Why You Need to Set Goals This Year

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January is halfway over. The month of fresh starts. The time when we open the book to a blank page, ready to fill it with great memories. The month when we resolve to make specific changes in our daily lives.

January is the month to change or improve our daily habits. It is when we revisit our goals and either change them all together or set out to achieve new ones.

Setting goals is an essential exercise for our overall well-being. Our goals become a daily driving force, motivating us to take action one step at a time.

Setting Goals Gives Us Direction

During my years as an ESOL (English Speakers of Other Languages) teacher, setting goals was second nature to me. There were benchmarks, or standard points of measure, used to assess my students’ progress in reading and writing. We guided our students to set goals for themselves as a way to build their independence and own their learning. This was often a beginning of the school year or quarter activity.

We explained goal setting and the purpose for it. We explained how to set goals and modeled the process for our students. This was followed by individual and small group conferencing or meetings with our students.

Taking the time to set these goals with our students motivated them to be active participants in their learning.  They were more productive in the classroom and more motivated to learn and grow as readers and writers.

Setting goals improved my instruction as I taught lessons with more intention and clearly knew where I wanted to go with my students. Each day’s instruction was a step towards achieving a goal. Some days the step was smaller than others, but it still moved myself and my students closer to reaching our goals.

Setting Goals Helps Us Manage Our Responsibilities

About two years ago, I became a mom for the first time. Between the sleepless nights, long nursing sessions, constant spit up that led to many daily outfit changes and the five plus dirty diapers per day, my job as a mom added a whole new realm of responsibilities to my life.

How was I going to take care of my sweet baby girl, cook meals, keep the house clean, do the laundry and take a shower?

How was I going to get everything done each day when all I wanted to do was snuggle with my newborn?

My husband was working long days as a computer programmer and swim coach so many of the cleaning and chores around the house were my responsibility. This is where goal setting came into play.

I needed to set small goals each day to help me keep my sanity.

These goals weren’t anything elaborate, just something for me to celebrate at the end of the day. We were trying to establish a daily schedule, but the beginning is all about trial and error, so I used pockets of time throughout the day to reach my small goals. Having these small goals written down on a sticky note or on a note in my phone motivated me and gave me direction each day, even if it was to do one load of laundry, vacuum the living room or take pictures of my daughter.

Setting Goals Gives Us A Purpose

Fast forward several months, 9 months to be exact, when training for the 2017 New York City Marathon began. I’ve been a runner since 2003. I became a distance runner when I trained for and completed my first half marathon in April 2011. I completed my first marathon, the Walt Disney World Marathon, in January 2014.

While training for these long distance races, I followed a training plan and set mileage goals each week. Setting goals as a runner is essential to your success on race day.

You log a certain amount of miles each day and each week in order to train your body to cover 13.1 or 26.2 miles. Runners set goals for how many days per week they would like to run and the number of miles they want to log each week. Runners also set goals centered around a specific finish time for a race. These goals give runners something to achieve when they lace up their shoes and go out for a run.

Setting goals and reaching those goals was sometimes easy and sometimes hard.

Training for the 2017 NYC Marathon was challenging in that I was balancing being a mom with getting my daily runs and weekend long runs logged each week. There were specific times I needed to start my runs so I could be home by the time my husband needed to leave for work. Waking up early meant I needed to be in bed much earlier, usually before my husband was even home. Some nights, my daughter woke up a few times. Some days waking up early in the morning was a struggle, but the goal I set was in the back of my mind telling me to get up and go (and so was my Running Coach!).

Once I finished my run, I felt rejuvenated, stronger, and happier. My day started off a success when I woke up, got out of bed and went for my daily training run first thing in the morning.

It helped to have a running friend who was training for a marathon a few weeks before mine! We motivated each other before and during a run. We both set a goal of finishing our marathons under four hours. This required us to do our long runs at a certain pace and incorporate speed work into our weekly training plan.

Setting goals when you are training for a race or just running for recreation propels you to go.

Setting Goals Helps Us Feel Less Overwhelmed

Not only is the practice of setting goals essential to my success as a teacher, a mom and a runner, it is an important practice as a homemaker.

Managing our home is a lot of work and can cause me to feel overwhelmed at times. I have learned that setting goals helps me feel like I am in control and less overwhelmed.

