It’s June! Things are getting warmer and greener here in Vermont. In addition to a changing season, it’s also about the time I like to do my mid-year goal review with myself. Because I’m doing my own goal check-in, I thought what better time than now to share with my readers how I actually set my yearly goals?
First, honesty time! You may be shocked to believe that even though I grew up as that girl who never wanted to miss a day of school, goal setting is NOT something I’ve been doing my whole life. For a long time, I chose to partake in the resolution culture of the New Year, but it never really resonated with me. I found myself subscribing to society’s beliefs of what my resolutions should be (weight loss, anyone?) instead of considering what I actually value. I wasn’t intentional with my resolutions. Because of that, my resolutions went as fast as they came – quickly forgotten, remaining only as sad blips in my journal entries.
In writing this post, for fun, I looked up the definitions of goals and resolutions. Google’s dictionary (provided by Oxford Languages) defines a goal as “the object of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or a desired result” and a resolution as “a firm decision to do or not to do something.”
Yikes! I can tell what my problem was just by looking at the definitions. Resolutions always felt so rigid to me. Because of this, I always had shame in not completing a resolution. If I didn’t achieve it, I would consider it a failure and push it away, never to be thought of, mulled over, or reflected on ever again. How sad! What a waste of an opportunity!
Goals, as opposed to resolutions, are more malleable. Goals may change over time. My goals are desired results, but what I desire may change from minute to minute, day to day, and year to year!
Reading these definitions and reflecting on my history with resolutions/goals has made it even more clear to me how and why I have “turned the corner” when it comes to goal setting.
My thoughts and feelings around resolutions and goals have changed immensely thanks to my ever-evolving goal setting process, which I’m here to share with you today because I so wholeheartedly believe in the value that setting goals can provide in life. Intentional goal setting has completely flipped my life upside down and given me so much clarity about how I want to spend my days.
Some ways that goal setting has helped me
Goals. There’s no telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There’s no telling what you can do when you believe in them. And there’s no telling what will happen when you act upon them.
Jim Rohn
This is one of my favorite quotes about goal setting. They are the closest words I’ve been able to find to represent how much setting goals has impacted my life. I know it sounds crazy and a bit woo-woo, and I’m ok with that!
I could go on forever about how goal setting has impacted my life, but I’ve included just a few of the big ones.
Living my values
For me, goals are a tangible way for me to live my values. For many, our beliefs and values are these lofty ideas and feelings we have about how we live our lives that are difficult to put into words. I am always impressed when people can eloquently articulate what it is they believe in deeply. For me, this is particularly difficult. However, when I set my goals, I do so intentionally, making sure every goal is representative of what I feel deeply. This is a more digestible way for me to live my values – by setting goals that are in direct alignment with them.
Spending intentionally
If you’ve read my story, you know that I have always been a big saver (and if you’ve read about my first money memory, the “why” behind that may not be so surprising!), and that it’s always been really hard for me to spend money on “wants” or things I don’t need.
Goal setting has helped me immensely when it comes to intentional spending. When I think about spending on a “want” now, I can tie it directly to my goals. I can ask myself does this purchase help me further my goals? If the answer is yes, it takes so much of the pressure off of what I may consider a “big” purchase. (Caution: for me, this has almost worked TOO well, to the point where I often now have VERY little guilt about certain purchases that are directly in line with my goals. At the same time, if you’re a big saver, it is incredibly freeing!).
Two examples of things I intentionally spend on now are my cleaning person and my monthly massages. You can read all about my intentional spending habits and what they mean to me in this post.
Getting off autopilot
For many of us, we feel like we are simply on autopilot when it comes to spending, finances, life, the list goes on! For us, goal setting can be difficult at first because we have to take the time to actually figure out what we want and what matters to us.
We humans have a very limited amount of conscious attention (in case you don’t believe me, do this selective attention test if you haven’t experienced it before and prepare to be amazed!). In fact, a lot of the things we do on a daily basis are actually on autopilot, happening below the level of consciousness.
Setting goals forces us to break this cycle and come into our own awareness. An objective of the above experiment was to show people just how much they can miss if they’re not looking for it, not ready for it, or not expecting it.
Think about this when it comes to life and your financial journey! If we’re stuck on autopilot, there may be so many things we want or dream of that we never even realize because we’re not actively allowing it to show up! When I got off autopilot and started goal setting, I realized I had so many passions and desires I didn’t even know I had, which eventually led to the creation of my Financial Freedom List.
Making decisions
I plan to dive much deeper into this topic in a future blog post, but goal setting has been a game changer for me in terms of my decision-making process.
I used to get really anxious about making big decisions. Don’t get me wrong, I still don’t love it, but very similar to living my values, goal setting has helped me tremendously when it comes to making decisions.
Now, when I have to make a big decision, especially one that is particularly anxiety inducing, the first thing I ask myself is how the answer/outcome will affect my goals.
This is even true for smaller-scale decisions that do not cause anxiety! For example, I recently used my goals to completely revamp my email inbox. Now, for the most part, I only see emails come in that are things I really want to see and that are aligned with my values.
