Welcome Friends!

This is a write-up for the goal planning booklet, you can straight download that here, but I go over some goal setting tips below if you are stuck.

 

Step One: Get Clear

The first step to goal planning is to get clear on what you want, why you want it, and how you want to see yourself in the future. This is the hardest part, and I seriously recommend spending time away from the keyboard to just sit and brainstorm. If you know already, great this will be faster for you. It’s very hard to find your CORE WHY and what you want, but it’s important to start somewhere. Also, note you may get it wrong the first time, or more than once, but start somewhere and work from there. Here are some questions to start you off.

This is not necessarily about your career – however, it can be related. Your career should support your why i.e. Family – you want a large family. This takes money so you will want a career that earns well but also maybe allows flexible time. You may elect to be a teacher so you can have time off with your kids, etc. If your career supports your CORE why, then you will feel more satisfaction in your job overall, but it doesn’t have to always be correlated.

 

Questions to ask Yourself

What does success look like to you?

I always ask this, define it right here, right now. What does a life well-lived look like to you? What does it absolutely have to have for you to be on death’s door and you feel at ease for it. Kids? A Book? An heir who loves you? Define it. This is incredibly important to find out what drives you – as well as asking yourself for each goal, more on that later.

 

What do I want my life to look like in 3, 5, 10 years?

It’s okay to not know very far, or see it clearly. For example, if you value Family – in 3 years you want your job to be secured, and a small starter house. Maybe a partner that is supportive. In 5 you want to be married and pregnant or with a toddler. You don’t have to see all the details, start with big rocks, the smaller important things will develop as you go. If you goal is a family, you may not want to work a career that has you travel 50% of the time, for example. It is doable though.

 

Why do I want XYZ in my life?

Try to do this for each big rock. Why do you want a house? So you can start building equity to get a bigger one if you want, or so you can be prepared financial for a family. Why do you want to start a family? I loved my siblings and I want my kids to have that life. I love kids and want to really raise the future, etc If you can establish an internal why for your big goals, you will be more likely to power through hard times to reach them, as you are internally motivated vs externally.

 

What are some of my values that are non-negotiable?

This is a great time to look internally at what you value. Money will only motivate you so far. Some days are harder than others, if you have four kids under 10 and have to do a ton of laundry each week, what is getting you through it? Digging internally for your values is another great way to relate them to your goals. You value your nieces and nephews so you want to earn enough to setup a small college fund. That will fuel those hard days at the office a little easier. For example, my main driver is the freedom to do what I want, there is no amount of money I will take if I can’t drop that job at the door and have decent time to myself. None.

 

What do I want my day(s) to contain regularly?

Another great way to narrow down those values – what do you want your days to look like? Do you want to be writing every day? Art? Family game night once a week. Board games at the bar with friends, etc. What can you include in the life that is important to you that will give it more value?

 

Finally, pin down some things you want to accomplish.

Just use any remaining paper to plot out some ideas you have in your head now. You should know what you want to be successful at, you can start to see your values coming out – how can you turn them into goals. X kids, X house, X books are written, X money to give to nieces and nephews, create so many pieces of artwork, or be a popular illustrator. Dream big here and freely, you can change your mind anytime and you will.

 

Step Two: Break it Down

The next step is to take those big things that define you – start a family, get a house, get a career, write a book; and break them down. Preferably into habits, you can build over time. Habits will last you longer than individual tasks – but it’s a good place to start. You will be amazed at how the far smaller tasks will get you with your goals.

 

Some Additional Tips

It’s exciting, especially when you are in a motivated mood, to pick a ton of goals to accomplish each month or year. Try to pick just a few and focus on them. When you are excited your brain is lying about how much free time you have a day. Seriously.

 

I like to mix in broad goals in with all my other goals. For example, one for me is to visit FL Family sometime in 2022. This is a broad goal. I have no clue when we will go, how much it will cost, but I want it on my big 2022 list as it’s something I would like to do this year. I personally use broader goals in my yearly look vs my monthly. I find it helpful to put down on paper things I want to do, try, or accomplish, then pick the details out later.

 

Finally, this maybe helpful or not, but I like to also make a category of goals called projects. I put things I want to make or try in projects. For example, a Pin or washi tape. Maybe a collection of sorts. I put these in projects vs goals. I mainly do this as I try to sort my goals into categories (like above). Sometimes projects work out, other times they don’t. I just have a lot of fun with them and really dream big in there. I tend to drop things I lose interest in, but I still spend time putting them down since you never know.

 

Happy Planning!