Four Tips for Making Goals for the New Year

The new year is almost here and what does that mean? A sense of renewed motivation to better myself, time to make a goal list for 2010. Here are a few tips to help you make a goal list that is realistic and reachable.

1. Sort. Break down the areas of your life into categories and choose one or two goals for each area. My categories were:

• Physical Health
• Spiritual
• Family-one for hubs, one for son
• Personal-something just for me
• Home-aka housework
• Work-my blog and online marketing consulting since I am a SAHM

2. Specific. Don’t say “eat better”, say the exact action you want to achieve, like “eat two servings of vegetables everyday”. You need something concrete that cannot be argued or justified.
3. Simple. Pick something realistic to achieve. No really. For instance, I don’t do organized exercise. I don’t go to the gym, so I should not make a goal to workout for an hour five days a week. Make it easy enough that you will stay motivated to do it past the first week of the year.
4. State. Write down your goals and post them where you will see them everyday. I am probably turn mine in to a dry erase check list. It is also helpful to tell someone your goals so they can help keep you on track.

There are always hundreds of things I could list. I literally went through once and wrote down the time it would take to do all the things I would like to be routine in my household. It added up to about twice as much time as I actually have. This was a nice eye opener that I will never achieve my goals unless they are realistic.

Here are some of the things I came up with (see I am stating them so you can hold me accountable. 😉 )

• Health: organized exercise 30 minutes 3x per week (turning it in to a Biggest Loser type competition with hubs to keep motivated)
• Spiritual: Go to the temple once a month, Read scripture 5 minutes per day (already doing these as goals from last year so this will just be upkeep)
• Family: 1 planned date per month with hubs, 15 min uninterrupted play time with son each day (Again, I will have hubs and son to keep me on track)
• Personal: 1 non due date project per week
• House: 30 minutes cleaning in a non-regular use area per week
• Work: Double my blog readers

I am excited for the new year and can’t wait to get started on my new list of goals! What’s on your goal list for 2010?

Goal blocks photo source: http://www.thealexandergroup.com/cmsimages/goals.jpg
Goal poster photo source: http://api.ning.com/files/O0VmfBMQfMSEpywQc6x37YNJ9pxC79JwzazAkhOtulgw4*qmLm977asCXX12Nc-V-WNIcOpLlfS8KR3YEwgOhR*t8JA4*C-G/Goals.JPG

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