Do You Know Where You Are Going?
There are times in all our lives that we wonder what happened to the hopes and dreams we thought we would have accomplished. We had such high expectations and special visions for our future but somehow, along the path, we accidentally took a wrong turn and got off course.
Sometimes there are goals that are no longer taking us in the right direction. They had importance when we set them but now they are not helping us toward our vision and purpose. It’s time to spring clean those goals out of our lives: thank them that they got us here and then let them go as we step into the next phase of our life.
Come learn how to effectively discover your deepest desires, gifts, passions, talents, and dreams. Then follow the very simple steps laid out in this blog post series which will show you exactly how to reconnect with the person staring back at you in the mirror.
Do you have a Vision for your life?
In the first post of this Self-discovery series, we discovered our Life Purpose, the meaning of our life. Then, in the next part, we wrote our Life Vision to manifest our dream life and fulfill our Purpose with the help of our Vision Board.
Having a vision for your life is a beautiful thing. It makes your dreams feel more concrete and obtainable. With a vision, you live with intention and purpose because you know where you are going. Without the direction of a clear vision for guidance, it is unlikely you will feel fulfilled because you will not base your decisions on what you want and where you are headed, but instead you will base them on the circumstances of the moment.
If you haven’t discovered your Purpose, set your intentions in your Life Vision or at least created a Vision Board, go back to those posts, and do it. You will thank me later. It will be so much easier to spring clean your goals after that.
Breaking down your Vision into Goals
Have you done it? Yes? Good 🙂 Now, to be able to actually take action to achieve your Vision, we need to break it down into actionable, smaller steps: goals. We have established what goals are and why they are important here.
In this blog post, I’m going to show you how to set goals for all areas of your life to manifest your dream life. We will spring clean those goals you set previously without knowing your Life Purpose and Vision.
I assume you have set intentions for all/most areas of your life in your Vision, for example:
Work/Study
Financial/Money
Relationships
Personal
Health
Adventure
Spiritual
Home
Now let’s break those intentions down into goals. If you have already set goals at the beginning of the year, let’s review, i.e. spring clean those goals and make sure they will take you closer to manifest your dream life you envisioned in your Life Vision and Vision Board.
Set your goals by category
The most important thing to remember when setting goals is that they need to be personal to you. If you’re just following a generic goal, you won’t have the same level of focus and motivation to achieve them.
So, ready for a little goal inspiration? Here are some great examples of goals. You can use these as inspiration to create your own goals.
You should always phrase your goals using positive words (e.g. I’m not going to check my social media every half an hour in school/at work is NOT a good goal. Good goal: I’m going to focus on my study/work 100 % and will only check my social media 2x a day during my breaks).
Use this undated printable Productivity Planner to set your goals by category:
Work/Business/Study Goals
We spend most of our lives working, so it makes sense to ensure you’re doing something you actually enjoy. Setting business and study goals are crucial to success. Think of the top business people in the world – Richard Branson, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos; all of them set goals they work to achieve.
When thinking about your work/business goals, consider the type of career you want to have. If you’re still at school or college, setting goals can also help you to focus more on your studies and help you to achieve better grades. So, if you don’t have them already, you’ll want to start listing your business or study goals now, so you can work towards success.
Here are some examples of work/study goals:
- I will create/finish X project in Y time
- I will write X articles in a months/year
- I will have X clients in a month/year
- I will sell X products in a month/year
- I will attend the X conference in Y at Z
- I will attend X training, course this year
- I will read educational books at least 10 minutes per day
Health goals
If you want to live a long and happy life, you’re going to want to focus on making sure you’re as healthy as possible. It’s easy to neglect our health when we aren’t working towards specific goals.
Your health goals could include anything from cutting down on alcohol, to getting fitter and boosting your immune system. Any steps you can take to boost your health is going to help you achieve a better quality of life.
