I love a fresh start and I love New Year’s goals! There is nothing that makes me feel more on fire than chasing a new dream, tackling a new project, or planning a new adventure.
January 1st has become to the world, the ultimate fresh start. People all around the world band together under the umbrella of improvement and the energy is infectious.
For many, the energy and enthusiasm of fellow goal chasers in the New Year drive them to want to chase their own dreams as well.
Whether it is home improvement projects, reading lists, health improvement, or being more intentional with your time, chasing goals is a great way to make sure you are living your best life.
Having Goals is a Good Thing
If you are on the fence about setting goals I want to encourage you to look away from the salesy side of goal making and instead take a minute to think about your own life.
Creating new year goals doesn’t have to be a hokey, socially publicized affair. Setting goals is meant to be an intimate project with yourself. One where you challenge yourself to live the life you’ve always dreamed of.
If you are finding yourself wishing and wanting things to be different in your life, let me encourage you to take a step forward in creating and chasing your goals.
I cannot say enough about the importance of setting goals. Here are few reasons why I (and you!) should set goals for 2021:
1. Goals Are a Great Way to Establish Routine
2020 was a black hole that none of us expected. If you’re like me it still sometimes feels like March and you’re not always sure what next week will hold.
Life sort of took a sharp left turn in early 2020. Our normal routine was thrown out the window. We went from having busy social calendars to being home for weeks straight. Right before our eyes, the world just outside our doors became full of anger, sadness, and downright gloom at times.
As we say farewell to 2020, I for one am ready to get back to some semblance of normal.
Sadly, with the virus still looming, the world probably won’t look like our old “normal” for some time BUT that doesn’t mean our family can’t have routines and rhythms to anchor ourselves.
Setting goals for achieving our new normal will look like new daily schedules, life routines and rhythms, and new weekly habits. Each of these will provide a comfortable place for our family to come back to when life isn’t what we expect.
Related: Monthly Habit Tracking Printable
2. You Deserve to Chase What Lights Your Fire
2020 has been a year that has required all of us to sacrifice and change so much of our lives. And for many of us moms, we’ve had to dedicate the majority of our time to maintain some sense of “normal” for our families.
This new role has resulted in many of us feeling burnt out and frustrated at the loss of what we knew as our normal.
With 2020 coming to a close, it is time to think about what lights our fire.
In 2021, I am going to step out of mere survival mode for a bit and step back into the space that allows me to fill my own cup. I am going to chase the passions that light my soul fire!
3. Emotional and Physical Health is Not Only Important, it’s Vital!
You’ve heard it before, but it is worth saying again… we are best for others when we take care of ourselves.
Taking care of yourself means filling your own cup too!
As I mentioned above, it is time to chase our passions too. Filling our own cups means taking care of our physical and mental health so that we can be the best versions of ourselves for our families.
This needs to include prioritizing your own physical and mental health.
This means scheduling your own doctors and dentist appointments. This includes taking time to eat well and to move your body. And most of all this means taking time, on a regular basis, to heal and care for yourself mentally.
We have spent the last several months spreading ourselves so thin making sure that our families are safe, that our children are adjusting well, and that our homes are full of love. It is now time for us to take care of ourselves.
4. Goals Aren’t About Vanity.
They are about creating the life you want.
We are blessed with this one life and it is important to make sure we celebrate that by living our best life.
If you are feeling compelled to start a new career, chase a new dream, or take up a new hobby well then now is the time to take that step of faith.
Creating New Year’s goals doesn’t have to be about fitting into a certain size or looking a certain way on social media. Creating goals means you are declaring (if even only to yourself) that you aspire to live a certain way and you are ready to make it happen!
How to Set New Year Goals
So now that you are fired up about setting new year goals, it is important to spend a few minutes learning how to set goals.
Setting goals is not just about announcing lofty goals. It is about making sure you are setting goals and creating real-life steps that will help you actually achieve them.
1. Brain Dump
The first thing I like to do when I am ready to create my goals is to take 5-10 minutes and brain dump.
A brain dump is a simple act of writing out everything that is floating around in your head. Big things, little, things, and seemingly insignificant things.
It doesn’t have to be pretty and it doesn’t have even to be complete sentences. The idea is to simply clear your mind of all that clutter.
2. Consider and Analyze Multiple Areas of Your Life
Thanks to social media, New Year’s goals have become seemingly centered around personal fitness. But goals are meant to be created as a way to intentionally change and improve any area of your life.
Here are the areas I look at and create goals for:
- Personal. These are areas of self-care and personal growth. My personal cup-filling activities such as reading, journaling, and carving out time for God. Routines that make my life easier and decrease stress levels.
- Relationships. Goals surrounding my relationships with the people that matter most to me. Friends, extended family, spouse, and children.
- Health. Physical and mental health. Eating nutritious food, drinking more water, and moving my body. Spending time to refresh my mental space and keep my stress levels healthy.
- Financial. Budgeting to save money, pay down debts, and fill our sinking funds.
- Home. Projects around the house that make our house our home.
- Passions. Chasing dreams and projects that light my soul on fire.
These are the areas I choose to analyze each year, but feel free
3. Create New Year Goals for Each Area
Once you’ve looked over and given thought to each area, create goals that will help you to improve those areas in the ways you are hoping.
Some areas might have multiple goals while others have one or none.
Some of your goals might be simple and easy to accomplish in just one day while others are grander and might require multiple steps.
It is important to remember that there is value in the journey of achieving goals as well as the act of achieving them. So don’t be discouraged if a goal feels big.
Remember your goals are personal to you so don’t feel obligated to add extra just because.
4. Break Your New Year Goals Into Action Steps
One of the main reasons people give up on their goals is because they simply seem too big and too unattainable.
For many people, New Year’s goals are big and bold (and that is amazing!). But they can feel overwhelming when trying you’re trying to figure out how to get from where you are to where you want to be.
The road to achieving any goal isn’t made up of a single step. Most often these goals require multiple steps and time to achieve. This is why I recommend including a list of action steps for each of your goals.
Action steps are the boots-on-the-ground steps. These are each little thing you need to do to achieve your goal.
For example, if your big dream is to run a half marathon, you wouldn’t take off tomorrow and run 13 miles. Your action steps would include finding a training plan, buying shoes, scheduling time each day to run, and committing to run each day.
The same idea applies to every goal we set. Take a few minutes to break down the steps you need to complete in order to achieve your goal.
5. Make a Daily, Weekly, and/or Monthly Plan
Now that you have your action steps and know where you’re going, you have to create a plan for sticking with it.
I find it most helpful to create action steps for each month that will help me to achieve my goals. I love to use my monthly habit trackers to keep me on task.
New Year Goals Worksheet
Comment below what goals do you want to chase this year. Then sign up for my printables vault to gain access to my free Goal Setting Tools.
These worksheets will help you work through and create your goals for the new year!
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