As the new year is upon us, some people may be thinking about goals. I have a few things I try to keep in mind when thinking about my upcoming year and what I want to accomplish. I thought I would share, in hopes you find it helpful.
Top 10 Principles For New Year Planning
#1. Think about your values and what is important to you. Are certain things non-negotiable? What areas are you wanting to try to improve on?
#2. Break up goals into personal, couple (if applicable) and family (if applicable). Even better, write them with your spouse or family so everyone is actively involved.
#3. Further break up goals into sub categories. Some ideas include health, learning, career and pleasure.
#4. I think of my goals more as a bucket list than a strict list that MUST be accomplished. It is more of a guideline for keeping us on track with things that are important to us for that coming year.
#5. Consider utilizing SMART framework. I will be honest, I don’t do this because I don’t want my goals to be hard and fast ‘rules’ I have to stress about accomplishing. If this is of interest to you, or maybe some of your goals you need to be really clear on, for example career specific goals, utilizing this framework could be beneficial.
Specific
Measureable
Achievable
Relevant
Time bound
#6. Write them down. Not only do I write them down, put I print them and keep them in my planner. Yes I have a paper planner and love it! If that doesn’t work for you, maybe in your bathroom, on your fridge, journal, nightstand or work desk. Somewhere where you will see it often.
#7. Schedule new tasks into your day. If your goals are actionable tasks, such as start meditating, add reminders on your calendar or phone.
#8. Consider habit stacking which is when you attach your new habit to something you already do every day. If it is take a certain vitamin or supplement, add it to something you already do with 99% accuracy such as brush your teeth.
#9. Evaluate every 3-6 months. This keeps you on track and allows time to re-evaluate if you need to. Again, schedule that re-evaluation.
#10. Don’t stress. This is meant to be a self improvement activity, not punishment or a chore.
Some of the things on my list this year are to take a Gut Health coarse that my Health Coaching school offers, travel, get back to daily movement, get back to regular dates with my husband, practice patience, connect more with my kids, and disconnect more from technology. And I have lots of ideas on more content to develop for you!
What is on your list?