Nothing is worse than setting goals and not accomplishing them. It’s a New Year and you have the power to change the way you set your goals. The key is being specific, organized, and intentional. As long as you believe in yourself, you can do anything you put your mind to. This year, love yourself enough to complete your goals.
Before you begin, don’t forget to read Ending The Year Strong article on reflecting over the last year and finding gratitude in all the little moments you experienced.
(Free) Tools You will Need
The two tools you need are the app Notion (Can be used on your web browser) and your phone calendar or Google Calendar. You want to have digital organizational tools so you can use them right from your phone or laptop. Many people suggest a journal but a physical item is easy to lose in on a bookshelf and then never look at again. Plus these are both free tools! You can sign up for Notion for free and create an account here. If you have any goals with other people, the Google Calendar would be great for that.
Notion will help you write down your goals in an organized way so you can easily access them. You’ll be able to include links, make deadlines, and even color code.
Don’t worry, there is a template at the bottom of this post!
The calendar will help you create deadlines for certain goals. Whether it’s monthly or quarterly, you can always add dates in your calendar to check in with yourself about your goals. You can also add in daily goals such as meditation or working out. Try using the link feature to link your favorite meditation or workout video. No more using tiredness as an excuse because you don’t know what to do that day to reach your goal!
Creating Your Goals:
You’ll divide your goals up into six sections being Career, Financial, Health/Wellness, Relationships, Hobbies/Fun, and Contribution as shown below. Feel free to add additional ones if needed. The goal here is to help you organize but by no means do you need to add goals to every section. Some years you focus on career growth and some years may be spent focusing on family. It’s totally up to you!
Examples of Sections and Goals:
Career
Career goals can be as simple as getting promoted to as specific as getting promoted to VP of Digital Production by June 30th and getting paid $84,000. Perhaps you want to go back to school, add education goals in this section. If you run a side business, create a section under the Career page for those specific goals. If you want to get more sales or achieve more views on your website, start by giving yourself a range. If you had 100,000 views last year and the year prior had 80,000 views, then consider increasing by 30% or 40%. So your goal for website views could be 130,000-140,000 views for the year. Set deadlines in your calendar to check in with yourself and your career goals quarterly or monthly.
Financial
Setting financial goals is where a lot of people may feel like they fail. The key is to set realistic goals while still reaching for the stars. If you’ve never saved more than $5,000 a year, don’t set your goal to save $50,000. However, if you want to manifest a huge amount of money into your life, I say go for it! I would word it like, “Make Over $100,000 and save at least $8,000.” You still have a set goal to reach but you also have a goal to try and hit that $100k. Additional financial goals may be starting a 401k, paying off debt, making a large purchase like a home or car, and investing in general. It can also be around education in this area. So many of us (women) are not taught how to be financially smart with our money and adding “Read one financial book this year” is a great way to start. Use your calendar to create deadlines for budgeting goals throughout the year.
Mind, Body, & Soul
Instead of a typical “health” section, this is Mind, Body, and Soul because it focuses on how all those things can’t be one without the other. You can add in any workout goals or weight loss goals in this section but it’s also for your mental health, spiritual growth, and daily habits like meditation or morning tea. If you do have physical health goals, add deadlines in your calendar for your goals.
Relationships
This section focuses on bettering your connection with the people in your life or perhaps the people not in your life yet! Whether you are in a relationship or not, you can add goals for romantic and platonic relationships. You can also focus on better communication with parents, siblings, and friends. Don’t forget about your relationship with yourself!
Hobbies & Fun
This is pretty self-explanatory. Add in all those fun goals you want to achieve. Traveling, reading, baking, sports, etc.
Contribution
Creating goals that also help your community is an amazing way to start your year. This quote sums it up, “From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.” – Arthur Ashe
“How I’ll Achieve My Goals” SECTION
If you want to actually achieve your goals, this part is the most important area of your Goal Guide. After writing down your goals, you need to sit down with yourself and ask yourself how you will truly accomplish them. What do you need to do to get them done? How can you help yourself? It could be setting out workout clothes the night before or setting up automatic savings for your financial goals. It could also be researching a topic like investing or hiking if that’s a goal you are striving for.
Next steps: Create A Digital Vision Board! Coming Soon!
SAVE OUR GOAL GUIDE TEMPLATE HERE
Press duplicate to save on your account. Use my examples as inspiration and then edit what you don’t need.