Goal-setting is something that is always on my mind. I love to think about ways I can better myself and improve my life. That’s not to say I’m unhappy with who I am or where I am right now in my life. In fact, I am extremely happy with my life. I like who I am, I like where I’m headed, and it has taken a lot of work for me to get here. My life at 27 doesn’t look anything like I thought it would, but that’s okay. It’s my life. It’s my journey. And I’m really, really enjoying the process of discovering who I am, what I want, and what makes me abundantly happy.
But goal-setting. Back to the heart of this post. I love setting goals. I love big goals and small goals, scary goals and silly goals. But I want my goal-setting to be intentional. For the longest time, I’ve been setting very arbitrary goals. I haven’t really thought about why I’m setting the goals… they’re just based on a feeling. Or this idea that this is a goal I should be setting.
I’m so tired of the “should have’s.” I want to revoke that phrase from my vocabulary. There is no “should have,” there is only “I want to’s.”
Kathleen is someone I greatly admire and I have loved seeing her goal-setting process this year. One thing I really like is how she set aside five areas of her personal life to make improvements. These aren’t big areas like spirituality or finances, but smaller, “nonessential” (as she calls them) areas that tend to take a backseat to the bigger goals. I really like this idea. I like it so much that I decided to copy it and use it for myself.
So I had to come up with five areas of my life where I also wanted to see improvements throughout the year. I decided to make my areas a little more all-encompassing, though, because some of the personal areas I want to work on are big. Here’s what I decided on:
> finances (saving money, paying off debts, and spending my money more intentionally)
> health (losing weight, eating better, and working out on a consistent basis)
> nagging tasks (this one is stolen from Kathleen’s list – one task per month that I continually put off but will make me feel soooo much better once I finally get it done!)
> exploration (tackling items off my Tampa Bay to-do list, travel, putting myself out there)
> personal habits (adding one new habit to my life a month to improve my happiness, enhance my health, and/or get me on the path I want to be on)
Now, each month I will identify one goal that I want to tackle to address each area of personal growth. So, without further ado, here are my goals for February:
> finances: start using a cash budget system for groceries and extra expenses
> nagging task: clean out and declutter the screened-in patio
> health: start using a food journal to track what I’m eating and how I’m feeling
> exploration: visit the zoo
> personal habit: turning off the computer and TV by 8:00 p.m.
Do you have any goals for February?
I like how specific these are – I feel like that makes them more attainable! I think right now all my goals are baby related, and the biggest one is just to keep putting one foot in front of the other, because I never thought pregnancy would be this challenging!
I’d love to start turning off screens at a certain time each night. Sometimes I tell myself I’ll turn off the laptop by 10…but then just shift to the iPhone. I definitely want to work on that.
Love the photos that you include with your posts this year! so pretty and calming.
My plan is to continue to stick to my intentions… working out, journaling, no TV 2x a week. I’m doing well so far and I really just want to stick with those as they create better habits for me overall. Although, I am trying to be better about saying NO to things because I’ve been a tad overstretched lately and it’s really starting to wear on me.
You are too sweet! And for the record, I always love seeing how you do your goals as well. 🙂
I do like this system so far because it helps me identify more specific things I want to accomplish! And at some point I might go back to having more “serious” categories like health, spirituality, finances, etc. I especially like your “personal habits” category!
Those are great goals! A cash budget system has worked wonders for us over the years. I don’t really have any goals for February other than to keep being healthy with my eating and keep being really frugal to save for our Maui trip. I also need to get my butt in gear with reading, I was making great strides in January but haven’t been reading as much in February.
These are great goals – challenging yet manageable. I wanted to start setting weekly goals this year instead of monthly but one month into the year and I am not really liking the weekly thing. I’ll probably go back to monthly goals in March since we are already one week into the shortest month of the year. Ha. I don’t use a cash system. It’s never worked for me. I use my credit card for everything but I am super diligent about paying it each week, and I wind up with about $500+ in rewards points by the end of the year. I love your 8pm deadline! Lately we’ve been going to the gym after work and just barely finish dinner by 8pm and are usually in bed by 9pm so it leaves very little time to unwind at night BUT I think this would be super helpful in my quest to cut back on social media use.
with the lunar new year coming up, february is my DO EVERYTHING month in terms of cleaning up. you’re supposed to get it done before the new year, so you start off fresh. :/ wish me luck!
Those are great goals! I have never tried the cash budgeting thing but I think it would really force me to think about what I am spending and whether I *really* need something!!
I don’t set monthly intentions but I had a goal to get through all of my organizational projects in January and February, and I’ve done 6 out of 7 so I am on track to achieve that!
These are all great goals. I really like the specificity of them. This way it brings the focus in, and you can really work hard on a few goals, rather than having more general goals and falling short.
I don’t really have any Feb goals, except that I would like my ankle to heal (I had a sprain a few weeks ago) and I would like to start eating more cleanly. I have really been upping the snack quotient lately, and it’s dragging me down!
This is a great way of setting goals! Love it.
I’ve been consistently keeping a food journal since the beginning of 2014, and it is actually incredibly useful. It helps me be mindful of what I am eating on a daily basis (I don’t count calories or measure, just jot things down), and if I am feeling off or run down I can go back and see if the way I am feeding myself has anything to do with it. More often than not I will find that I’ve been relying on processed or “junky” foods too much and get myself right back on track. Do recommend!
Ooh, I really like how you set monthly goals in different personal growth categories!
My goals for Feb are decluttering my apartment and not eating out. Doing ok so far!