I love the process of goal setting and reflecting. The idea of outlining what success looks like if I use my time well, is super motivating to me. If you want to learn how to set and track your goals, this post is for you!
Last year, I shared the 10 step process I discovered to reflect and set goals. Looking back, I can absolutely say it was my strongest year for setting goals and sticking to them! I accomplished 7 of the 10 goals I shared and came very close to the others. Along the way, I learned to be more intentional with my time and I 100% believe it was because of the process I used.
The first step to set yourself up for success is choosing goals you are excited about working towards. For so many years, I picked goals just because they sounded cool. But “cool goals ” weren’t enough to motivate me when push came to shove, so I never accomplished them.
Using the Best Year Yet (BYY) process has helped me to hone in on the goals that matter most to me. By answering the 10 questions throughout the process, you end up reflecting on who you want to be and what is keeping you from getting there. I go in-depth on all of these questions and show you the full process in this post! I definitely recommend checking it out.
To me, the most unique aspect of the BYY process is step #6. In this question you think through what roles you play in your life, both now and in the future. Examples: wife, traveler, my own health coach, cook, mother, friend, musician, etc. From there you narrow down your top eight and rate your performance in each category on a scale of 1-10. This has been an eye-opening exercise each year I’ve done it. It’s easy to let months go by and be completely imbalanced in how I’m spending my time and not even realize it.
When you brainstorm your goals under the umbrella of each role, it helps keep things balanced. You end up with more clarity around which roles need more of your focus that year. From there, it’s also easier to narrow down your ideas into a final list of ten goals. The process takes a few hours, but I swear its the best use of your time to get clarity around how you want to spend your time in 2020. Since doing mine in January, I’ve taken the time to reflect and tweak my goals to make sure they are just right. Even if you’ve already set your 2020 goals, I would highly recommend setting aside a few hours to go through the process and refine your goals even further!
I figured instead of just talking about the process, I would share my 2020 goals with you so you can get an idea of what it looks like to have goals spread across different areas of life (health, marriage, finances, personal growth, etc) and also so you can hold me accountable!
MY 2020 GOALS
1. SPEND TIME WITH JESUS EACH DAY AND INDUCTIVELY STUDY THE BIBLE
Last year was my first year completing the One Year Bible and it has become a wonderful habit. This year I wanted to switch it up a bit and be flexible in my quiet time. I’ll be doing a mix of inductive studies through the Bible, prayer time, playing my guitar and enjoying some time in personal worship, and journaling.
2. REDUCE MY BODY FAT PERCENTAGE AND LIFT MY BODYWEIGHT
It’s always been hard for me to quantify my health goals. In 2019 I made working out a habit, but now I want to focus on what I am eating and my actual body composition. My end goal is to feel more confident in my own skin and have a reference point to work back to after we have kids.
3. COMMIT TO MY MORNING AND EVENING ROUTINES
One thing I want to be better at in 2020 is taking time for myself. My goal is to get up by 6:30 am, have my devotional time, write in my bullet journal and have some time to spare before I head to the gym. At night, I want to put my phone away early, take some time to read a book, and invest in self-care all before lights out at 10 pm.
4. READ 30 BOOKS
This is another goal repeated from last year! I’ve learned that I really do enjoy reading and taking time to do so in 2019 had a ripple effect on a lot of my other goals. From learning new ideas and ways to stay on track with my goals and even discovering free audiobooks on the Libby App! I shared a few of my 2019 favorite reads in this post, and I’ll be sharing my full 2019 reading list in my next blog post! I was just shy of my goal, with 22 total books, so I’m shooting for 30 again this year.
5. SPEND 30 MINUTES DAILY LEARNING NEW SKILLS
I want to get back into cooking, relearn to play the piano, and dive deeper into photography in 2020. These are a few fun interests I have but never seem to make the time for unless they are built into my day to day routine. We also got a Masterclass subscription for Christmas and I’m excited to check that out!
6. GIVE TIM 2 COMPLIMENTS EACH DAY
It’s important to me that my goals include each of the roles of my life and being a wife is a big one. One area I can grow the most this year is being less critical and more positive. Tim’s love language is words of affirmation so that’s where I am focusing first. My hope is that before long, it will be my natural response to give praise instead of criticism.
7. POST EACH WEEK ON MY BLOG AND SOCIAL MEDIA
My blog and social channels were definitely the areas where I dropped the ball in 2019. I found it really difficult to juggle my full-time job and make time to create content. After reading The Four Tendencies, I realized why this kept happening to me! I am an Obliger and will always prioritize other people’s expectations (like work, church, and friends) before my own personal priorities and goals. In order to make sure I change this in 2020, I have a friend holding me accountable! In 2020, I want to stop overthinking things and just create the content I’m passionate about and want to share!
8. SHARE MY FAITH WITH OTHERS
Being a Christian is a huge part of my life. I am also the worship leader at my church and I love being with my church family. This is a big part of my life that I don’t always share on my blog and social media and I want to be better at that this year. My faith influences the way that I see the world, handle my finances, and is really a part of everything I do, so why wouldn’t I share it with you?
9. HOST FRIENDS AT OUR HOUSE EACH MONTH
In 2019, one of our focuses was spending time investing in our relationships with friends and we want to continue to do that in 2020 by having people over each month who haven’t been to our house before.
10. SAVE $75k FOR A HOUSE
I’m super passionate about personal finance and can’t wait to share more about it on my blog this year! For the past year and a half, our biggest focus has been saving towards buying a home. As of the end of 2019, we have $40k put aside for a house. This year I want to push ourselves and try to add an additional $35k towards our house savings. It’s definitely a stretch goal! We will need to follow our monthly budget and reduce some of our expenses but I’m hopeful that we will get there!
If I look back and have accomplished all 10 of these goals, I will be extremely proud of myself!
HOW I PLAN TO TRACK + ACHIEVE MY GOALS IN 2020
Once you have your goals, the final step is creating a plan. Are you looking at your goals daily so you know what steps you need to take to be on track? What this looks like will be different for everybody, so think about how you work best. Do you like to track things digitally or on paper? Do you like to go all-in or bite off a piece at a time?
The biggest resource I have found to help in achieving my goals is the Four Tendencies book I mentioned before. It takes less than 5 minutes to take the quiz! I promise, knowing your tendency will help you build systems that work best for you and your tendency.
For me, I like to track my goals in my bullet journal and meet my accountability partner each month. I have all of my goals broken down into a daily habit tracker so I can see everything in one place helps me to focus on my decisions every day so I don’t lose sight of what I’m working towards. Want help creating a system to track your goals? Or do you want to see a picture of my tracker? Shoot me a DM on Instagram and I’d be happy to help!
Do you have any tips for setting goals? Let me know in the comments!
If you’re looking for more posts on personal growth and goal setting, check out:
- 10 STEPS TO MAKE THIS YEAR YOUR BEST YEAR YET
- OVERCOMING THE SELF-SABOTAGE CYCLE
- 14 BOOKS YOUR SHOULD READ IN 2019
Thank you so much for reading!
