Since moving back to the States 5 years ago, I've tried to start each new year with a fairly extensive list of goals for each year.
The list is headlined by an overarching vision or theme for the year and is then expanded in various categories which include the following:
Spiritual
Work
Medical Health
Food/Exercise
Finances
Relationships
Hobbies/Skills
Writing
Learn Something New (part of a special goal to learn a new skill each year)
Social
Home Improvement
Ok, I know this looks like a lot of categories, and IT IS! The full list of goals takes up two typed pages. However, some of the goals are reminders, some include detailed information to make the goal as specific as possible, some linger on the list from year to year in hopes that this will be the year that goal gets met, and some aren't necessarily meant to be met in a hurry, but it's a good place to keep track of even longer-term goals that I have.
Once I have the list, I format it to fit in two columns situated landscape-wise on a printed document - like pages from a book. And then that page gets trimmed along the edges to be easily inserted into my goal journal. This is a specific journal I have that I try to look at every few weeks just to see how things are going. Have I made any progress? What steps have I taken? How do I feel about any progress or lack thereof? The journal is a great way to make these goals interactive throughout the year. The first page of each year's journal section also includes a list of overarching prayers for the year.
The exercise of working on defining the goals each year is a really great way for me to bring into focus ideas that might be floating around. It was through this practice that the Year of No New Clothes developed (which maybe isn't building a strong case for those who might be considering a goal-setting habit).
It's also amazing every year to look at the lists, both of goals and prayers, and to see that someone got met without any further conscious effort on my part. That's always awesome!!
Of course, the opposite is also true. When I went to work on this year's list, I opened the document from 2014 (Ok, and I did a total crap job with this in 2014, and it's something I felt as a loss throughout the year, kind of like I was rudderless). Anyway, I opened last year's goals to see what I had written, and at the beginning of last year I was starting a new position at work that I was nervous about and wanted to do well, and my work goals reflect that - they were so sincere and earnest and just desiring to be really good at my job. And while there's good in that, I have to admit that a year into the job those goals just made me let out a snort of derisive laughter. All this end of the year reflecting has made me realize that my job was incredibly stressful last year and that work kind of consumed all of my energy so that there wasn't much left over to work on other goals. And that's fine - for a year. Not forever. Taking a year to learn a new job in a year where there's a crazy amount of transition going on around that job - that's just what 2014 took.
However, that's not an ongoing theme I want to develop. So my work goals for 2015 are VERY different. They're more along the lines of set up good ongoing practices, focus well, and look for ways to minimize workload. Basically, work on the things I can control to make it less stressful.
Here's a little behind the scenes look at some of the categories -
My Learn Something New this year is going to be hiking GA. My goal is one hike/month or 12 hikes this year, because let's be honest, there might not be a whole lot of hiking going on in a cold, wet January.
I started setting Social goals when I lived in China because I worked from my apartment. If there was a day where I wasn't teaching, then I could spend all day inside lesson planning and grading. So I started setting goals for a minimum amount of human contact each day. It was really helpful, and so I tweaked it a bit when I moved to a new city and was challenging myself to get out of my comfort zone and get to know new people. That's one that I don't really have to consciously think about anymore, but it's still helpful to check in with that one now and then - have I fallen into a rut? Am I spending more time with books than people? Being an introvert I find social goals very helpful!
Home Improvement - yeah, while I hate actually doing stuff like painting and decorating, I enjoy the results. So this had to be a category so that I would make some forward progress (no lie - paint samples on my wall for a year before I actually painted).
And finally, this year one of my big goals is to focus on writing. I really want to spend time developing this skill and in order to challenge myself I'm going to be launching a series of posts that I've been thinking about for awhile. This year my goal is to write about 50 Things Every Single Women Should Do (or Should Know). So that's roughly one post a week. Or more likely in my case - regular posting for the first 6 weeks, and then 44 posts in a 2-week period of December.
More to come soon!
