I am a goal setter AND a goal-keeper. I haven’t always been this way, in fact, I have only been a goal setter the last 6 years of my life. What happened 6 years ago that caused me to start setting goals? Divorce happened. Yeah, talk about a huge shakeup in my life that caused me to lose my footing. I lost my footing so much I just had no direction in my life. Everything I had known for the previous 15 years had just been shaken up, tossed around and dumped out and I had to make heads and tails of everything and basically had to relearn how to do life. I also had 2 children in tow so I had to get myself pulled together so that I could help teach them to direct their life also. It’s a big task especially when you don’t feel pulled together mentally or physically.

Fast forward to the end of the post if you want to download my free printable and start goal setting!

When I started to get my feet on the solid ground AND I was approaching 40 (quickly) I was talking to my brother-in-law. I was just telling him that I had no idea what to do with all these free weekends I now had (I shared custody so I didn’t have the kids 1/2 the weekends in a month). He suggested I make a 50 before 50 list. WHAT? That sounded crazy to me, but it also sounded like exactly what I needed. 50 things, big and small, attainable and unattainable, that would occupy my mind and give me things to work towards in my free time (which I hadn’t had since my kids were born!). So, I came up with a list. I’m still working on that list, but boy has it been fun really thinking of how to accomplish those things. Some of them were big travel dreams, some I’ve done (took the kids to India!), some I haven’t (YET! – Looking at you Machu Picchu). Some of them easer-to-attain (go overnight backpacking). Some have changed over the years (become an art director and creative director was attained by starting my own creative company!). And some have totally fallen off the list (Go bungee jumping – I watched my kids do it and just couldn’t manage to do it myself!).

Since that day 6 years ago, I’ve realized a couple of things about myself… I LOVE setting goals and I LOVE keeping them, and I’m good at it!! I’ve also realized that I do some things pretty consistently which has made it easy to make and keep my goals and I really want to share them with you. I now set goals for every aspect of my life, from business to personal and it definitely makes looking forward more fun, directed and interesting because I know that by setting these goals it’s just making me a better person, mom, wife, and business owner. Because setting goals helps keeps your life moving forward and there is so much joy in the planning.

5 Tips to Setting and Keeping Goals

1. Write them down

The best way to do this is set aside time that you will be intentional about this. I love to go to a local coffeehouse and treat myself to an afternoon to just dream about the things that I want to do. Big or small, hard or easy, write down your dreams, desires, want to do’s and have to do’s. Sometimes you don’t even realize that you have a dream until you start digging deep and really thinking about what you want for you and your life. You can write this all down in a “brain dump”. Anything that comes to mind, just write it down, writing something down isn’t a commitment to doing it but it is a way to free your mind to allow other things to surface. Don’t be scared to write something down. Heck, I wrote “bungee jump” down even though I am scared of heights! But, just writing it down made it seem possible to write other big and scary and impossible things down.

2. Organize them

Now, is the time to go through them and either modify them, put them in a hierarchy or just number them next to a checkbox. I put all my goals into a digital organization tool (Wunderlist) so I have it with me at all times. BUT, I also write down my goals in written form so I can look at them all the time (they are on the wall in front of my computer so I literally stare at them when I work). For me, having all of them written down in a long list gives me the freedom to spontaneously check something off my list. It doesn’t happen often, but I like knowing I could!

3. Plan for them

Seems silly to state but when I first started I didn’t actually think about the planning process. Run a 5k? No problem! Just write it down! Um, doesn’t work as easy as that. I actually have to work towards it (there is actually an app called Couch to 5k in 8 weeks). Same thing for planning travel (that safari in Africa is going to cost me a pretty penny!) and even weekend planning! This is where the joy comes in. I’ve realized that planning for something is actually sometimes more rewarding than going and doing it.

Ways to help you plan:

Set up a budget for items that need money – if you want to plan a trip somewhere for that year, figure out how much you need to save each month and budget monthly for it.
Set aside time in your day – If you know you want to exercise each day don’t just figure in that you want to exercise, actually figure out when in your day you will do it.
Set a cue during the day that prompts you. We make our bed everyday, but if I walk out of the room before making it, I usually don’t go back. So, our cue is, when we get dressed, we make the bed.
Put something on the calendar for a future goal completion. I want to take a vacation every quarter, that won’t happen if I just hope I’ll have a weekend free. I have to actually block out a weekend so we have the time to do it.

Finding a friend or getting your spouse on board that shares in that joy can make it more fun, or even just more rewarding. Creating a 50 before 50 list requires a lot of planning since I have to mark off 5 things a year. If I don’t plan ahead my year will pass by without me even thinking about it and luckily my husband has gotten on board with those goals so now they are things we plan together.

4. Track Them

Can I just tell you how rewarding it is to cross something off the list? One of the reasons I love using Wunderlist is that if you click a checkbox to mark it done it crosses the item out. I love seeing all the things I’ve actually done amongst all the things I still want to do. Sometimes it can feel overwhelming looking at a huge list, but seeing myself make progress year after year is so rewarding and motivating.

5. Make space for future dreams

While it can feel so easy to write down my dreams for the next 10 years it also didn’t create dreams that might pop in. Back then, I actually created a 35 before 50 years with 15 extra spots. It’s been fun adding a few things over the years that have just popped into my mind. Depriving myself of bread through a couple run-throughs of Whole 30 got “Bake sourdough bread from scratch on the list”. I can’t wait to try this! You grow and change and so should you. Revisiting your list every 6 months helps you notice if you have any new goals you want to tackle.

Goal Tracking & Free Printable!

To help get you all motivated to track those goals I created a few free printables for you. The first sheet is a Brain Dump. Go seclude yourself away for 1/2 hour and just write it all down. Don’t feel like you have to show this to anyone, accomplish anything on this list, or feel overwhelmed or intimated. Just write it down. Have fun and dream big. Then, once you have written it down go through and sort them out. Pick out a few things that you want to accomplish this year and write it down on the Year Goal List. Once you have chosen what goals to work on this, you can break it down into monthly goals to make it easier to process. Having the daily tracker helps with goals like “Lose Weight”. You can specify “exercise 1/2 hour” or “eat healthy” as the small goal and fill in each bubble when you accomplish that. Breaking large goals down into much smaller to-do’s helps you tackle seemingly impossible goals into finished goals.

Good luck in creating and crossing off those goals!