What's Goal Setting?
Planning your year is the perfect way to keep your life on track and consistently move from one success to the next.
Ideally, a successful year should be one where you have made significant achievements in all areas of your life. Career, finances, relationships, health, spirituality and even leisure are important areas that you need to pay attention to when planning your year.
The ultimate goal is to improve all of these areas for a happy fulfilling and more enriching life.
Here are 10 (surprising) goals to consider working on:
- Take a 30-minute nature walk twice a week
Communing with nature is an instant stress-buster. In addition to nurturing and calming the mind and spirit, it's a good exercise as well.
- Learn a new hobby or skill in 6 months
Continuous self-development is key to your emotional health. Make the goal of learning a new hobby such as dancing, quilting, or Tai Chi… It's never too late to learn. You can also consider developing a new skill that will benefit your career such as graphic design or coding. The point is to always stay curious and to keep learning.
- Thoroughly declutter one room in your house every month
A clutter-free home makes for a calmer, more focused mind and overall well-being.
Make it a goal to thoroughly purge and streamline one room in your home every month. The gal can even extend to your office.
The catch is not to let the clutter pile up again! Think before you buy!
- Read a book every month
Our brains just love learning new things! Nurture your mind and expand your knowledge by making it a goal to read a new book every month.
It doesn’t have to be a book on astrophysics. A gripping novel is a great way to relax and give rein to your fantasy and imagination!
- Practice active listening
Do you really listen when other people are talking? Practice active listening to develop this great habit.
Look at people when they speak and listen attentively to what they're saying. Train yourself not to interrupt and more importantly, avoid talking about yourself as much as possible.
This is just a great personal skill to develop and it will serve you well – not to mention make you extremely popular!
- Eat vegetarian twice a week
Have a twice-weekly vegetarian “health day” where you eat loads of fresh vegetable and fruit. This practice will actually motivate you to eat healthier foods throughout the week to maintain your healthy cycle.
It's a great health habit for meat-lovers as well and can be a good starting point for cutting down on red meat.
- Build an emergency savings fund
Decide on a certain percentage of your income that you will put away into an emergency fund. This is different from a savings account. It's for unexpected expenses such as an appliance breaking down or unforeseen medical bills.
Even if you never use it, just knowing that it’s there will give you great peace of mind.
- Splurge on a relaxing weekend every two months
Pamper yourself and your family with a relaxing getaway holiday over the weekend. Go to a fancy hotel or local resort and just forget the world for a couple of days. You deserve it!
- Express your love to family members more often
We often take our loved ones for granted. Make it your goal to express your love more often to the people you care about. Thank your partner for their loyalty and support, tell your kids how proud you are of them.
You'll be amazed at how a few simple words of love will strengthen your family relationships and enrich you emotionally as well.
- Champion a cause you believe in
Take a stand for a cause you believe in to keep yourself fired up and motivated. Even donating to a cause you champion will make you feel you're doing something worthwhile for the world.
Better yet, join a community of likeminded people that will allow you to stay proactive and engaged.
Conclusion
If you're skeptical, don't be. These are all perfectly valid goals to work towards because they can transform your life and create a better balance between the different areas of your life.
These goals should go hand in hand with your long-term goals and aspirations and in fact, can help you achieve them more efficiently.
So, go through these 10 goals again and choose two or three to start with, gradually adding more as you go along. It's a no-brainer that when all the different areas of your life come together in amazing harmony, that you'll enjoy the best year ever.
