Three of My Biggest Goals for 2016

At the beginning of February I wrote 7 Tips for Setting Goals. I made that list of tips based off my experience working on my goals this year. As I mentioned then, I have a list of 52 Goals in 52 Weeks that I'm trying to complete, with the dealing being the end of 2016. It has big goals and small goals, so I need to stay organized to make sure I focus on different goals at different times and take steps to get it all done.

Today I want to talk about 3 of my bigger goals from that list, and what steps I'm taking to complete these goals.

1. Write a Book

Something almost no one knows about me is that I used to love to write. Starting around the time I was 10 years old, I started writing. Mostly sappy, sad little love stories. In 2001, I started writing a story that has been with me ever since. 15 years! I named one of my main characters, a male, Kelley because of my then obsession with Chris Klein and the movie Here on Earth. I've been writing small parts of that story for years but have never done an actual full draft of the story. The story also needs a ton of work as most of the ideas for it were thought up when I was a teenager. My goal is to have a full rough draft of this novel by the end of 2016.

Sub-goals (so far):

- Write 1000 words per week
- Read 'Emotion Amplifiers' e-book

Progress:

- Wrote 885 words week one
- Came up with a lot of good ideas for changes
- Started outline for the first section of the book

2. Start and Grow a Blog

I haven't set very specific goals on this yet, but I want my blog to be helpful to others and fun for me. One week ago, I made my first real post: 7 Tips for Setting Goals and my second post was Why We Need More Honest Parenting Stories. I'm still working on post ideas and what things I enjoy writing about. I hope they'll all come together

Sub-goals:

- Work on blog design
- Start a binder or notebook for blog ideas
- Write, write, write.

Progress: 

- Two posts down so far.

5. Grow my personal Twitter to 200 followers

I started February 1st with 33 Twitter followers and I'm already up 15. I'd say that's decent progress for a week. 

Sub-goals:

- Tweet
- Retweet
- Converse
- Follow interesting people

Progress:

- As I mentioned, up 15 more followers in a week. Not bad.

So I'd say overall things are going well so far. I'm definitely keeping myself busy with the first two goals, but I'm really enjoying myself with both. 

What are currently your biggest goals?

7 Tips for Setting Goals

I'm a very goal-oriented person. Usually. Sometimes I forget to set goals. Or sometimes I have so many goals and to-dos that my head is like a blizzard of ideas. This year I seem to be the latter. So, so many goals. 

This year, one of my goals was to organize my goals. See how complicated this is getting already? 

So here are the steps I'm trying to follow. Also known as my advice on how to set your own goals.

1. Make a Master List

I used Day Zero Project and made a list: 52 Things in 52 Weeks. I still don't have a full 52 items on my list, but I added as many things as I could think of that I wanted to accomplish this year. Now, you don't have to go overboard like me and try to think of 52 goals. You can just make a reasonable list of a few goals, or hundreds of goals if that's your thing. Just remember, the more goals you have, the more overwhelming it can be. 

2. Prioritize Your Goals

Figure out which are your biggest, most important goals. Figure out which ones you want to focus on first. I chose 'Write a book', 'Start and Grow Blog', 'Organize My Goals' and 'Have a Baby' <-- Hah, not kidding! Some people may choose to pay off a certain large debt or start a healthier lifestyle or change careers. 

3. Set a Deadline For Each Goal

Now my deadline for all my goals is by the end of 2016. Your deadline can be anything that works for you. Make it realistic and attainable. Some people can write a novel in a month (see NaNoWriMo) but that's a huge goal. I know I can't manage that with a full-time job, a husband, a 4 year old and some cats. But by the end of the year? I think know I can do that! 

4. Make Sub-Goals

Focus on each large goal, one at a time and make sub-goals. For 'Write a book' I decided I wanted to try to write 1000 words a week. I have a goal to keep my desk and room tidy so I can focus during writing time without getting distracted. I wrote 'tidy desk' in my planner on each Sunday evening slot for the next couple of weeks as a reminder. I want to start the week fresh and ready to go. For 'Start and Grow blog' I made a sub-goal to start jotting down post ideas as much as possible. I also have the goal of posting regularly - starting with once every Monday. 

5. Find a Way to Organize

If you have a planner, write in your deadlines. Schedule in some time to work on your goals - like an evening to write, a morning to go to the gym. Or use a notebook to keep your goals written down with sub-goals and deadlines. For me, I use Day Zero to keep my goals all listed, a notebook to keep track of bigger goals and sub-goals, and I plan some goal time in my planner. I write down my deadlines in RED to stand out. 

6. Motivate

Make sure to keep yourself motivated to complete you goals. There may be times where you feel like giving up. You can do this either by setting rewards when you reach certain milestones - such as a fancy, expensive pen you've been wanting after you write 5000 words in your book. Or your favorite piece of cake after you've managed two weeks of healthy eating. Or find a friend to hold you accountable for completing your goal. Someone who can act as your cheerleader. Maybe quotes or songs are more your style. This saying, found on my to-do list notepad/mouse pad from Chapters Indigo gives me a little boost of encouragement sometimes when I need it. 

I will have more on motivation at a later date!

7. Complete & Celebrate

Make sure to celebrate and give yourself credit when completing your goals. Not everyone is so dedicated. Blog about it. Tweet about it. You did it!

What are you goals for this year or this month?

Items seem in this post:

My amazing pens shown in the post photo. I use these to color code my planner and color code lists. Sometimes I use them to simply doodle and color. I only have the 10 pack but now that I've tried them, I'm dying for the 20 pack for more variety.