My husband always encourages me to set small goals each day and sometimes he helps me set these goals. He wants me to be happy and enjoy my time at home, as opposed to being stressed out all the time.

A huge goal of mine each week is to tackle small cleaning tasks each day so that my weekends are not spent cleaning the house or doing mountains of laundry. Instead, they are spent playing with my daughter, spending time with my husband, visiting with family, spending time with friends or just relaxing at home. This weekend vision of mine is always in the back of my mind, motivating me to take action each day.

Making the weekends about family, friends and fun is important to me and a weekly priority of mine. This is the reason I set goals each day and each week. My days are more productive and I use my pockets of time each day (early in the morning, naptime, when my daughter is engaged in independent play, while my daughter is eating lunch or having a snack, after bedtime) in a more efficient way. The small tasks or goals I accomplish throughout the day add up. Before I know it, the house is clean and the bulk of the laundry is done.

Setting Goals Gives Us A Clear Focus

I started this blog in February 2017 as a way to share about all of the things I enjoy doing.  

I wrote a few posts, but was struggling with staying consistent when it came to writing blog posts and creating content.

I spent more of my time reading other blogs, learning about the world of blogging and listening to blogging webinars. I just kept collecting tons of information and making lists of blog post topics, but not putting anything into action.

Each month went by and I was disappointed with my progress as a blogger. I knew I needed to take action in order to see progress, but I wasn’t motivated to write content. The writing felt like a chore and that is not what I wanted from blogging.

When January rolled around, I decided that I needed to get serious about my blog and take some action. I stopped collecting information and decided to set some blogging goals. I decided to focus on one area of my blog at a time before moving on to something else.

The first goal, and probably the most important one, was identifying the mission of my blog. This took a lot of time spent brainstorming, mind mapping and thinking. But once I figured out the purpose for my blog, things started to fall into place. I enjoyed writing blog posts, interacting with other bloggers in Facebook groups and posting to Instagram.

Setting these goals gives me direction and a clear focus.

I see the big picture and have identified the actions I need to take each day, week and month to turn this big picture into a reality.  

Sometimes the hardest part about goal setting is taking that first step towards reaching those goals. However, what I am learning is one step turns into two steps, three steps, four steps, five steps and soon you have reached your goal. It is all about taking that first step.

Setting that goal and taking that first actionable step starts the momentum you need to accomplish great things.

Why Set Goals?

Setting goals is an important exercise to implement into ALL areas our daily lives.  Setting goals….

• Gives us something to work towards
• Gives us something to reach for
• Gives us direction in our lives
• Gives us daily clarity and focus
• Improves our time management and productivity
• Helps our big picture become a reality
• Motivates us to take action

What Are My Goals for the New Year?

Here are my BIG goals for the upcoming year.

The tasks I choose to accomplish each week are purposeful and help move myself further, our home further and my blog further.

Writing these goals down helps to clear up the things that have been swirling around inside my mind.

I am so excited about the new planner I purchased. The Simplified Planner by Emily Ley includes a monthly calendar with space to record your monthly to-do items & a Simplicity Tip for the month. The weekly calendar is designed with enough space to write out your plan for the day as well as a section for your daily to-do items. This planner is the perfect tool for helping you record your daily, weekly and monthly goals 🙂

These are my 2019 goals for the areas of Home, Family, Motherhood, Self and Blogging:

Home

• Minimize the clutter within our home by creating an organized system in each room/area and by removing all of the “extra” things we don’t need or use
• Decorate our home with intention by focusing on the quality of our home decorations as opposed to the quantity – Display those things that are meaningful and represent our interests as a family

Family

• Be more present
• Make the weekends centered around family

Motherhood

• Plan out daily learning activities for my daughter
• Spend at least 30 uninterrupted minutes per day playing with my daughter
• Spend less time scrolling on my phone and using my phone when my daughter is awake

Self

• Don’t feel guilty about doing things for myself and logging some “Me Time”
• Read at least one book per month

Blogging

• Increase the traffic to my website
• Write consistently (at least 30 minutes of writing per day) and publish 3-4 blog posts per month
• Become more systematic with blogging tasks, managing social media and create a blogging schedule

What are your BIG goals for 2019?

How are you going to reach these goals?

Share your goals with me in the comments below. I’d love to encourage you to reach the goals you have set for the new year!

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