Coming out of the year that changed everything, it’s no surprise that I’m feeling a little different about setting goals than I have in the past. I’ve always been an avid goal setter and that has helped me accomplish and achieve a lot in my life. I still believe in the power of goals and will continue to set them, but I’m going to embrace some new attitudes that I think will be beneficial and more satisfying.

My Goals printable available in the Setting Goals Printables Pack and as a journaling card in the Setting Goals Pocket Card pack.

In the past:

• Goals were like checklist items. I didn’t feel good about them until they were completed and checked off.

• I felt a real sense of pride in having A LOT of goals. I was going to GET STUFF DONE!

• The same goals kept showing up on my lists each year because I wasn’t getting them done.

• My goals were BIG and had multiple parts to them.

• I always felt like I needed to do SO MUCH to improve myself - especially with my body.

New approach:

• My goals will be more like ideas that inspire me. Yes, I have things I want to get done, but life hands out task lists all the time. No need to add to that. For example: instead of making a goal to finish 6 photobooks, I will set the goal to work on photobooks. I know the “experts” say to be specific and concrete with goals, but I’m ok with breaking the rules on this. It’s more important that I work on photobooks at all instead of getting overwhelmed by the task. I have learned over the past few years (especially in 2020) that life hands you twists and turns in a flash. I found that almost every goal I set at the beginning of last year became unrealistic and unimportant as the pandemic unfolded.

• I’m only going to set a few goals. I like that my printable card has 6 spaces so I will probably limit myself to 6 goals. Or I could use more than one line to write out the goal or even keep some blank. If I feel the need as the new year progresses, I can always set more goals. I kind of like the idea of leaving some open-endedness to the whole thing. Why do we have to have our entire life figured out on January 1st?

• When the goals are too big or complicated, they are not achievable. When there are too many goals, it’s overwhelming. That’s why the same goals keep showing up on my lists every year. I want to change this.

• I do still need to lose weight. I do still need to improve my health. But I’m tired of feeling like a failure because of this. How about we all just take a break from that garbage and be glad to be alive? It’s kind of a miracle that we are at this point. Almost everyone I know gained weight in 2020. It was a hard year. We couldn’t be as active. We ate our feelings and turned to food as a coping mechanism (I sure did!). Instead of beating myself up, I’m just going to work on taking care of myself - both physically and mentally.

Tools for success:

I believe that including goals in our posts, scrapbooks, and journals is a great way to keep on track with them. It’s also a good way to connect to our family and friends who most likely have similar goals they are working on. I love sharing my goals with my husband and children. I want them to know that I care enough about myself to want to be happy and healthy.

Writing down goals is still one of the best ways to make them happen. I’m really excited about these notebooks that I had printed at Persnickety Prints. You can upload your own cover image so I used the 8x10 size of my Setting Goals Printables to make notebooks for myself and my daughter Riley. She loved the green one and I’m using the pink and multicolor ones. I’m going to use these to keep track of goals, projects, and creative thoughts throughout the year.

I’ve always been a bit of a notebook junkie and these are really nice! They are very sturdy and have high-quality paper. I like that you can choose lined, dot, or blank paper. And the spiral coil is not flimsy or cheap. I definitely recommend these!

I’m also excited to use all the parts of my Setting Goals collection as I go through this new journey of my kinder, gentler goal setting.

Setting goals is a creative activity:

Don’t forget to enjoy the process and use goal setting as a way to improve your own health and happiness. It’s ok to take it slow. It’s a gift to be able to have goals and dreams. My wish for all of us is that we continue to get the chance to pursue them.

“She wasn’t where she had been. She wasn’t where she was going, but she was on her way.”― Jodi Hills