I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling 2022. Alright, sorry, you’re probably sick of hearing that. But a new year brings the desire for freshness. New goals, plans, intentions for the year.
I want to share with you my goals for the year, and share some tips for setting more achievable goals.
Slow Down and Be More Intentional
When I wrote down my goals, what stuck out to me was that I need to slow down and be more intentional. A while back the word “savor” kept coming to me and I decided it would make a good word of the year. Really at the heart of these goals is savoring life. Its about savoring my home, what I choose to bring into my life, and how I spend my time.
Here’s how I’m breaking this down into three goals
Get organized
Okay we all say this at the beginning of the year and loose interest by the end of January. The stores know this too. Everywhere has containers and bins galore. I want this to be a slow process so I can figure out what systems I can actually stick with. I’m not an organized person by nature at all so I need simple solutions that seem just as feasible as leaving things laying about feels now.
I also want to take my time going through my belongings and figuring out what I actually love and what is useful. I have so much stuff that I’ve accumulated over the years that I can spare to get rid of a lot of things.
This leads me to my next goal…
Spend better
2020 and 2021 were hard for me. I feel like in someways I don’t have a right to complain because I stayed healthy and employed. But I’ve felt so isolated. And the main way I coped with this was through shopping.
I think I filled a void in my life with stuff, and now I feel buried under with items I don’t really need and payments to services like Afterpay.
I want to learn to spend my money in a reasonable way. I’m not going to do a shopping ban or place myself on a restrictive budget. Instead the plan is to really think about purchases before making them.
I want to make sure what I am bringing in is something I truly love, and not something I was influenced to buy. Will that still happen? Probably. But I’m hoping it becomes a once in a while situation, versus an all the time practice.
Have more fun
This goal is probably the most important to me and honestly it kind of scares me. I know that sounds silly, like why would having fun be scary? For me it’s a mindset thing.
Sometimes I go into situations thinking they will be the best, and if they don’t live up to my expectations I’m disappointed. It’s really just setting myself up for failure. I think the antidote to this is trying to be more in the moment, which is also not something I’m very good at.
Going back to the last goal, a lot of ways I’ve “had fun” the last year or two is to go to Target or go shopping somewhere else. This isn’t necessary for my life, and I’m sure if I tried I could find other places to go and things to do that would be even more enjoyable.
I’ve gotten into a rut in a lot of areas of my life and it’s time to try to dig myself out.
A few tips for setting goals
I wanted to share a few ways to go about setting goals. I know it’s a few days into the year already but that doesn’t mean you can’t start now, or revisit the goals you already made.
Don’t go too big
Sometimes we get too big with our goals, or choose goals that are highly dependent on others. When those goals aren’t achieved in a year it can be really disappointing.
For instance, finding a new job can be a great goal to have, but it also depends on the availability of jobs and inevitably, someone else to decide you fit. I’m not saying to totally rule out these kind of goals, but it’s important to realize you only control part of what happens.
With a goal like this, it’s important to break it down to what you do have control over. You can make smaller goals like updating your resume, or spending a certain amount of time each week to look for, and apply to, jobs. When you check these things off your to-do list you’ll know you’re taking the right steps, even if it ultimately takes a while to find that new job.
Try to get specific
As I said at the beginning of my goals, they are really all about being more intentional. If I just said my goal for the year was to be more intentional, what would that even mean? It’s broad and doesn’t really give me any guidance on the steps to do to be more intentional.
I realized the areas I wanted to be more intentional in, my space, my spending, my free time, and created goals around that.
Just as I showed in the getting a job example, it’s important to break your goals down into actionable steps to know that you are making progress.
If you want even more information, I previously wrote a post all about SMART goals which is a system of creating achievable goals.
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