The list is headlined by an overarching vision or theme for the year and is then expanded in various categories which include the following:
Spiritual
Work
Medical Health
Food/Exercise
Finances
Relationships
Hobbies/Skills
Writing
Learn Something New (part of a special goal to learn a new skill each year)
Social
Home Improvement
Ok, I know this looks like a lot of categories, and IT IS! The full list of goals takes up two typed pages. However, some of the goals are reminders, some include detailed information to make the goal as specific as possible, some linger on the list from year to year in hopes that this will be the year that goal gets met, and some aren't necessarily meant to be met in a hurry, but it's a good place to keep track of even longer-term goals that I have.
Once I have the list, I format it to fit in two columns situated landscape-wise on a printed document - like pages from a book. And then that page gets trimmed along the edges to be easily inserted into my goal journal. This is a specific journal I have that I try to look at every few weeks just to see how things are going. Have I made any progress? What steps have I taken? How do I feel about any progress or lack thereof? The journal is a great way to make these goals interactive throughout the year. The first page of each year's journal section also includes a list of overarching prayers for the year.
 |
| And look! You can see one of the home improvement goals in the background - clear up piles of papers that form on all stationary items. |
The exercise of working on defining the goals each year is a really great way for me to bring into focus ideas that might be floating around. It was through this practice that the Year of No New Clothes developed (which maybe isn't building a strong case for those who might be considering a goal-setting habit).
It's also amazing every year to look at the lists, both of goals and prayers, and to see that someone got met without any further conscious effort on my part. That's always awesome!!
Of course, the opposite is also true. When I went to work on this year's list, I opened the document from 2014 (Ok, and I did a total crap job with this in 2014, and it's something I felt as a loss throughout the year, kind of like I was rudderless). Anyway, I opened last year's goals to see what I had written, and at the beginning of last year I was starting a new position at work that I was nervous about and wanted to do well, and my work goals reflect that - they were so sincere and earnest and just desiring to be really good at my job. And while there's good in that, I have to admit that a year into the job those goals just made me let out a snort of derisive laughter. All this end of the year reflecting has made me realize that my job was incredibly stressful last year and that work kind of consumed all of my energy so that there wasn't much left over to work on other goals. And that's fine - for a year. Not forever. Taking a year to learn a new job in a year where there's a crazy amount of transition going on around that job - that's just what 2014 took.
However, that's not an ongoing theme I want to develop. So my work goals for 2015 are VERY different. They're more along the lines of set up good ongoing practices, focus well, and look for ways to minimize workload. Basically, work on the things I can control to make it less stressful.
Here's a little behind the scenes look at some of the categories -
My Learn Something New this year is going to be hiking GA. My goal is one hike/month or 12 hikes this year, because let's be honest, there might not be a whole lot of hiking going on in a cold, wet January.
I started setting Social goals when I lived in China because I worked from my apartment. If there was a day where I wasn't teaching, then I could spend all day inside lesson planning and grading. So I started setting goals for a minimum amount of human contact each day. It was really helpful, and so I tweaked it a bit when I moved to a new city and was challenging myself to get out of my comfort zone and get to know new people. That's one that I don't really have to consciously think about anymore, but it's still helpful to check in with that one now and then - have I fallen into a rut? Am I spending more time with books than people? Being an introvert I find social goals very helpful!
Home Improvement - yeah, while I hate actually doing stuff like painting and decorating, I enjoy the results. So this had to be a category so that I would make some forward progress (no lie - paint samples on my wall for a year before I actually painted).
And finally, this year one of my big goals is to focus on writing. I really want to spend time developing this skill and in order to challenge myself I'm going to be launching a series of posts that I've been thinking about for awhile. This year my goal is to write about 50 Things Every Single Women Should Do (or Should Know). So that's roughly one post a week. Or more likely in my case - regular posting for the first 6 weeks, and then 44 posts in a 2-week period of December.
More to come soon!
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