Halfway Through: How I'm Setting and Achieving Goals for the Remainder of 2024
Have you ever been walking to the car in the summer July heat on an afternoon after work and asked yourself *where has the time gone?* The older we get, the shorter our years are, so time begins to pass faster and faster as life gets busier and busier. On your commute home, you begin to wonder what you've done all this time.
Maybe you struggle to name anything, or maybe the goals you accomplished this year are prominent in your mind. Maybe you've been focusing a lot on a promotion, a hobby, or your health, and you feel like you need a change. This is why I highly recommend discovering a goal-setting method and prioritizing it.
It's been six months since I checked in with my overall goals to make sure that I'm on track to accomplish them.
New Year’s Resolutions
At the start of 2024, I sat down and brain-dumped my goals.
I threw anything I thought of that I wanted out there and wrote it down. I didn't worry about its do-ability; I didn't give myself constraints; I just brainstormed a list of things that would enrich or enhance my life. Some examples were:
Lose 25lbs
Grow long term & emergency savings
Start my YouTube channel & post monthly videos
Make time for friends a priority
Read more fiction
Develop rituals for the New Moon & Full Moon
I've made progress in some of these things. Some of these things... I'd be embarrassed to share that I have yet to progress the way I would like. And some of these things you'll see pop up on my goals for the rest of the year.
Then July Came
So, for my half-year check-in, I did the same thing.
I used a different template (since I recently switched back to using a paper planner rather than my iPad), and as the year began to dwindle and as the July heat turned to autumn breezes, I naturally focused my attention on fewer goals. I found that this change allowed me to really dive deep into my remaining goals and give them the attention they deserve.
I have been reflecting a lot on my life over the last few weeks, so I didn't need to do a specific review or guided program to see the areas in which I wanted to grow. However, I have in the past used the Level 10 life system, and I highly recommend The Painting a Life workbook by Julia Dawn Designs.
I categorized my goals into the following areas:
*Financial*, which encompassed budgeting, Savings goals, Big purchases, Investments, & Wealth management.
*Career* involved Job development opportunities, Career changes, Social media goals, & Project management.
*Relationships* which refered to Family, Dating & romantic relationships, Friendships, & even Coworkers/acquaintances.
*Health & Wellness* which involved Exercise and fitness, Diet changes or eating habits & Making doctor's appointments & getting referrals
*Spiritual* was a category defined by your relationship with spirituality, but generally, it can be summed up as rituals or events you want to attend and connecting to values or a community.
*Personal* became a catch-all category that featured goals related to Reading books, Writing goals, or learning more about topics.
*Other goals* is another catch-all, but it primarily became a location for goals that didn't quite fit into some categories, including Personal goals, like Household projects and Creative projects.
My Goals!!
You can download my template for goal setting here.
From there, I can set SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) when appropriate throughout the rest of the year.
Wrap Up
This is just Pt. 1 of my goal-setting series! I love having clearly defined targets and actions, so I've spent a lot of time practicing and learning about the best ways to set myself up for success.
