Happy New Year! Welcome to the first best year of your life! Well, it will be if you have the right mindset and are ready to get to work! Before you do, we need to establish some guidelines when it comes to New Years Resolutions and Goal Setting.
If you watch my YouTube channel, at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJuWbC7-oQ_qAl205tIrGzA , you will know that I love talking about goals. (Note: If you want to read more on that, you can check out my other Blogs on Goal Setting too!) I started my online business over two years ago, and I also became really interested in goal setting. I realized that if I wanted something, I needed to come up with a plan. (Speaking of which, this post is not sponsored, but my favourite goal setting system is currently the Cultivate What Matters Powersheets Goal Planner. (Check out my affiliate link here: https://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=798554&u=2840420&m=62537).
I have been using this system since the start of my business and it has let me progress farther than I ever thought possible. I am a hyper productive person, but this goal planner allows you to find a happy balance between being productive and caring for yourself. I am extremely happy that I found it and now I wish to share my experience using it with you!
Despite finding the Cultivate What Matters Planner super helpful, I still occasionally investigate what else is on the market. I love to read and I occasionally pick up useful information which I pick apart until it works for me. In other words, I take the information that is useful or helpful to me, or I take the things I like and discard the rest. This is what I encourage you to do. If there is something I say that does not resonate with you, feel free to ignore it and take it with a grain of salt. But, if you find anything useful or helpful I want you to do two things:
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Leave me a comment down below telling me what has helped you
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Don’t just read it and ignore it - put the idea or tactic to use in your own life, because I want to help you succeed at your own goals!
At the beginning of every new year, I notice a few things. The first is that people like the idea of setting New Years Resolutions. We seem to have this belief that a new year is a new start, when actually, every day can be a new start. You do NOT need to wait for January 1st to roll around to change your life for the better. The second thing is that people seem to forget all the wonderful ideas they had at the beginning of the year. They might work out every day for the first few weeks or months, and then slowly make excuses as to why they stopped.
The key I think, is knowledge and balance. These two things put the power back into your own hands. You can truly get more accomplished than you might think. Let’s start with some basics first.
Resolutions - (Usually termed New Years Resolutions for the reason stated above). This is the purpose, or the mindset or feeling of something that you want to change in your life. For example, you might want to reconnect with yourself, so you might want to become more intentional or mindful of how you spend your time each day.
Goals - A goal will help lead you to your resolution. We need to be careful here, because resolutions and goals are used back and forth interchangeably, when in fact, they are quite different. Using the above example, a goal might be to cut back on watching social media so you have time to journal every evening before bed. This will help you reconnect with yourself.
Tasks - these do not have to be associated with a goal or resolution at all. (I.e. You might not have a goal that pertains to food or healthy eating, but you still need to eat, so one of your tasks will be “Go to the grocery store”. However, goals and tasks are also used interchangeably as well. Goals are often considered to be bigger, over-arching things that take many, many steps, or can take time. (For example, running a marathon takes time and training. In another example, you might want to go to Europe but there will be many things you need to do before that can happen).
Let us now lay out the different types of goals so that it may be easier to understand. The first time I saw this was in the MäkseLife Planner, but these terms have been used in the same context before the planner came into being.
Maintenance Goals - Goals you work on every day, or every week. (I.e. Drinking 8 glasses of water every day to maintain health). It is something you do all the time, and continuously. The “goal” is to maintain health, and the task is to drink the 8 glasses of water each day.
Progress Goals - Goals that you need to work on over a longer amount of time, or a goal that needs to be broken down into smaller steps (aka. tasks) in order to achieve it for a certain date. These goals are usually monthly, quarterly or yearly. (i.e. Starting a YouTube channel, or your own business).
Stretch Goals - These are long term goals, over a period of many years; more likened to dreams or aspirations. (I.e. Traveling the world or owning your dream home).
I have seen similar terms in the new 2022 Cultivate what Matters Goal Setting Planner. These are Habits, Finish Line Goals and Big Dream Goals respectively. These are more descriptive terms, but the meaning is the same.
I recently watched a YouTube video from Plan With Laur. (You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vG7DRW4vjE). From what I have seen, there are usually two things that happen: either you blur the lines between goals and tasks, or you really try to separate the two until your goal no longer even makes sense, The reason that I mention it is that I want to make the distinction between tasks and goals a little more clear. In the video, Lauren states that she blurred the lines between the two, and that is a mistake because they are completely different. In my opinion, tasks are an important part of a goal, and you can’t have one without the other - there is simply no getting around it. Tasks are all the little parts of the parent goal, and in order to achieve the goal, you need to complete the tasks,
I think the reason we may get discouraged about our goals is because maybe the resolution that you established is not a good fit for you. Either that, or your resolution or goal does not match your core values. In order for you to want to achieve your goal, you need to value the end result or the process. You won’t end up reaching any milestone if you give yourself tasks that you hate doing. If the “why” behind the goal is important to you, you will most likely reach the finish line.
I hope this cleared things up for you as you begin to establish your goals for the new quarter and the new year. Keep in mind that as long as you create goals that match with what you value in life, you will not only achieve the goal, but the process will bring you happiness and fulfilment.
Happy Goal Setting!
Sandra 🌈
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