Happy New Year to everyone. I know we are all the buzz about New Year’s Resolutions, and goal setting for 2020. But can I just tell you… it was not always clear to me how to set goals as a working mom or where I needed to set goals. In fact, some months were quite chaotic, because I was flying by the seat of my pants.
I have really simplified it for you here so that you can set your year up for success!
Envision this as an organized BRAIN DUMP of goals. I’m a big fan of brain dumps because my brain is like my internet browser with 1,000 tabs open and I am clicking the x in the corner and closing all of them at once.
Set aside an hour of your time, and an hour of your family’s time to set up some goals for the year.
Categories of life that may need a goal
First, ask yourself what areas of your life need improvement. Maybe improvement is not the right word, think of an area that is stressing you out:
Spiritual
Marriage
Family
Parenting
Finance
Career
Self-Care: Physical, emotional
Next, you may want to come up with a goal for each area. Or, perhaps, you want to focus on a few of these areas to start the year.
For example, you may circle the Marriage and the Finance categories. You may be struggling with your spouse and arguing about finances, but if you create a budget it may end up helping both areas.
What do the best goals look like?
Now, once you know where you want to focus. Let’s talk about what a good goal looks like
To make sure your goals are clear and reachable, each one should be SMART:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time bound
Visit this website if you want more info on SMART goals.
Going back to my example above my goal would be: “Create a monthly budget with my spouse at the beginning of the month and stick with it”
It is specific to who and what we will be doing.
I can measure it at the end of every month if I did stick to my budget or not.
It is achievable, because me and my spouse will create it realistically together.
Relevant to the topics I wanted to focus on.
Finally, it is time-bound because I stated we would do it monthly (at the beginning of the month).
You may want to make yours even more specific, but you can also have smaller goals within your category goals. One might be under finance, “Save $200 per month.”
Speaking of financial goals, check out my tips for saving money here.
How many goals?
Ultimately, how many goals is up to you and what you can realistically attain. You may not be able to reach every goal you set, but the idea is to create goals that you would be able to achieve. If you focus on too many goals at once, you may not be able to do it all.
Write them down
The most effective goals are ones that you will remind yourself of and come back to often. You may do a mid-year review to see how your goals are doing. Perhaps you need to adjust the goal that is too hard or add a goal because you made some too easy. Either way, plan now some time to reflect on the goals.
Extra tips to keep you on track!
- Check out this goal planner by Christy Wright. She is all about women in business and setting personal and business goals.
- Be organized with this momAgenda I love the momAgenda, I use it daily to keep me organized and on track with my kid’s lives and my own, I wrote my goals in the front of the agenda so I can refer to it often
Now, go! Make sure to post in the comments one of your goals for this year.