Staying focused in my 9-5
Last but certainly not least, goal setting has been instrumental in keeping me sane while I work full-time in my 9-5 job.
If you’ve read about my financial independence goals, you know that I plan to downshift to part-time work once I hit Flamingo FI. This is a huge goal and one I think about on a daily basis. Combine it with my Financial Freedom List, and it can make it really hard to stay motivated in my 40+ hour/week, full-time job.
However, at the same time, having solid and concrete goals around work helps when I have doubts or lack motivation. My goals provide me with the patience I need to keep going and stay on track.
My 3-step goal-setting process
By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands—your own.
Mark Victor Hansen
I love this quote because it’s so closely aligned with one of my core mantras: No one is going to live your life but you!
What better motivator to take control of what YOU want and let go of what society/your family/everyone else wants.
For me, settings goals has been the catalyst for living the life I want. My process of goal setting has changed over time, but what follows is the current, 2022 iteration.
Step 1: Review goals from last year
Every year (even though I’m not into resolutions anymore, I still like to set my goals around the New Year—it feels empowering that way for some reason), the first thing I do before I actually set my goals is to review my goals from the previous year. I re-read the goals I wrote down, and I spend some time reflecting on them. Did I complete them? Are they still important to me? Was there something that was more important to me by the end of the year that wasn’t on my list to begin with?
If this is all new to you and you’ve never set goals before, or if you just didn’t set them last year, no worries at all. Simply spend some time reflecting on your past year. If you had set goals last year at this time, what would they have been? What did you accomplish this year? What were some of the things that were important to you?
I typically spend time journaling about my reflections after I’ve spent time thinking about them, but you can and should do whatever works for you. Here are some snippets from my journal entries where I’ve reflected on my goals:
- “I can’t believe how far I’ve come in a year!”
- “I’m in such a different, and good, place with work.”
- “I think I’ve found a company where my job is really aligned with my goals.”
- “I feel good about my decision last year to not have a weight-loss goal.”
Step 2: Write down what was learned
After I’ve spent some time thinking about and reflecting on my goals from last year, I then list specific things that I’ve learned. I’ve found that this step 1) helps provide me with tons of clarity for thinking about next years’ goals and 2) is fascinating to look back on during subsequent years.
Some of the things I’ve written that I learned in the past:
- “I’ll never know the answer if I don’t ask.”
- “I learn more about myself every day and the more I choose myself.”
- “No one is going to look out for me but me.”
- “There are things I want and ways of living that I never knew existed.”
Step 3: Create new goals
A goal is not always meant to be reached; it often serves simply as something to aim at.
Bruce Lee
Finally, it’s time to actually set the goals. This may be difficult at first, but I promise, just start. The harder you commit to setting goals and reflecting on them, the easier it will become. Through your intentional goal setting, you’ll start to get to know yourself better. You’ll start to figure out what you want. And over the years, it will become easier and easier.
making categories
Perhaps you have just a few goals. That’s perfectly fine!
The way I go about setting up my goals is with categories.
You might say that my categories are directly in line with my values. Thus, it might not be surprising to hear that some of my categories change from year to year, because what’s important to me can change from year to year.
For example, you may have noticed above that I wrote about a weight-loss goal. In 2019, this was a big goal for me, so it had its very own category. Going into 2020, after reflecting on my 2019 goals, weight-loss was no longer a priority for me. This led to me reworking the category from “weight-loss” to “wellness” goals. This category felt much more in line with my values at the time.
Here are a few examples of my 2022 categories and goals:
- Work-related goals: “At my yearly review, if I do not get a raise, I will ask for one.”
- Wellness goals: “I want to do yoga at least once a week.”
- Financial goals: “Find and secure new car and home insurance, and add umbrella insurance.”
- Personal goals: “I will start to keep track of the books I have read on Goodreads.”
- Friends and family goals: “Throw a virtual baby shower for my friend in March.”
Some parting words
There you have it! One of my core beliefs in life is to keep things simple, and I definitely strive to keep my goal setting process simple and streamlined. I’m sure it will change a bit every year, and that’s ok! A few parting thoughts:
Goal setting is personal
Much like personal finance, goal setting is personal! Just because this strategy works for me, doesn’t necessarily mean it will work for you.
I share my process with you in the hope that if you aren’t currently spending some time each year intentionally setting goals, you will consider giving it a try. Whether you use my method, adapt it, or try something completely your own doesn’t matter. Because I wholeheartedly believe the simple process of getting to know yourself and your values and setting goals is life changing!
Find an accountability partner, if you can
I have been incredibly fortunate to have an accountability partner with whom I share all my goals. She knows me, she knows my values and beliefs, and she knows my goals. Thus, she is able to hold me accountable, ask the right questions, and help me reflect. If you’re lucky enough to have someone like this who you trust, I highly encourage you to share your goals with them. If you really want to get crazy, you could set goals together and have regular check-ins to reflect on where you are!
Do you set goals? How is your process similar, or different? Is there anything else about my goal-setting process you’d like to hear more about? I’d love to hear from you!