If you’ve followed our blog for long, you know that every year, I (Cindy) set goals for myself. I used to do this on social media, but in recent years, the settings have changed, so I’ve switched to a blog format over the past few years. You can find my goals from 2020 going into 2021 here: 2020 Goals, and my goals from 2021, going into 2022 here: 2021 Goals.. Last year’s goals are here: 2023 Goals.
Why do I set goals? Because I believe setting goals helps provide a direction of where to go. A plan. Do I always stick with the plan 100%? No. Life happens. Sometimes its really hard to meet the goal! But every little bit of progress I can make is more than if I didn’t try to meet the goal at all. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I often set my goals around projects. Setting goals around those projects help me to make a plan to get things done.
Projects are anything that takes time and energy, and in order to complete those projects in a timely manner, I need a plan.
My goals for 2024:
Over the past few years, I’ve been learning that I really need to narrow the goals I choose down, and have fewer of them. Last year, I set 5 goals, but some of them were not very specific and one of the goals really had multiple larger goals within the goal. There are only so many hours in the day. I don’t include career goals in with my personal goals, as I set those separately, along with household goals, reading goals, faith goals, family goals, etc, but I have to keep in mind the reality of how much time I actually have in a day. Goals are just words unless you have a realistic plan to actually complete them.
That’s not an excuse for not reaching or setting goals, but a reality. I could set 100 goals, but if I don’t have enough time in a day to reach those 100 goals, what’s the point? So instead, I am finding I need to be more specific, and choose goals that focus on 1 project at a time instead of trying to group them together, keeping in mind the rest of my daily routine and responsibilities that aren’t included in those projects.
My goals for this coming year are written as SMART goals. If you aren’t familiar with SMART goals, they are goals that are:
By December 31, 2024, I will continue to strengthen my writing skills by writing and/or editing in the series I have at least 80% of the time, as measured weekly.
I have a writing goal pretty much every year. It often revolves around publishing a book, but I’ve been trying to move away from that and actually focus more on the writing process than getting published. Otherwise, I find I’m getting hung up on getting the first book completed to get published, and am not actually doing much of the writing process because I’m too focused on trying to finish book #1. (Other books in the series are basically finished, I just need to work on the first one.)
Instead, I’m going to try focusing on continuing with the writing habits I built this past year, with the long-term goal of publishing a book as soon as I can finish writing the first one. I am hoping taking the pressure off of myself to “just get it done” will help me to better be able to actually get the first book in the series completed. I made a lot of progress this past year in my writing, even on the first book, so I feel like this is a much better route than trying to force it.
By December 31, 2024, I will complete cardio exercise for at least 30 minutes at least 80% of the time, and weight and stretch training exercises at least 40% of the time each, as measured weekly.
The long-term part of this goal involves losing weight and getting healthier. This includes continuing to make fitness more a part of my daily routine, and this goal sets up the daily routine part. I plan to do a rest day each week, and also want to accommodate for days when I might be having a really rough day, as I know life happens. I also plan to rotate weightlifting with stretching, thus the 80% for cardio and 40% each for weights and stretching.
By December 31, 2024, I will blog 3 or more times a week, and do a podcast weekly, except for Holidays/breaks.
The main focus for this goal involves the My Amuseing Life Blog and Podcast. The long-term goal for MAL is to share my love of writing with others, both on the blog and in the podcast, and hopefully help others along their journeys to become authors as well. Don’t worry, I still plan to post on this blog as well, but because this is more of our family journal blog, I’m not setting as specific of goals for it right now. I also hope to do another blog over the summer with our outdoor adventures, but am not setting a specific goal for that blog either. It just becomes too much otherwise, as I can only focus on so much at one time.
By December 31, 2024, I will complete at least 10 hobby projects, such as crafts, music, and photography.
Last year, I had a goal to enjoy hobbies more, but included that in with a goal that also mentioned chores and fitness. I found it was too much for one goal, as really it was at least 3 goals in 1.
The long-term goal of this goal is to enjoy hobbies and complete hobby projects I’ve been wanting to do, but don’t always make the time for. I originally had the goal set at 12 projects for this coming year (smaller projects that make up the larger goal), but decided I needed to give myself a cushion, since life happens. So the goal will be to complete 10 hobby projects this coming year, among them including painting a chair and putting together a B17 model I’ve had for years but never gotten around to. Each project should be able to be completed within 30 days or so, making it possible that I could do 10 of these smaller projects in a year.
Other:
I also set habit goals for myself and track them, such as reading books and building habits around household chores. I often will track these goals, but I chose not to include them in my main goals because I want to focus on these four projects for the coming year. I will still track my habits, but it won’t be a main focus to allow for more time for my goals. There are a wide variety of ways to track reading goals, but here is one link: https://bookriot.com/2024-reading-log/.
There are also some great household chore lists out there! A couple you can purchase on Etsy include:
2023 has been a great year overall, with a lot of success in my goals. I am looking forward to 2024, with more realistic goals and new opportunities! Happy New Year!
-Cindy
Tales From North Country 
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