Goals and Resolutions for 2019
Every year I sit down to write down my New Years Resolutions. But how many times during the course of a year do I actually sit down to check my progress? Edit or revise the resolutions? Spoiler alert, it's not once. I never take the time to make these goals achievable, to give myself benchmarks or to reward myself when I have accomplished something.
Recently I found my 2018 Resolutions, written down and tucked away into a pocket of my 2018 planner. I wanted to take care of my skin more, be more fit/healthy, read 20 books, stress less and graduate with a job that I will enjoy and be fulfilled by. While the goals are commendable, there is no way for me to really track how I did completing them. Did I actually wash my face every morning and night? Or how many glasses of water I drank or servings of fruits and vegetables I ate each day? Or stress less? There's no way of telling.
I want to change that. My resolution for 2019 is to make specific goals, track them and achieve them. Most of these goals will be taking 2018's and making them S.M.A.R.T. (or specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound). I will do this through using a planner that is designed to help achieve goals and taking the time to check-in on them.
So without further ado, here are my goals for 2019:
1. Get Better With Money
This may not seem like a S.M.A.R.T. goal, and for right now it is not. Since I am not currently bringing any income in, I cannot accurately make a specific and measurable goal for my finances. Once I am employed, however, I will be sitting down to make a budget and a goal for increasing my savings and deciding what I want my money to do for me.
Until then I will be using resources readily available to me, like The Financial Diet (pictured above). This will help me prepare for when I will be able to create a detailed roadmap for my financial future.
2. Invest in Myself
This goal can be divided up into two sections: health and personal. For health I want to track how many times I work out for at least 30 minutes. This can either be a fitness class (I've recently gotten into Orangetheory), going to a traditional gym or taking a run around my neighborhood. At the beginning of 2018, I did track my workouts and doing so encouraged me to put in the effort and go to the gym. But with graduation, moving to Orlando and working at the Magic Kingdom, I lost the motivation and energy on going to the gym.
On the personal note, I want to foster and improve on my existing skills. This means taking the time, especially now when I am not working, to write, take photos and rediscover French. To make the first two achievable I will track how many blog posts I write (my current goal is once per week) and how many new photos I take. As for French, I want to read one French book per month and practice speaking with my sister (who is taking high school French) twice per week. While I majored in French in college, I believe that I have lost some of fluency since graduation and I want to rectify that.
3. Read 25 Books
Pretty straightforward. I haven't completed a reading challenge in a couple of years, so it will be great to get back into reading books for fun and my future development.
4. Reconnecting with Friends and Family
Even thought this is the age of social media, I am not the best at staying in contact with old friends, far away family members and work connections. This year I want to pledge to connect with one friend or family member that I haven't talked to in a while per week. I also want to expand my professional network, so my goal is to connect with three new professional contacts per month. This is extremely important now, as I am looking for my next career move.
While those are my current goals for 2019, who knows? I might come back in February or March with some tweaks for these goals or even a whole new set of goals!
What are your 2019 goals? How do you keep track of them?
Kara