Hi friends! January is flying by, and so are a lot of new year’s resolutions. Eeek! Sadly, it is sadly true. By January 17th most people have failed their new year’s resolutions or goals and have gone back to their old ways. 2019 doesn’t have to be that year. I’m also a firm believer there’s no need to wait for January 1st to focus or re-focus on new goals. So today, I am sharing six tips to crush your goals, plus my goals for 2019 and how I plan to crush them.

The tips below are all based on my personal experience and what has worked for me. When I look back on the big goals I have achieved there are common threads.

How to Crush Your Goals

Reflection.

Before you set goals, it is so important to take a step back and think about what served you in the past year and what areas of your life need help or more attention. If you need a little inspiration, check out my 2018 reflection from earlier this month.

Be honest and focus your needs,

when you come up with your goals. I have struggled with comparing myself to others or setting goals based on where other people (with completely different circumstances) are in their lives. Don’t do that! Remember that everyone is dealt a different stack of cards and your journey is unique. Your goals should compliment that, and if they do, you’ll feel much more motivated to crush them.

Be real.

Now that you have an idea of what goals you want to accomplish, make sure they are realistic and achieves level for the next year.

For example, a couple years ago I knew I wanted to boost my running to be able to run a marathon in the following year. So, I made a goal to run 550 miles in one year.

Boil it down!

It’s great to have big goals or dreams, but make sure you determine how that boils down to monthly and weekly goals.

Using my same running goal, I determined that my monthly goal was to run 46 miles and my weekly goal was to run 11 miles.

Scheduling and tracking go hand in hand.

These are the best ways to hold yourself accountable and stay on top of your goals. At the beginning of each month I carve out time to write out my work, life and blog schedule. Then, at the beginning of each week I update my schedule and determine when I have time to fit in my various goals. I also use my planner to write notes and track my goals as the weeks and months go on.

For my running goal, I would schedule out my runs. Some weeks I could only fit in two 5.5 mile runs, other weeks I had smaller windows of availability and ran four times. Of course there were also weeks I was on vacation or got sick. That leads me to my final tip…

Give yourself a break!

Do not expect yourself to operate like a battery-operated robot 24/7. We all need a break here and there, some of us more than others, some of less. There will be weeks or seasons of our life when it feels extra hard to get things done. Remember that is normal. When you need a break, give yourself that time off and enjoy it fully. Don’t feel bad about it!

It has definitely taken me a lot of trial and error to figure out that these are the things that I need in place to crush my goals. There have been plenty of times where I felt like a hamster on a wheel and needed to take a step back and reassess. But now, with these steps figured out, I feel like I have much more control over my goals.

Hopefully, these tips are helpful for you too! I also love hearing about other people’s goals and plans, though I personally have shied away from sharing mine. I am letting go of that fear of judgement. I also want to focus on maintaining this blog as an authentic reflection of who I am and share more about myself with you all. So, for the first time, I thought I would share my goals with you all. Here they are:

My 2019 Goals

• Save money for a house.  This is a shared goal for Will and I. We each have a set amount of money we are trying to save this year and each month.
• More structure and routine.  This is a broad goal, but if you read my 2018 reflection, then you know why! By default, I operate on a very random schedule with so many different aspects of my life and it can over complicate things. I am talking about going to different grocery stores each week and driving different routes to the same location. I didn’t realize this was odd until a few years ago – ha!! I also wastes some of my mental energy! So, this year I want to streamline a few things. Currently, I have started with having a set bed time and I have a few other things I want to implement over the next year, like a more set morning routine. Am I the only one who operates in a similar way!? If you have any tips, let me know!
• Home improvements. We want to replace our carpet with hardwood or laminate floors throughout our place. I would also like to paint a couple rooms. These projects we will plan out during the months we know we will be around the most.
• Make more time for workouts. Working from home makes it hard for me to shut work off and as a result I started working out less at the end of 2018. This year, I have a goal to attend 8 Orangetheory classes each month. That works out to roughly 2 per week, and I schedule them out a week in advance.
• Goodbye, Diet Coke. Before my birthday in October, I want to stop drinking Diet Coke at home and decrease my daily caffeine intake. I have a plan to slowly ween myself off but I’d love to hear any advice on this front!
• Deep clean and de-clutter our home. Where do I begin on this!? This goal consists of several things I want to clean out over the next year. I am picking something to focus on each month, including the linen closet, my clothes, electronics and items to donate or post on Craigslist.

Whether you have already failed your New Year’s goals, if you haven’t thought at all about goals for this year, or if you fall somewhere in between, my hope is these tips will help you re-focus and plan an effective way to crush your goals, like the goal digger you are!

I would love to hear what big goals you have crushed. How did you do it? What long term goals do you have for this year and beyond? How do you plan to crush them? Let me know what you think and let’s chat.

Cheers!

Sarah Camille

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