you really want to run a 2 day marathon this year or are you just amazed that someone on your Instagram timeline has completed three of those marathons with ease this past year?
Focus on what you genuinely want for yourself in this new year. Don’t go after goals just to impress or please others. Accomplishing something that you set out to do can become difficult at times and you have to make sure the effort that you are putting in is going toward things that you really care about.
2) Write (Type) Your Goals Out
There is power in writing out your goals! It’s amazing to look back on what you were striving for and to see how far you’ve come. Writing down your goals holds you accountable for your intentions and serves as a reminder that there is work to be done. So write down those goals and get to work!
3) Create Specific Goals
Goals are that are too general can become overwhelming. Our brain feeds off of specificities so let’s make those goals as specific as possible. The more specific, the easier it will be for you to visualize. Instead of setting a goal to get closer to God, make that goal more specific. Set a goal to spend 29 minutes with God each morning.
4) Make Your Goals Measurable
So once we have specific goals we have to move on to making those goals measurable. How else are we going to track our progress? When we create big goals for ourselves we need to break them down into more manageable chunks. For example if you’re planning to lose 20 pounds it’s easier to envision yourself losing 4 pounds a month for the next 5 months. Break those big goals down and get at them!
5) Give Your Goals A Time Limit
Finally, we need to give ourselves a time limit for our goals. Can timelines change? Of course! But we shouldn’t create goals with the idea that we have all the time in the world to complete them. If you’re anything like me then you too may have the urge to push things off. (I’m definitely the queen on the procrastinators). Giving yourself a time limit gives you more of a sense of urgency to complete the things that you set out to do.
So now that we have the framework for creating effective goals for this new year, let’s get to it! 2022 will be the year of accomplishments and I’m so excited to see what we all achieve!
Winging It 