It’s that time of year when many of us start thinking about the coming year and what we’d really like to change or accomplish. Yep, goal setting!

I’m going to take you through a 3 part series that I’ve developed for myself over the years, using, tweaking and customizing goal setting processes from multiple sources.

For anyone who hates the idea of goal setting, stay with me! This is actually a really fun, up-leveling process. I know for a lot of people they make New Year’s resolutions, or tell themselves they are going to do this or stop doing that, but this isn’t that.

So first things first, in order for a goal to up-level your life, it must be a goal YOU want. Not something someone else thinks you should do or you think you have to do. Also, while I strongly encourage life-long learning and growth – I mean the journey never ends until you die, so… – I also don’t believe you must have big, impossible goals all of the time. You must decide what’s right for you based on your values, your season in life (and you decide what season you’re in), and whatever other criteria you want.

Also, you must write these down – or type and print, or however you want, but they must be documented and they must be frequently visible in order to be effective in this crazy world full of distractions! Oh and before you begin, get yourself into the best mood you can. Go for a walk or block time when you can be by yourself (or with a partner if you’re sharing goals) with all the tools you need to feel inspired or thoughtful. Here are 5 steps to get you started.

  1. You may recall a past blog where I talked about defining your values. The first thing I do is make sure I’m clear on my values, because I link my goals to one or more values. If you’re not sure what your values are, writing down your goals will start to make them clear.
  • I like to think about the year based on a theme or themes. For example, when my kids were teens and my years were full and busy, I would sometimes feel overwhelmed or burned out. I had read several books on time management, and yes I managed my to-dos well, but it was exhausting me in the process. So I decided that for one year, my theme would be Margin. Meaning I would look to trim out anything I didn’t want to do (or wasn’t truly committed to) and take a year of rest (ish). I built in a lot of free time and time to just be. That theme lasted a couple of years, and help me ensure my goals were in alignment with this theme.
  • I also think goals should follow the SMART protocol, or something similar. Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Based. There is a lot of material on the web and in books about SMART goals, so I won’t go into detail here. I will show you my format for specific goals coming in the next week, and give you a template to use, so stay tuned.
  • Another thing I like to do is separate out new goals from what I call “maintenance” goals. For example, I like to target a weight of 135, but want to never go above 145 (tied to my value of “health and vitality”). So while this hasn’t changed much from year to year, I like to re-evaluate it each time and decide if I like the routine I’ve set, the kinds of exercises I do, ask myself if I even want to keep this weight goal, etc. It’s led to a lot of fun exercise adventures (also ties to my value of “adventure”), as well as learning things like martial arts and Zumba. But keeps me focused on maintaining this goal.
  • Finally for this post, organize your goals into categories. Here are some common ones:
  • Financial
  • Physical
  • Mental
  • Spiritual
  • Career
  • Dreams/Fun

Next week I’ll show you my format for documenting and managing specific goals, then we’ll put it all together in summary.

Like always, I would love to coach you and up-level your life. Schedule time on my site to coach with me, and if you’d like to get periodic emails when I post a blog along with special updates from me, sign up below!