Examples of general health-related goals can include:
- I will drink a glass of water every morning
- I will exercise at least 4 times a week
- I will eat fresh fruits and veggies every day
- I will go for a walk at least once a week
- I will take my supplements every day
- I will eat home cooked meals most of the time
- I will have a meal plan to simplify my cooking efforts
- I will set a strict bedtime routine to improve sleep (this needs to be more specific, e.g. I will go to bed at 11 the latest, I will meditate for 10 minutes, etc.)
Whichever area of your health you’re hoping to improve, setting goals can really help.
Relationship Goals
Relationships of all kinds require work to keep them strong and healthy. Whether you’re looking to improve your relationship with your spouse, a friend or with family members, setting goals can really help.
It could be setting a goal to reconnect with your partner via more regular date nights. Or maybe you could make more effort to meet up with friends for coffee? Think about the ways your relationships could be made stronger.
- I will organize a date night (or a few hours during the day without children) with my significant other at least every 2nd month
- I will control my temper: I will count to 10 and then use kind words with my children
- I will always listen to my family members
- I will talk to my parents at least once a week
- I will keep in touch with my friends (should be more specific)
Financial Goals
Let’s face it, focusing on finances isn’t exactly fun! However, if you don’t get on top of your financial situation, it can have a significantly negative impact on your wellbeing.
Financial goals can include anything from getting out of debt to saving more or gaining a higher income:
- I will save X amount every month
- I will pay into my pension account X amount monthly
- I will pay off the debt in X time
- I will increase my income by X this year
- I will invest X amount per year
- I will read X financial book and listen to Y financial podcast weekly
Personal Development Goals
By working on personal development, it really helps you to become a much better, happier person. By improving yourself, it’s going to help you to become much more successful, as well as mentally healthier.
The great thing about personal development is that it never really ends. There are always ways you can improve yourself and develop healthier habits. Whether you need to increase your willpower, improve your self-esteem and confidence, or improve your communication skills – setting personal development goals can help.
- I will have a morning routine
- I will concentrate on positive thoughts
- I will manage stress (sleeping enough, meditation, yoga, saying No, delegating tasks…)
- I will read books and listen to podcasts about self-improvement
- I will practice self-hypnosis to improve my weaknesses and achieve my goals
Spiritual Goals
You don’t need to be religious in order to set spiritual goals for yourself. The whole purpose of these goals is to help you to connect with your real self and ensure you are following your life’s purpose.
If religion is important to you, spiritual goals can help you to feel closer to god, as well as help you to connect with your inner self.
- I will express gratitude daily
- I will meditate for at least 10 minutes every evening
- I will do yoga at least 4 times a week
- I will practice mindfulness and being present every day
- I will listen to inspiring, motivational podcasts at least once a week
Adventure/Travel Goals
Even if you’re not a natural nomad, traveling delivers many great benefits. When you travel, it really broadens the mind and helps you to develop more empathy and compassion. It can also help you to realize what’s really important in life, giving you a much bigger picture of the world around you.
Think about the places you’d love to travel to and how much you can realistically afford to spend on travel this year.
- I will save money every month for our annual holiday
- We will visit a new country or place every year
- We will discover our surrounding area more
Self-care Goals
Despite how important it is, many people don’t even consider focusing on self-care. While it’s obviously important to become physically healthier, it’s just as crucial to ensuring you are focusing on your mind and wellbeing too.
- I will find more time for myself
- I will say No to things I don’t want or don’t have the capacity to do
- I will put moisturizer on my hands every day (I always forget :-))
Home Goals
It’s important that you enjoy your living space.
- I will spend as much time in the garden as possible and will keep it nice
- I will declutter the house bit by bit (one area per month, donating things we don’t use to charity)
- I will organize our photos, make photo books, and print photos at least once a year
The above are just some examples of goal categories everyone should have. Remember, in order to make your goals work for you, they have to be specific, easy to achieve, and personal to you. The more you set goals and achieve them, the easier it will become to keep them up.
Get The End Of Overwhelm ebook to find time to achieve your goals and enjoy your life too.
Implement your goals
This leads us to my next post on how to approach and achieve your goals.
Do you have a special goal you would like to share with me? Let me know in the comments or in an email. I’d love to cheer you on.
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