Happy New Year, ladies! I hope you rang it in in the most fabulous way! Chris and I spent it together watching TV and I loved it. It was so nice to have that alone time after such a chaotic holiday season. Even though we finished gifting early, it still go crazy. Anyway, in today’s post I wanted to share my goals and resolutions (two different things) for the 2018. I also wanted to do something new this year and set a word to inspire me for the duration. So go ahead and keep reading for inspiration to set your own goals! And if you need more, check out last year’s post for setting resolutions that work here.
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WORD OF THE YEAR
So I’m doing something new this year and that’s setting a motto, a word, for the year. I want to print it out and put it above my desk so I can constantly be reminded of it. This year, my word is: challenge.
There were a few words I could think of, but challenge encompasses many different aspects of the year ahead. For one, I have a lot of goals to accomplish this year. That will be challenging. But also, this is the year for me to challenge myself. I always get stuck in the research phase and never fully commit to a project. I might start it, but fear prevents the follow through. So I also want to challenge myself to conquer my fear and do the things and projects that scare me as much as they inspire me. For one, I’m starting a YouTube channel. I’ve already filmed a few videos that will be up on my channel soon, but you can get on early and follow along here.
2018 GOALS
I’m not going to share ALL of my goals for the 2018, because I have quite a few, but I will take you through my thought-process so you can apply it yourself (to all your goal setting regardless of the time of year).
The first thing you might be thinking is, “Too many goals? Girl, you’re setting yourself up for failure.” True, if I had a ton of big goals, then having a lot would make life challenging. Luckily, I have only 10 big goals, and only 7 are a priority. But each goal is made up of a bunch of smaller goals and, most importantly, timelines. Yep, every single goal has a deadline (the end of the year) and a bunch more progress deadlines.
Remember those huge class projects you did that never seemed so miserable because your teacher only assigned like one section per week? That is the key to goal setting right there. For example, one of my big goals this year is going back to school. So to do that I need to take the GRE, decide which schools to apply to, reach out and visit those schools, start my dissertation, and complete the applications. Whew, that’s a lot. But all those steps are required to reach my big goal. So, now that I know all the steps required to accomplish my goal, I can put them in order and assign a deadline to them.
A few of my other goals broken down are:
- Write a book: write 2000 words per week
- Launch a new website: design website, make business plan, set content schedule, find contributors, write initial content
- Facelift Pinterest: delete old pins, research proper pin format, update old posts, pin all blog content, join group boards, evaluate and pivot to constantly keep a good strategy in place
See what I mean? Some goals get broken down into a single habit, others require a more or less designed path, but every goal is measurable and actionable. And that, my friends, is the key to setting lots of goals and kicking their ass.
2018 RESOLUTIONS
I see goals as a little different than resolutions these days. I think they both play hand-in-hand, but goals come with a more measurable completion date. My resolutions are goals that I have that have no set date. They are things about myself that I want to continue working towards throughout the year, and years after that as well. In order to not become overwhelmed by all the personal changes I want to make, however, I’m setting only a couple resolutions to work on this year.
I have three resolutions this year:
- To fall asleep without my phone
- To take the time to meditate and reflect on a regular basis
- To make the gym a regular habit
All of these are things I could easily do well for a week, or a month, but what makes them challenging is that they’re intended to be kept up indefinitely (unlike studying for the GRE which ends once the test is completed). So these are habits that I want to take the time to work on. Perhaps by setting goals to help make them habits. for example, I’ll try going to bed without my phone once a week, then bump it to two, etc., on nights when I can afford to have a more difficult time sleeping.
All resolutions and all goals require some kind of plan to accomplish them. The important distinction to make when planning and setting resolutions is to think about the end date – is there one? This will affect how you plan and how you make those goals actionable and, thus, accomplish-able for you.
What are your goals and resolutions for 2018?
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