My 2015 Goals {+ how to make goals that work}
It’s that time of year when the world hits the restart button. Just like most of you I have taken a look at my life, set high hopes for the New Year and created some goals for the next twelve months to give myself focus and direction.
I have found however, that setting the goals isn’t enough.
The key to making goals that work is to create specific action steps then implement them daily and weekly.
Once you’ve decided how you want your life to look and you’ve dreamed some big dreams for yourself, it’s time to break those dreams and goals down into realistic, actionable steps and then schedule them on the calendar. I do this by creating action steps for each goal and then adding those steps to my weekly plan.
By breaking my bigger goals into small steps I’m able to work on them every day or at least once a week which means that I actually accomplish what I have decided to do.
Here’s a peek at my goals for this year to show you exactly what I mean:
My 2015 Goals
My Spirit
Goal: Maintain a close spiritual connection to God.
Actions:
- daily brain dump and prayer session
- tech-free mornings and tech-free day once a week
- read the Bible daily
- weekly retreat – walk and pray in local park
- weekly art journaling time
My Body
Goals: Lose 20 pounds; tone my arms; feel more energetic.
Actions:
- walk daily.
- drink 6-8 glasses of water daily.
- lift weights at least twice a week.
- eat protein for breakfast.
- stop eating by 7 pm.
- go to bed by 10 pm.
My Marriage
Goal: Enjoy a vibrant relationship with my husband.
Actions:
- weekly date night ($10 Date Night Ideas).
- kiss my husband passionately at least once a day.
- make a special meal or buy a favorite food for him once a week.
My Children
Goal: Maintain a close relationship with each of my children.
Actions:
- Monthly individual date with each child.
- Put down my electronics when someone is speaking to me.
- Daily chat time (take a walk or chat at bedtime).
- Weekly special family meal (breakfast or dinner).
My Money
Goals: Continue building emergency fund; pay off medical bills completely; save additional $3000 this year.
Actions:
- Fine tune our budget and review it weekly (free budget worksheet).
- Buy only needs for the month of January.
- Write financial goals on a large sheet of paper and post it to remind us of goals.
- Make money by selling items around our home (How to Sell Your Stuff).
- Reduce spending by $100 a month.
My Home
Goal: Enjoy a peaceful and comfortable home.
Actions:
- Daily 10 Minute Declutter starting with kitchen.
- Continue weekly cleaning schedule.
- Save $50 for new accessories for the living room.
My Business
Goals: Reduce expenses; increase income by 25% by the end of the year.
Actions:
- Change hosting company to reduce costs.
- Create three new products to sell.
- Research advertising alternatives to make more money.
If you’d like to make sure you reach your goals this year, check out the
Joyful Life Playbook and Planner.
Tap HERE to see what others are saying about this life-transforming tool!
What are YOUR goals for this year? Share them in the comments. 🙂
Woohoo! Sounds like you are set up for an awesome year Andrea!
I’ve realized I’m great at setting goals…just horrible at DOING them! lol Like you said about having things every week or day to get closer to the ultimate goal is important, it’s just taken me a long time to realize that!
It took me a while too Katy. 🙂
Oh I have several goals for 2015: spirit/ fitness (yoga 1x a week, gym 2x a week – we’re getting a super deal for less than 20€ per month) – job (get good at my new job, show enthusiasm) – relationships (more quality time with my boyfriend, tech-free Sunday, snail mail and quality time with my friends and family) – studies (no last minute learning but continual revising, take as many tests as possible, 10 min Swedish/ day), money (buy only needs, make a weekly meal plan, save an additional 150€ per month) – so much to do but I’m really excited for this year :))
I don’t tend to make goals or resolutions on the new year, but I admire how you have laid these out! I will tell you as someone who exercises quite a bit and has for years, that what I observe from people is when they say things like “I’m going to try to exercise/lift weights etc. x times a week”, they tend to fizzle out pretty quickly. What works for me and seems to work better when I’ve seen people stick with exercise is to say, “I’m going to go to Crossfit class M/T/Th/F at 5 a.m..” and make that your schedule, and don’t make a decision about whether or not you are going to do. If I decided at 8:30 pm Sunday night or 4:30 Monday morning whether or not I was going to go at 5 Monday morning, I’m pretty sure I would think oh, I’ll go tomorrow instead, and then do the same thing Monday evening and Tuesday morning. But since my schedule is Crossfit 5 a.m. M/T/Th/F, I just do that, and I don’t need to decide to do it again. The nice thing about 5 a.m. is that there isn’t anything else I’m going to be doing at that time, right? 🙂 This is what works for me, BTW, and I know that 5 a.m. or 4 times a week or even Crossfit doesn’t work for everyone. But what I do think really works for sticking with an exercise program is having a schedule rather than an idea of what you want to do. Just my two cents! Love your blog – I’ve been a reader for probably a couple of years now.
Thanks for the input Sheila. That is an excellent point. I have a built in schedule because we go on my husband’s days off but if I didn’t I would definitely have to schedule it into the calendar as I do all of my other goals. Thanks so much for being a reader! 🙂
THANK YOU for showing the process Kimberlee! It is easy to visualise how these will be scheduled into the calendar and tracked. ‘Step by steps’ are so helpful!
Yay! I’m so glad that this helped you Magda. Thanks for letting me know.