I am a huge fan of setting active goals.
Creating intentional goals will help guide all your actions towards reaching milestones, which in turn boosts your confidence and sense of achievement!
Setting goals is powerful in motivating yourself to transform that dream of your ideal future into reality.
Do you really want to remember this year and smile, because you were able to achieve certain goals you have always desired?
A lot of people actually set new year’s resolutions for themselves, but by February, they had forgotten entirely.
And honestly, without setting the right goals and putting up the right attitudes towards those goals, you haven’t begun creating that desired future. And..Yes, you haven’t!
What Are Goals?
A goal can be said to be an idea of a desired result of the future that an individual or a group of people foresee, plan, and commit themselves to achieve.
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Setting deadlines often help people reach their goals within a time frame.
While this may sound very simple, it is a very important question we should answer if creating a quality life is of great concern to you.
Many will easily assume they know what goals are already.
But the truth is..
When we become too familiar with a particular pattern of doing things, there is the tendency to lose the real essence of it.
No wonder a lot of people set many goals, but achieve very little.
Why Should You Set Goals?
Every story of successful business people or athletes begins with goals and commitment to achieving the goals.
When you set goals, you have a long-term vision but short-term motivation. Your goals will help you to organize your time, acquire the necessary knowledge and resources to make your life meaningful.
The good part is that, when you are able to set clearly defined goals, you will be able to measure your successes and also take pride in your achievements.
Your self-confidence will get a great boost and your life will experience a forward progress.
How Should You Set Goals?
Your goals should be set based on different levels.
First, picture the future in your mind.
What exactly do you desire to be going on in your life, say, five, ten, twenty years from now?
Identify these big goals you wish to attain then break the goals down.
You’ll have to break down these huge goals you have set into smaller goals and sub-targets.
Set them in long, mid and short-term goals.
Work out what you can achieve in five years, two years, next year, six months, next month, the coming week, and today. And these smaller goals must be geared towards the bigger goal of ten or more years.
And, have you heard of S.M.A.R.T Goals?
S.M.A.R.T is generally an acronym for:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Realistic
- Time-bound
Setting SMART goals is a very productive way of making your goals possible. If you don’t do this, your goals may remain as just vague resolutions.
But with the SMART guide, you will be able to think thoroughly through your decisions, set trackable structures, and implement plans. These actions help you close up the big gap between your goals and their reality.
These Are The 5 SMART Objectives
There are a few other variations of this S.M.A.R.T acronym, but some have been included in the parenthesis given below:
i. S – Specific (or Significant) :
Set a specific target for yourself in an area you desire improvement.
ii. M – Measurable (or Meaningful):
Try to put your goals in quantities, or put up indicators to measure how you are progressing in achieving the set goals.
iii. A – Attainable (Assignable or Action-Oriented):
Set goals that you have the capacity to attain, or be assigned to someone else who will carry it out. It should also have practical value or be able to be done or acted on.
iv. R – Relevant (Realistic or Rewarding):
Is the goal you are setting still relevant to this age? What about your location? Also state the results and rewards you believe will be realistically achieved when the goal is attained, considering the resources available to you.
v. T – Time-bound (Time-related or Trackable):
While you may have visions that can last a lifetime, it is very important for you to set when you are considering the goal should have been attained.
For instance, don’t just say, “I want to travel around the world,” as a future goal.
You should rather consider, “I want to have concluded a trip around the earth by March 28, 2030.”
This is more specific and trackable and time-related. But it’s not as simple, this kind of goal needs a lot of preparations.
Picture what exactly you want your life to be about.
What do you want to achieve in some distant years from now?
Write them down as you think through. Setting these long-term goals will put all other aspects of your decision-making into proper perspective.
You should try to broaden your coverage while setting your goals. Set your long-term goals, mid-term goals and short-term goals.
Consider These Great Goals for 2020
1. Time Management
Work without any distractions for one straight hour.
Increase the time range as you learn to focus better.
If you notice you spend a lot of unnecessary hours scrolling through your social media apps, then you may want to consider putting away your phone for a period of time, or even delete the apps for some time if it’s becoming irresistible.
I personally deleted mine months ago and my life has been better for it!
