Five in Fourteen

At the beginning of this year, I did what I always do and set a list of yearly resolutions. Goal-setting is my jam and I especially love resolutions. I know a lot of people scoff at setting resolutions, and few people take them seriously, but I do. I love them and I try my best to succeed at them. Last year, I had a wildly unsuccessful year with only a handful of goals completed. I chalked it up to a bad year (well, a good year, but a bad year resolutions-achievement-wise) and made a new list of goals to achieve in the coming year. I set 15 goals, all fairly easy to achieve and manageable. But the more I thought about my goals, the more I realized I needed to change the way I set my yearly goals. I want to scale back on my resolutions and set just five goals that hold deep meaning for me. Every year, I want to set a health goal, a money goal, a reading goal, and two “one-off” goals, meaning something I just need to do once. While the first three goals would be carried out throughout the year, the last two goals would simply be something fun I’ve wanted to do. (This could range from taking a vacation to skydiving. Whatever floats my boat.)

With that in mind, I sat down and thought about what I want to accomplish this year. I wanted my goals to push me to new levels, but also be achievable for me. Goals I would be proud of. Goals that could be life-changing and also make me feel really good about myself. I don’t want to feel stressed when I look at my yearly goals, I want to feel happy and excited. So, behold, my revamped goals for 2014:

1. HEALTH: I want to be at a healthy BMI and lose at least 40 lbs.

2. MONEY: I want to pay off my credit cards, start an emergency fund (have $1,500 saved), and pay off one school loan.

3. READING: I want to read 75 books, including 10 off this list.

4. ADVENTURE: I want to travel to Miami to attend a Miami Dolphins home game.

5. FUN: I want to get a tattoo.

And that’s it! Just five goals to accomplish over the course of this year and all goals I am really confident I can achieve and will also push me past my comfort zone a bit. The first two goals will require an intense change in my life as I know it now: learning to live a healthy lifestyle on a daily basis and learning how to budget effectively and save money. But they are also two goals I desperately want to achieve and goals I know I can cross off my list. I just need to continue to live my theme for this year and be committed to the process.

My reading goal isn’t anything to get excited about. I decided not to strive to read 100 books this year because I felt a little crazed from all the reading last year and it made me put aside other hobbies. This year, I’m just aiming to finish 6-7 books per month. Nothing crazy! (At least for me. I realize that sounds crazy to other people. Extreme bookworm over here.)

And lastly, I have two fun and adventure goals: to see my very first Miami Dolphins game sometime this fall (fun fact about me: I am the biggest Dolphins fan and have been since I was 8 years old) and to finally get that tattoo I’ve been talking about. I’m thinking of getting the tattoo when I lose 30 lbs, so it’s something to work towards and will be a fun way to celebrate almost meeting my biggest goal for the year. We’ll see! (As of right now, I’m contemplating this tattoo on my wrist, though it would be the word grace and not joy, or this one on my foot.)

I like my new list. It doesn’t stress me out – it excites me. And I can’t wait to show you all my fabulous (because it will be fabulous!) progress throughout the next ten months.

(And I promise this will be the last post about goal-setting of any sort, other than setting monthly goals. Whew. Can you tell I’ve been going through something this month with my goals?! I’m going to try to get it together somehow.)