Mark Victor Hansen, founder and co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series, once said, “By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands—your own.”
We couldn’t agree more!
Of course, here at Day Designer, we’re big fans of writing a lot of things down in our planners. And goal-setting is no different. Our 2018 Goal-Setting Worksheet helps to set intentional goals in five main areas: with yourself, your people, your heart, your resources, and your career. And we picked those categories with good reason—when setting goals, it’s important to choose those that cultivate balance in every important area of your life!
Often, when goal-setting we only think of things we want to improve about ourselves or things we want to achieve. That’s not always a bad thing, of course—but sometimes it means that you set your goals based only on one or two areas of your life; perhaps where you’re struggling the most at that moment. If you’re having a tough time at work, you may set a goal to get a promotion or negotiate a raise. If your friendships feel strained, you may set a goal to spend most of your time meeting up with friends.
But what about your personal care or growth? What about your time and money? What about growing your business?
When the areas of our lives aren’t balanced and we’re spending too much of our time on any one area, we’ll be left feeling overwhelmed, guilty, frustrated, and stuck.
It is possible to set and achieve goals that offer growth and improvement in each of the five main life areas we’ve identified! Instead of randomly picking goals to “fix” current problems, start with a goal-setting strategy that cultivates balance—intentionally setting goals that design a better experience in every important area of your life.
While this is helpful in the short-term, you’ll really start to see the value over the long-term, as well! When set on a yearly basis, balanced goals move you toward a balanced life that you have intentionally designed. And as you continue to implement balanced goals over the course of your life, you’ll find yourself not only moving towards your desired outcomes, but also coming into alignment with who you are and how you want to live.
And isn’t that the reason we set new goals or resolutions every new year? We all want to get closer to living a happy, healthy life that we’ve designed.
Throughout the rest of January on the blog, we’ll be showing you how to do just that! Each of the next five posts on the blog will cover how to set goals that cultivate balance in each of the five areas outlined on our 2018 goal-setting worksheet: yourself, your people, your heart, your resources, and your career. The beauty of this process is the order in which the steps fall: taking care of yourself first and focusing on what matters most. When these are in place, the rest will follow suit.
Have you already started setting goals for the new year? What life categories have you focused on? What life categories are missing? Share what you’ve started with us in the comments below!