This decision is to help you concentrate and be more productive without being distracted.
2. Begin And Maintain A Healthy Diet
Your diet can make or mar your productivity.
In essence, you need to choose to eat healthier every day.
Here are 4 Eat-At-Home-Meal plans you can choose from or mix and match to soothe your tastes.
i. Whole Food Plant-Based:
With this meal plan, you concentrate more on natural foods without adding cheese, eggs, fish, milk, or meat. These foods include; fruits, vegetables, whole grains, seeds, and nuts.
ii. Traditional Meal Plan:
This meal can include a variety of occasional meals without meats, vegetables, and meats.
iii. Absent Flour And Sugar Meal:
This meal plan can vary from easy-to-prepare categories from proteins to veggies, and whole foods with no additions of artificial sugars or flour.
iv. Instant Pot/Slow Cooker:
This meal plan offers recipes that can be prepared in a slow cooker that also contains many instant pot recipes.
It also provides one week meals of Slow Cooker Freezer which are set for consumption in just an hour.
You do not actually need to cut down on an entire food group. Just make some slow quality and rewarding progress to improve your diets. For instance, you can ensure 75% clean meals and fill the rest with your other cravings.
3. Acquire A New Skill
Is there anything you have always desired to learn?
Is it an instrument?
A specific ability?
A language? I’m learning Mandarin free with this app.
You can learn how to improve your listening ability.
Most people would rather be heard than listen to others speak.
You can measure your improvements, by requesting feedback after making contributions in a discussion.
For instance, you can ask, “has my input addressed your worries?”, “Do you think there’s more I should know about this?”, “Is there more I can be of help with?”.
Improving your listening skills will help others seem more important and their opinions will matter more.
Acquiring a new skill will increase value, confidence, and help you achieve more.
4. Begin A Side Hustle
I am a big fan of creating side hustles.
I love to encourage career and professional moms to begin side hustles.
Some stuff we do as hobbies can actually generate side income for us! And blogging is one! Yes!
There are numerous side hustles to consider, to help you decide, we’ve drawn up our list of profitable business ideas for women.
We specifically created that post to help you begin a side hustle with little or nothing.
Here are two more money-making resources.
Is freelance writing worth it? 10+ benefits that say yes
29 Legit Work From Home Jobs That Provide Equipment
5. Family And Relationships Goals
What role do you play in your family, and how do you intend to improve and get better in the future?
Do you already or wish to have your own family?
When?
How do you intend to be a good parent to your children and partner to your spouse?
What about your extended family, how do you want them to see you?
Do you have a member of your family you have disconnected from for some reason? You may want to consider building the relationship again.
Get connected again to your good old friends.
Oftentimes, we have a circle of friends during college days, but as career and family goals begin to set in, everyone begins to drift apart unintentionally.
But you could begin to make deliberate efforts to connect again to your families and friends. Honestly, you will be glad you did.
And while connecting and nurturing your relationships, you should also consider cutting out toxic people and negative energy around you.
6. Meditate Everyday
Since I began meditation, I have discovered several health benefits I had been depriving myself.
Meditation will help to boost your ability to focus, build your immune system, reduce anxiety, and improve your resilience among several others.
Meditation will also improve your inner peace and cut out distractions, while ultimately helping you to become more purposeful.
It can appear in different ways when you concentrate on your body and environs.
7. Get Your Finances In Order
In a post by nypost.com, getting finances in order comes top on most Americans’ goals for 2020.
A large number of Americans included getting out of debts in their goals for the year.
If you really want to be financially secured you need to be deliberate about your financial goals.
Without doing this, you will be putting your finances at risk of possible crises especially when you are faced with unplanned expenses or retirement.
Money often comes top in the list of stressors for most people across the globe.
It is also one of the biggest causes of friction in relationships and marriages.
In essence, you have to constantly evaluate your financial goals year-in-year-out. This will help you to measure your progress and also reduce unexpected financial stress.
Being in control of your finances should in fact come top on your goals for 2020. Create a monthly, weekly and daily budget. Try to save and avoid debts as much as possible.
If you saved last year, then you should aim to save 15% higher than you did. This is about investing in your future self.
