Setting Goals

I used to never understand goals. I never knew how they worked for people or how to even come up with them! I learned slowly through school that goals are really important to manage your time, life, sanity, personal growth, etc. I get bored really easily with life and I always have to be working towards something or else I don’t feel efficient. A way I learned to achieve this is by setting a main goal and smaller actions to get there.

As I have mentioned in my first post I am old school and like to write and plan everything out with a pen and paper. There is an exception to this with my goals. I still like to write them down but thanks to @alexandreagarza on YouTube I really enjoy an app on my phone to set my goals so I can plan them out and revisit them! I will get to this later on.

Tips to planning your goals:

1. Do not have too many. If you have big goals you shouldn’t have twenty of them to accomplish within a year. Habits are hard to build and a lot of the time getting in to the groove of what your goals are can take a lot of time. I like to keep my yearly goals to about 5 depending on how big/small they are

2. Big goals vs smaller goals. How I define big goals are things that you will have to prioritize in your life and invest a lot of energy into. For me my big goals were this blog, and my health. Those are the center piece of my life and things that I have to be working on everyday. Then I have a few smaller goals that I can intertwine with my life and can implement during other times. The reason why I have small goals is because i have a hard time focusing on them when I do not make them a priority in my life. when I do not have something to focus on/do during my days this is when i turn towards those smaller goals. they give me a purpose and it's not mindless things I would tend to gravitate towards. i.e. tv, social media etc.

3. Build steps that you know you can do to get things done. Not having stepping stones to get to your goals can make these things seem unachievable and unobtainable. brainstorming can also help you come up with a game plan to reach your goals.

Writing them down!

Sometimes I don’t always know what my goals should be! So brainstorming on paper helps. I write down what I want my goals to be and list them from most important to least important. I then will plan out my smaller goals that I want to achieve to get there!

---

I set other goals throughout my life as well and not just annual goals. So I don’t get overwhelmed I make a bucket list style goal sheet whether this be semi-annually or quarterly. For example, this winter I did absolutely nothing with my life. It was really depressing and I honestly can’t stand that I didn’t do more with myself. So I like to think about the things that I wish I would have done, or made more time for, and write them down for next season, or next year. A particular season I really like to do this with is summer. Especially when I was in school and worked less I had a lot of free time on my hands and I liked to have things to do that I wouldn’t always think about and that weren’t mindless.

---

Trello

Writing down bucket list goals are easier to keep track of/maintain because I can just throw them in my planner or hang them up in my room and the sheet stays there for a short period of time. Yearly goals however are not always as easy for me to maintain. I end up throwing my goals sheet in a drawer somewhere and forgetting about them. I watch Alex Garza on YouTube and she posted about this app Trello. It is everything I love in an app and I have tried so many planners, so many apps and nothing really works for me. I like Trello because it is customizable and I can put everything in its own category and in a list format. The app has even replaced my weekly planning routine that I used to do in my planner. I now just put it on my phone. Most importantly, this helps me maintain my yearly goals. I always have access to what I need to do (those smaller steps) and I can always find ways to implement those smaller goals into my weekly schedule.

Here are multiple images viewing my Trello from my phone and a few things you can do with it. I have multiple goals/to do's/lists under one file and you can add descriptions and checklists.

...and that's it! Setting your goals doesn't have to be complicated, and following through with your goal is as simple as just doing it! Gradually implementing new things into your life takes time. Notice when you feel an urge of an old habit kicking in and choose to implement your new goals instead.