Image via RowdyKittens @ Flickr
Given that this is a 3 day work week for many people, I just decided to take the whole week off from my freelancing. Or well, at least I won’t stick to my writing regiment as strictly.
You may recall that I wrote about the importance of taking breaks. Well this week is going to be similar, except instead of completely relaxing and doing nothing (since I am incapable of doing that anyway), I will instead be focusing on setting my goals for the next year. I already started planning out some of my financial goals, now I need to see what other goals I have and get the ball rolling.
Sitting Down and Setting Your Goals
In The Art of Non-Conformity, Chris Guillebeau talks about how he sits down every December and figures out his goals for the coming year. He then sets up an action plan and looks back at the list a few times within the next year to keep him in check.
I plan on doing the same thing, except I started in November simply because up until recently there was ZERO organization in my life. I also decided to combine Guillebeau’s annual goal setting routine with The Simple’s Dollar’s idea that goals should match your values. So what I ended up with was a chart of values, lifetime goals, and 1 year goals that were related to my lifetime goal. This way I am able to see how all of these things are connected and start writing down some action plans. Once the action plan is written out I can dedicate this week to putting some of those plans to work.
Goal Connection Example
I know it may sound a little overwhelming so let me give you an example. One of my values is Family. My lifetime goal is to have enough money saved up in funds so that if something were to happen to me my future family (or my family now if I die young) could use those funds. Within the next year my goal is to set up an IRA and within the next week I will finish reading Ed Slott’s The Retirement Savings Time Bomb…And How to Defuse It.
Wrap-up
See? It does actually make sense! The hardest part about this exercise is mostly just figuring out what your goals actually are. Once you have that figured out it becomes easier to write out the steps needed in order to reach said goal. Furthermore, setting aside time this week to put a plan in action ensures that I actually START working on my goals.
My other yearly goals include a fitness routine, expanding my writing portfolio, writing an e-book, and helping people through my blog. In other words, I have a pretty busy week ahead of me.
Now it’s your turn…
What are some of your values and goals? How will you work for them in the coming year? These are all important questions to ask yourself no matter how old you are. In fact, the earlier you start the better it will be for you in the long run. If you need a visualization aide to get you started I am sharing the template I made while I was figuring out my own goals. You can download the template here.
Books Mentioned in This Post
Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!