Hello Fall: October Reflections
With only two months left in the year (yikes), it’s time to take another look at those New Year’s resolutions. I know, I know, but hear me out…
I personally love setting New Year’s resolutions; they’re something I spend a lot of time thinking about. I’m usually a tad overly ambitious, but I always have the intention on fulfilling each and every one of them.
I’ll revisit my goals throughout the year to evaluate my progress (and restructure some that just are not going to happen).
When you revisit your goals, it’s important to think positively and pay attention to what was accomplished. Think about why some goals worked and other didn’t, and then reset your strategy. Taking a few minutes every few months to go through this process will give you a much better chance of achieving your goals, which is such a satisfying feeling!
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My Goal Setting Process
My goal setting process is to choose a goal or two for each of the following categories: fitness, wellness, personal growth, professional growth, and productivity.
I design each in a way that is measurable. For example: instead of, “take up running” or “run more,” I’ll say, “run x number of miles a month, and x total for the year.”
Then I do my best to achieve them, knowing that it will be difficult.
Oh, one more thing, most of my goals have to do with my weaknesses. Those are the areas with the most room for improvement… and the areas that are the hardest to tackle.
Here are the goals that I originally set and how I’m thinking about them now:
Fitness Goals
As I mentioned above, I set a mileage goal for myself. I was aiming to run 500 miles in 2018, and I’ve currently run 61! Woops!
I was doing pretty well for a while, and then life happened. We moved cities, our new city was a muggy 90+ degrees for most of summer, and we did some traveling.
I’m not trying to make excuses. Instead, I’m going to reflect on the time that I was running regularly.
I’ve never considered myself a runner, and if I look at the times I was running regularly, I was able to log more miles in a single run than ever before! Success.
I know I can do this, and by looking at the times that I failed, I can start to figure out how to prevent that from happening again when I set my goal for 2019. I will become a runner!
Wellness Goals
My main wellness goal was to incorporate meditation and positive thinking into my life. I’ve known for a long time that I should build a personal meditation practice, but I had a lot of mental road-blocks (you can read about them here).
Unsure of how I would actually accomplish this one, my goal wasn’t measurable.
Although I don’t meditate everyday, I have made a conscious effort to do so as often as I can. I’ve meditated more this year than I ever have before. So… let’s just say I achieved that goal!
Personal Growth
I had two main personal growth goals
Learn Conversational Hebrew
In March, I signed up for three month Hebrew course and was able to learn quite a bit.
Since the course finished, I haven’t really been using the Hebrew I learned and I am starting to forget some of it!
Upon reflection, I decided to spend an hour a day reading over my textbook. I also purchased several children’s books (my current Hebrew reading level) to read during my “practice hour”.
Consciously telling myself that this was a goal I wanted to accomplish lead me to sign up for the class. I knew that I had no chance of achieving this goal if I didn’t have that daily obligation. It’s possible to do an online, self-taught course, but I knew I’d push it to bottom of my daily task list. This is an example of why it’s important to be thoughtful and strategic when drafting goals.
Read One Book a Month
Gasp! To avid readers this may seem so easy! But, as I mentioned, my goals are always focused on my weakness, and I have never been a reader. I’m ashamed to say that reading a book or two a year is my past average. I’ve just never been able to sit still for long.
Reading is really important. It improves memory, focus, analytical thinking skills, and vocabulary; it reduces stress, and possibly helps to prevent dementia. So onto the goal list it went.
To increase the likelihood of me meeting this goal, I made a list of the 12 books that I planned to read. Being able to check off a box is so rewarding that it actually encourages me to read (I’ve very driven by productivity).
Professional Goals
My main goal for this year was to launch my blogs – which I accomplished – yea! I set other goals for blogging milestones, but honestly, it’s pretty hard to know what to expect when you haven’t done it before.
Now that the sites have been up for a few months, I have a better idea of what to aim for regarding traffic statistics and growth projections, which I can use to set my 2019 goals.
Setting professional goals force me to think more strategically because they aren’t as simple as my personal goals. I have to determine how I’ll accomplish them. They also tend to be a lot more satisfying because they take so much more thought and effort.
Now that I have a plan for the next two months, I’m feeling more positive about 2018. I can end the year on a high note! I’m also going to be thinking about the goals that I want to set for next year, and I’m feeling really excited.
How do you motivate yourself to achieve your goals? I’d love to hear about what tips and tricks work for you!
