It’s finally that time of year, friends! It’s that time of year when we take a closer look at our lives and our goals and decide what we might want to do differently in the new year. I freaking LOVE hearing other people talk about their goals, and I especially love spending time formulating my own.
If you want to set yourself up for goal success, there’s no better way than using the SMART method: writing out goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based.
But what if you don’t want to be SMART?
This year, I’m not setting goals for myself. Because I know that this year I’m going to be moving to a new city and starting a new job, both of which are difficult enough without also training for a marathon or writing a novel. But are those still things that I’d love to do? Totally! So how can I work towards those big goals I have for my life without setting myself up for disappointment in 2020?
Answer: not sure. BUT, here’s what I decided to try:
Every year I do things a bit differently, and this year I’ll be honest, I went a bit overboard on goal setting. Insert warning about how being over-ambitious in setting goals makes you less likely to reach them BLAH BLAH BLAH I’M EXCITED OK?!? If you get excited about this stuff too, I say it’s ok to be a little too zealous in your goal planning. Overtime as things get harder, you can reassess if your goal of writing an entire novel in a month is really what you want to be spending your time on or not and adjust from there. But keep in mind this post I wrote about how if you think it’s hard, that’s because it is, and that’s ok.
If you’re struggling to get started, or need a way to organize your goals, here are the two things I did to map out my year:
1. Spend time journaling
Start with time spent reflecting on yourself and your year without a specific end result in mind. Do this in a way that you feel most comfortable with, not in a way that you feel has to be perfect. You could take notes in a Word document, record a voice memo, write it out in a notebook, or even talk things through with someone close to you. There’s no rhyme or reason to this part, it’s just meant to get you into the right mindset for setting effective goals that will really have an impact on your life. Notice what you spend time thinking about. Are you writing about healthy eating habits or committing to a new gym because you actually want those things, or because you think you’re supposed to want those things? Let yourself be bold and wild here. Explore your secret desire to be a travel photographer or to meet the love of your life, that’s fine! This doesn’t have to be SMART or whatever, it just has to be authentic to you.
This Instagram post by nutritionist Adee Cazayoux is what I used for my journaling this year. I started by brain dumping a bunch of random thoughts and then tying them loosely to the sentence prompts she provides. After talking it through a bit with my boyfriend, I cleaned up my thoughts to form the following 8 responses:
In 2020, I want to…
Start eating cleaner and building better nutritional habits,
Learn more about local and national politics,
Try creating and maintaining a new podcast,
Continue reading a large number of diverse books,
Quit putting off my writing,
Be kind to everyone, in every situation,
Have a space that I love in Washington, DC (where I’ll be moving to in February!),
Stop complaining and making excuses for myself.
Notice that these are NOT goals; I haven’t written these to be something I can track or measure specifically. These are foundations for the type of life I want to lead and the things I want to be able to say I accomplished in 2020.
2. Select 3 values
Now that your brain is revved up and ready, take a look at the things you journaled about and zoom out even further, trying to come up with broad themes that will encompass your year. I recommend choosing 2-3 words that remind you of the values you’ve been thinking about. Choose words that are meaningful and memorable to you, and again, don’t try to make this perfect. I say that mainly for myself, because I spent a lot of time making my three words all start with the same letter (insert eye-rolling emoji here).
This year, the three values I selected are give, grow, glow. Here’s why those words are important to me:
Give: In 2019 I took way more than I gave. I took the hospitality of my parents who let me stay with them rent free while I searched for a new job, I took the selfless help of my friends who helped me move and navigate a brand new city with no car and no sense of direction, and I took time from mentors and managers to position myself for a life I’m truly happy with. So in 2020, I want to focus on giving some of that back, including giving my time, resources, and energy to less self-centered pursuits.
Grow: This year I’ll be working a new (dream) job in a(nother) new city. Those aren’t my only firsts: it will also be my first year with my CF L1 certification coaching in a Crossfit gym, and my first time living with a significant other (eek!). I’m viewing these new opportunities and any others that pop up through the lens of how I can use them to learn and get better.
Glow: I have a tendency to have a smidge of an attitude problem, and it’s about time I grow up. I can be rude to service people, I can be short tempered with people I care about, I can be lazy and negligent to the things I want to be focused on. Last year I was shocked by how much time I spent complaining to people and making excuses for myself, and this year I’m putting an end to it. To me, the word glow symbolizes dogged optimism, humble kindness, and the free spirit that I most admire in other people and am trying to epitomize in myself.
With these values and the goals I journaled about in mind, I’ve set myself up with a really easy check at the end of each day to determine if I’m on track in 2020 or not. All I have to do is ask myself who I gave to, how I grew, and if I glew (just kidding. Was glowing?).
That’s it. Now let’s get to 2020.
I love this idea for goal setting! I’m borrowing it!