I talk about goals and lists and planning a lot. I’m always thinking of ways to meet my goals and ways to create good habits or break bad ones. I love lists and spreadsheets and just getting better in general. Personally, I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. I think you can start fresh any day of the year. You can set yourself up for a major life change just by making small adjustments to your life.

I’ve realized that making monthly goals, or periodically updating your goals is a great way to get them accomplished. In November, my dentist very forcefully said, you gotta floss every day. I printed out check boxes for myself and for Bret on every single day until about June. I have flossed every single day since then. After such a successful change in my habits, I thought, oooo, I’ll make a big list of check boxes and get a lot of new habits implemented! Yea, that did NOT work. I still wanted to try this check box method, so I’m trying something for January – goals and would be nice goals. Only five of my goals are on the check box list and only 2 of them are definite goals.

So what are my goals for this month?
– Some kind of workout/activity every day
– Read 9 books
– Write every day

Would be nice goals
– 10,000 steps
– Consistent Journey With The G’s media schedule
– 100 YouTube subscribers
– 50 Facebook likes
– 50 Instagram followers
– Bring in some additional income
– Get 3 book reviews*
– Finish first draft of road trip book
– No soda/energy drinks
– Eat breakfast
– More networking

I’m only using check boxes for:
– Workouts
– Writing
– Breakfast
– No soda/energy drinks
– 10,000 steps

Another thing I’ve realized about meeting your goals is setting yourself up for success. So I’m writing first thing in the morning after my devotions. It is one of the important things in my day and I want to get it done before I get into other things. I’m sure I’ll write at other points in the day, but I want to ensure I get a devoted chunk of time before my brain is fried. The fitbit has worked for me in the past, but when the band gets worn down, I stop wearing it (after taping it of course). I’m not sure why I didn’t realize this before, but I can order replacements from Amazon*. I now have a drawer of 12 colorful bands ready for changing out. I’ve already had a night of walking around the apartment just to get my steps. I made sure to stock up on books for my reading goals. I have a personal goal of reading 100 books this year. Since I’ve got a children’s book brewing in my mind, I plan on reading a number of kid’s books….this will help me definitely hit my reading goals. I’m already at 5 books out of 100, though, two of those shouldn’t count – Moosey Moose and Crabby Crab, I’m looking at you! One of the ways I read a non-fiction book is with a piece of notebook paper to write down things that stick out to me. Writing them down with pen and paper really help to solidify what I read. I have stacks and stacks of papers from read books and partially read books laying around. Last night, I found all of them, sorted them and filed them in an expandable folder – to be typed, partially read, and get again from the library. I can’t tell you how much mental space it gave me. Mmmmm, love me some organization.

What are some of your goals for this month or the year? What are you doing to make sure you reach them?

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