Create Goals and Make Them Happen This Year

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The beginning of the year is the perfect time to create goals. It will help you be more aware of what your intentions are for the new year and not allow another year to go by without getting closer or achieving your goal. You will thank yourself that you started getting closer to your goal. This post talks about the benefits of creating goals, what goals to make, how many goals you should have in one year, and what your 'why' is for making the goal. And a brief understanding of what SMART goals are and why you should use them. Read on to learn more.

Jump to:

Create Goals Benefits
What Goals Should I Make?
Know your why when setting a goal
How long should a goal take?
How many goals should I make in one year?
SMART Goals and Why you need to make them
Conclusion

Create Goals Benefits

The goal setting process doesn't have to be only for top athletes and successful people; it can be created by anyone with a direction in mind, a finish line they want to cross in a particular length of time.

The first step is to figure out why you should create goals. There are many benefits to creating goals.

Empowering yourself - Achieving even a small portion of your goal will give you motivation to move on and achieve more.
Open to learning - Learning something new makes you a well-rounded person.
Compassionate - When you feel humble about your achievement, you feel more compassionate toward others and want to help them achieve their goals.
More Focused - Goals give you direction and keep you focused.
Motivated - You feel more motivated to get closer to your goals.

What Goals Should I Make?

Creating goals can range from the smallest to the largest in scale. It doesn't have to be easy or hard. It just needs to be manageable and attainable, depending on your situation and where you want to be. To help you find the right goal for you, I created a list of goals below.

Healthy Eating Goals:

Make healthy dinners (Affiliate Link) during the weeknights.
Eating four different types of vegetables per day.
Eat one fruit per day.
Lose two pounds per week for three months, weighing myself every week in the morning.
Walk every day for 2.5 miles at a brisk pace (____ miles per hour).

Household Chores Goals:

Do laundry once a week and put clothes away the same day.
Create a daily cleaning chores list (Affiliate Link) for me and use it each day to maintain the home.
Make the morning or evening routine (Affiliate Link) less stressful. Create a list of tasks to do on a daily basis (AM and PM) to help stay focused on tasks to get done.

Professional Goals and Productivity Goals:

Create systems (lists) to help remember what needs to be done in each season.
Write a 1,500 blog post and publish once a month.
Track my time each day for a week to see where my wasted activities are during the day.
Start using the Pomodoro technique, a productivity app, and a task list to help me stay on track at work.

Money Management Goals:

Bringing all the investments and debt in one place so I can see the big picture.
Set up autopay and/or bill pay to easily do bills.
Save 10% of my paycheck and place it in a fund to save for a home in ____ months.

Family Time Goals:

Watch less television and streaming shows on ________ platform.
Read a book or listen to a book and finish it once a month to read 12 books a year.
Have a family game night on the first Friday of every month.

Self-Development Goals:

Write in a gratitude journal (Affiliate Link) each night.
Mediate each morning for 15 minutes.
Spend time once a week in live social settings instead of streaming on social media.
Learn a new language by taking weekly ________ classes at the local community college for _____ months.

School goals:

I am going to study daily for _____ subject.
Rewrite notes after each class for better clarity and understanding of the topics.
Plan my day using a time management planner, including study hours.

Spirituality goals:

Do my spiritual practice each morning and write in my journal (Affiliate Link) to track it for one year.

Which goal are you ready to start? Pick a goal or make your own.

Know your why when setting a goal

When you figure out your goal, it's time to get deeper and know the why behind the goal. Knowing your why for making a particular goal will help you see the bigger meaning behind the goal - the reason for this goal.

Now, to improve the goal, ask yourself these questions.

How can I improve this goal so it helps me simplify and reduce unnecessary wasted time, energy, etc...?
Are the tasks in this goal going to help me in my next phase of life?
Is this goal going to open me up to new possibilities in the future?
If I achieve this goal, will this new achievement help me have a better quality of life?

How long should a goal take?

Each goal can range from one month or shorter to over 30+ years. It's up to you to determine how long you are willing to take with your goal. Keep in mind when you create the deadline for your goal, you don't want it to frustrate you or overwhelm you. However, you do want it to motivate you to get the goal done. A little anxiety works, but too much will stop you in your tracks.

How many goals should I make in one year?

The number of goals is up to you and what you can handle. If you are new to the process of setting goals, only set three specific goals for the year. By doing only three, you will be able to focus on them entirely with little distractions.

If you are an avid goal-setter, you can set as many goals as you feel necessary for your situation. You can have at least one goal per category above. You may achieve some of the goals and others not so much, and that's OK. The goal is always to improve oneself and never to beat oneself up.

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SMART Goals and Why you need to make them

When you decide on making a goal, use the acronym S.M.A.R.T. Below is a breakdown of what SMART Goals are to make them achievable.

S - Specific - you need to provide a specific goal. Be as specific as possible. This allows you to see the result in your mind's eye before you achieve the goal.

M - Measurable - A measurable goal is one that allows you to track your progress. You will need to make smaller goals that are included in the larger goal so that you can measure your progress.

A - Attainable - The attainable goals need to be one that you can reach, depending on your situation and your timeframe. The best goal is to be just out of reach.

R - Relevant - It should be a goal that you can relate to and have a purpose for making it.

T - Timely - It needs to be practical, and deadlines need to be established.

While all of these steps are required to make an effective, achievable goal, you need to also keep in mind the following:

The goal needs to be something you can attach to some other already established activities/habits you do to help engrain the new goal into your activities.
It should be something that you are passionate about or at least have some drive to achieve.

A goal should never be made for someone else's benefit. You must make it for you to achieve the outcome you want.

Conclusion

As you decide on your short-term objectives or long-term goal, running it by someone you know will help you solidify the next steps and help you create the action plan. You will achieve better results by doing this. Good luck on your first goal this year.

Below are some authors that may help you further in your personal goals and next step. Amazon (Affiliate Links)

Brian Tracy - Goals! How to Get Everything You Want -- Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible.

Michael Hyatt - Your Best Year Ever: A 5-Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals Kindle Edition

Tara McMullin - What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal Setting 1st Edition

How can I help you? Do you need help setting your goals, or just need help staying on track? Check out my accountability virtual consultation services. Reach out, and we can talk about your particular situation.