I love setting goals, but setting them for the full year has held less charm for me this time around. Over the last couple of years I’ve started setting goals monthly (see some of them here and here) and that’s worked really well in my life. I just find a month to be a much more manageable chunk of time to work with and be productive within. So this year I’m setting more general goals and intentions, with a plan to set more goals by the month as things shift and change over the course of the year. I’ll also be doing a 25 before 25 list for my birthday (see 24’s list here). You can see my goals for 2014 here – I actually “accomplished” all of them!
Goals
1. Read 75 books: My reading goal has always been my most beloved and important goal over the years. Whatever I do in my life, I want to keep learning and growing and understanding new ideas and perspectives and for me, reading is the best way to do that. Plus, it’s so fun! This year a blog reader sent me this awesome reading challenge designed to encourage you to read a wider variety of books. I made a fill-in-the-blanks chart if you want to take part in the challenge yourself – there are 53 book prompts in the challenge. Last year I managed to read 75 books despite working full time most of the year and the pace never seemed too overwhelming, so I’m trying again this year! You can see what I read here.
2. Learn to speak Spanish conversationally: I’ve been learning Spanish on and off since high school but have never really mastered it. I speak French fluently, and the languages are so close that I figure I don’t really have an excuse not to learn Spanish! I’ve been using Memrise to learn vocabulary words and the Duolingo app as well. I’m hoping to find someone to practice speaking with (or even just write poorly-written letters to!) so that I can improve even more.
3. Meditate daily: I have really tried to incorporate meditation into my daily life these last several months and I’m starting to really love the practice. I’m hoping to continue and am aiming for at least 10 minutes of meditating every day.
4. Keep a gratitude journal: After reading The Happiness Advantage, I finally decided to put this common piece of advice into practice. I bought a little notebook and have been taking time each day to fill in a page with all the things that made me happy that day. Sometimes the things are silly and sometimes they’re serious but looking back on the filled-up pages makes me feel really happy, and always shifts my perspective to positivity and appreciation.
5. Move: I bought a Fitbit earlier this year and have been using it to track my daily steps. In 2015 my goal is to take at least 10,000 steps a day. This won’t completely take the place of other forms of exercise, but 10K is more than I take in the normal course of my day, so this goal definitely makes me move more than I would otherwise.
I am using these daily goal trackers from Make29 to keep track of these three daily goals for the year. You can see mine here.
Intentions
- Travel more
- Worry less
- Keep in touch better with loved ones
- Embrace the arbitrariness of life and live with more whimsy and “why not?”.
- Be helpful in every way, every day
- Listen to my gut
***
You can hear more about my goals and intentions for the year on last week’s podcast. More goal-setting posts: 2011, 2012, and 2014.
What are your goals or intentions for 2015?