Review your budget, cut down on avoidable expenses. What about expenses you make on stuff you do not use any longer? Cut them out!
If you need help (who doesn’t!), here’s our list of the best budget apps for couples.
8. Improve Your Reading Culture
Learning continuously should be a natural feature in your goals for 2020.
Whether you choose to go for fiction or nonfiction books, or you choose to improve yourself with some of the best books for mom entrepreneurs, your reading will help you improve your knowledge (and confidence) considerably.
Your writing skills, problem-solving skills, and vocabulary will get better with quality books.
In fact, reading is one habit that has helped me to become more productive. I do not allow my day to end without reading some of my best blogs on the internet.
And here are a few blogs you should be reading if you are a blogger.
There is something positive about a good reading culture that impacts productivity in your life. You can begin with a book a month. Twelve in twelve months.
If you have been doing more, then, of course, you should set a goal for more than 12 books in a period of 12 months. But reading a book every month is a good place to start if you are just starting out.
9. Travel
I love traveling. I don’t just have enough of it. I did a lot of traveling last year, and I already have more traveling goals for 2020.
Traveling especially to new places is a great way to learn new things, have fun and relax.
Make traveling among the top in your budget this year. And instead of visiting the same places you have been before, expand your horizons and give other nice areas a shot!
You will be amazed at the amazing opportunities and new things you’ll see and learn.
It is very important you set yourself out of your regular routine and get a new perspective of the world.
Whatever interest you have, you can always find new places to travel to.
10. Buy A New Car
If you have been getting your finances right, you will find this quite easy to achieve.
Even if not, there are measures you can put in place to acquire one, especially for business purposes. And the steps to achieving this does not have to be daunting.
Here is a guide according to usatoday.com:
i. Figure Out Your Desired Car Costs
If you can’t afford to make full payment for your desired car, then you may want to begin by figuring how much exactly you can pay out every month.
Leave out room for cost of maintenance, and possible change in insurance costs. You may want to opt for a loan while fulfilling your payment plans.
ii. Calculate All It Would Demand At The Time Of Purchase
Put into consideration your total costs at the point you will be acquiring the desired car.
Cars.com has an Auto Loan calculator that helps you customize fields which include sales tax, trade-in-value, and loan terms, for an accurate calculation.
There are more tools around the internet that you can test with for different down payments and terms. You will be able to see how the payment would affect your monthly expenses and how many cars your income can go for.
iii. Be Sure You Actually NEED A Car
Do not become impatient or unrealistic with your decision.
For instance, if you only earn $2000 a month but need like $4000 down payment to get a car urgently, you may want to opt for a cheaper option.
And if you delay your purchase for some more months, you should be able to save up for a much better ride.
The other good thing is, that move will make a positive difference in your finances.
iv. Make Savings Compulsory
Writing out the plan is easy, but sticking to it is not. Instead of making guesses, make your savings automatic.
If you have to make a savings of say, $4000 within the next 5 months, and you receive a direct-deposit paycheck, just inform your payroll department that you will be needing a sum of $400 deposited every two weeks into your savings, while the rest is sent to regular checking.
By doing so, your savings will happen automatically without you making a decision about it. You will also avoid being tempted to eat into the expected savings with different expenses.
v. Save, But Ensure Not To Punish Yourself
Even when you already have your savings undergo automatic methods, it is still important to keep your emotions in check.
It is very crucial not to be unrealistic with your decisions.
Be wise with your plans, but after that, learn to sit back and relax.
You may begin to feel guilt when you think you have spent so much on something you think should take up pennies.
Giving up luxuries to attain a goal should not deprive you of simple pleasures. If making savings turns out to feel like some punishment, then it is less likely you will be successful with your plans.
A study has revealed that December is the best year to acquire a new car. But, a lot of people will prioritize the looks of the car over any other thing. You should rather get your focus on a car that will drive you for a good number of years.
Cars are meant to be long-term investments. Not like your clothes, or your wristwatches which may only last a few months. Cars lose their value, so you must get your plans right with your choice.
So, here is our list of great goals for 2020 which you should consider. How will you be starting? Share with us.
