2018 Goal Setting: Where to get started?

We are nearing the end of the first week of 2018, the first step of 52 baby steps we’ll take this year.  Have you worked on your 2018 goal setting?  If not, where do you get started? Where are you going?

For me, there is no better place to start than where I am and where I’ve been.  2017 was a huge year for me, I started making major shifts in my life.  Quite frankly wasn’t happy with my weight, my finances, my lack of life purpose and my relationships with family and friends.

I started making progress to make changes in my life and little by little these changes truly started to have an effect on my life.  I may not have met all of my goals for 2017, but then get disappointed I am choosing to look how far I’ve come.

A few things that I did in 2017:

• Lost 20 lbs
• Started making fermented foods – Kombucha, Kimchi, and so many more
• Reduced the amount of time I played video games
• Read 32 books
• Started my blog
• Received a promotion at work
• Got on a budget
• Paid of all my credit debt
• Made personal growth a priority upgrading it from a hobby
• Started working on developing a side hustle
• Started dreaming about a compelling future again

At the beginning of 2017, I wanted to change, but I was completely overwhelmed and didn’t know where to start.  For me, I just knew that i didn’t want to stay the same any longer! The pain was simply too great.

So, I did something that I was always good at in college.  I simply started asking myself questions. How am I?  Not searching for that generic answer… oh, “I’m fine.”  I started to rank categories of my life and how happy I was in those categories.

Make a list and try it for yourself:

• Health
• Friends
• Family (spouse included, if applicable… fur balls in my case)
• Finances
• Spiritual + Personal Growth
• Work
• Recreation

Taking this list mark on the list where you currently are on a scale of 1-10. One being you’re absolutely miserable and the only way is up and ten being you’re in bliss and life couldn’t be sweeter.

After being completely frank and honest with yourself, draw a vertical like after the ratings you just gave…. making a new column, where the rating now will represent the number that you would need to be at in that particular category to be happy with that aspect of your life.

If you have areas of your life that the rating stayed the same… picture me giving you a hard look of disapproval.  This disapproval isn’t out of judgement, it’s out of compassion because we all still have room to grow.  Even, if we don’t see it for ourselves.

What kind of person do you have to become to continue to grow in these aspects of  your life?

For me, 2017 and 2018 the top three areas that I want to grow in are Health, Finances and Spiritual/Personal Growth.  The easiest why to understand who you have to become the change you seek is to start with why you want it?  For me, losing weight… yes, may indeed help me to live a healthier life.  But being healthy is kind of abstract cause we don’t appreciate our health when we have it.

For me that isn’t a good enough reason.  Instead, I’d like to lose weight so I can be more confident with how I look naked.  Yea, maybe that’s TMI… but if that offends you, maybe you aren’t looking at how vulnerable it takes to be able to admit that.

My finances have gotten into much better shape in 2017 and I’m looking to build off that success in 2018.  I may destroy my student loan debt completely, it may take me a while to pay it off.  But I’m going to attack it with focus and intention.

In 2017, I read tons of books as we sited above.  To follow-up on that in 2018, I’d like to incorporate and apply some of what I learned in 2017 to become a stronger version of myself in 2018.

Are you ready to change your life?

If you are, please make a list as described above and choose make progress each and every week on at least on of the categories.  Instead, of viewing it as a “New Year’s Resolution,” why not view it as a beginning of a journey.

This journey may spam a season of your life or even the rest of it.  Why not make the rest of your life, the best of your life? If you’ve enjoyed this post, please do me a favor, share it and sign up to be notified of future post.