2020, how weird does that sound? I know we’re already a couple weeks into the new year, but I was a little slow on sitting down to write out my goals for the year. Is goal setting something you do every year?

For me, goals basically help to set the framework for the year and push me to consciously challenge myself. My monthly and weekly goals are constantly changing, but I always like to have a handful of longer term things that I’m striving for throughout the year. I think it’s helpful to set those small goals that you can achieve easily and quickly, because they help give you the drive and sense of accomplishment that you need to work toward the goals that take a little more effort.

So, since I’ve held off for long enough, let’s get to it.

Health Goals

Last year was a weird one for me in terms of fitness and my commitment to working out. I had streaks off and on when I would really get on track, but I couldn’t quite find a routine that was working for me until the end of the year. So with that momentum behind me, I want to keep it going and improve on all the different aspects of my fitness that I’ve been working on.

Here’s where I want to be this year:

• Workout 4x/week

• Build more lean muscle

• Run 4x/week

• Get back to running 1/2 marathons

• Practice Yoga 3x/week

• Work on flexibility & tightness to help ease back problems

• Close my activity rings more consistently (Apple Watch coming in strong with the motivation)

Nutrition can definitely be the sticking point to really getting yourself into shape, and it can be really hard to break habits and create new ones. I’ve slowly made changes over the years to make sure that my nutrition is supplementing and enhancing the work I put in at the gym, but I’ve also had a lot of issues with my gut health in the past two years. It’s been something that I’ve pushed aside and resigned myself to putting up with, but also something that’s always in the back of my mind. So this year, I’m working on that!

My nutrition goals for the year:

• Finish elimination diet to finally figure out my food sensitivities

• Cut out problem foods & work on gut health

• Be more mindful of buying things with clean ingredients

• Take vitamins/supplements every day

• Start the day with warm lemon water or warm apple cider vinegar water

• Plan out & shop for meals in advance

Personal Goals

As is the stereotype of most “resolution” lists, mine skews in the health direction, but I do still have a lot of little personal things that I want to achieve this year too.

These are the ones that made the list:

• Go to bed earlier!

• Become a morning person & wake up before work in time to get the day started & do some of the things I want to accomplish for the day

• Develop a good morning & night routine

• Work on being more patient

• Take Toby to the groomers more regularly

• (And speaking of Toby…) Get out to walk Toby more regularly

• Get my lawn in shape

• Clean out my closet & donate clothes I don’t wear

• Work on home office space & buy an office chair

• Finally make the switch to natural deodorant (will keep you posted on this journey…) & consider other natural products I can swap into my day-to-day life

Is it sad that the “fun goals” are the hardest for me to come up with? I’m such a planner in almost every aspect of my life, but when it comes to the fun things, I tend to like doing new and different things all the time, so it’s hard to nail down specifics.

What’s on the list so far:

• Plan some vacation time

• Start hiking regularly again

• Get in the habit of spending one weekend day each week to relax, recharge & not do any work

• Make time to read one book/month

• Host a party at my house at least two times this year

• Learn a new skill (either taking a class or self-teaching)

• Go camping at least once this year

• Get better at planning things to do with people

Finance Goals

Savings goals are probably pretty straight-forward—and vary for everyone, depending on the situation, so I won’t be getting too specific here (but you should make specific goals for yourself and plan out how you can reach each of those goals). Even if you don’t have much to start with, the earlier you start putting a little something away, the bigger the payoff will be when you eventually need it! A little chunk of change here and there is better than nothing.

My (vague) goals for the year:

• Meet savings goal for long-term savings

• Meet investment goals

• Save for a small trip

• Have 3 no-spend days/week

Okay, this is probably the most boring, and has nothing to do with my actual job, but I thought it deserved a mention anyway.

Goals for some of my side projects:

• Work on blog 3x/week

• Publish a new blog post every week

• Put in at least an hour/wk with freelance work

• Take on another freelance job

I think at the end of the year, I’ll do a little recap on how I did with each of these goals—what I accomplished, what I could improve on, etc. Let me know some of your goals for the year, and if you have any tips/tricks to how you keep yourself motivated to stick to them!

Happy 2020! (Tries not to make “New Decade—New You” reference…)