At the start of each year, I always set some goals. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, that will be no surprise to you! I bang on about it relatively regularly, but I truly believe that setting clear goals can make all the difference to my mindset and the things I have been able to achieve.
This post is a quick overview of the goals I set in January and how they’ve changed over the course of the first half of the year. I wasn’t sure how much detail to go into here, but I love reading goal reviews, so I hope you find it interesting!
This year, I took Han Bullivant’s Life Book course (currently closed, but she’s just released a planning kit which sounds similar), which I really loved. It was all about setting goals that feel exciting and kind, rather than creating a list of things you ‘should’ do, but never get around to.
I set goals related to work, money, personal development, family, marriage and joy.
Then, each quarter, I’ve got dates in my diary to do a check in. To look at my goals, see if they’re still relevant and, if not, set some new ones.
Work
Work-wise, my January goal was to go fully self-employed. Tick! So at the end of Q1, I set a couple of new goals for myself.
I wanted to be better at saying no to things I didn’t want to do. When I first started working for myself, I pitched for every piece of work that came near me. There were two projects in particular that I did a lot of work on, writing the proposals for, when I KNEW that I the clients and I wouldn’t be a good match, and I KNEW that I was going to work far more than I was being paid for.
Thankfully, neither bit of work materialised, but it made me really question what I was doing here. Why would I actively pursue work I could tell I was going to hate? Learning how to say no is harrrrrrd. I’m getting better, but I still have a long way to go.
I also wanted to actually put myself forward for things I DO want to do, and attract clients I love. So far, so good. I have been working on some brilliant projects, and I’m about to start a short-term contract in house with a team I really enjoy working with. I still get ‘the fear’ that the work will dry up and I’ll be hunting down work – any work – in a couple of months, but I’m trying to let my woo side take over a bit. Good projects will come. And if they don’t, I’ll figure it out.
I also started to sew the seeds of some ideas to generate income in other ways. I’ve not really done anything with these seeds yet, they’re still in my hand while I look at them wondering if they’re ridiculous or not, but if I do plant them, hopefully they’ll grow into a whole new revenue stream.
I’ve also got some another work or business goal, which I’m sharing in next week’s newsletter. If you’re not already subscribed, you can sign up here (or there’s an opt-in box below).
Money
My goal at the beginning of the year was to earn the same as my previous income (including the side-hustle stuff I was doing and adding on a bit extra for tax). By the end of my first few weeks of freelancing, I could tell that I was going to be able to make that happen.
So in April I set myself a VERY high (for me!) target for the 2019/2020 tax year. I’m not going to put it here in the blog, but I’m happy to share it if you get in touch.
When I did my mid-year review, I’ll admit, the number I’d set myself still felt pretty punchy! Like: what the hell were you thinking? punchy. But… I’ve kept it in as a goal. I don’t know if I’ll hit it or not, my guess is that I probably won’t. But it gives me a really good target to strive for, and if I get anywhere near it, I’ll be seriously celebrating!
I also made some promises to myself regarding money this quarter. One is that I will get a cleaner this year. My house is a constant source of anxiety and – let’s be frank – shame. The dust bunnies have dust bunnies. But I don’t have the energy to clean and my husband doesn’t have the will. Getting a cleaner is therefore increasingly becoming a priority.
Personal development
This is a bit of a funny one. My goal for 2019 was to not take any new paid-for courses. I am a HUGE believer in paid-for courses, because they really focus the mind on what you want to do, and have a lot of information all in once place. But I spent a lot of money on them last year, and I think I got a bit carried away.
The trouble is, every time I see a new online course, I think it looks brilliant and want to sign up. But if I signed up for all the courses I saw online that I thought looked good, I would be at least £200 poorer a month and would have no time to do my actual work (or any time for myself).
I managed to go a few months without doing any kind of online course at all (er… apart from the goal setting one I started off with), but then have found myself accidentally signed up for a 10 week business course (although I should say that it’s free). I have also done a whole bunch of other free challenges, some better than others.
What my mid-year review showed up for me here is that I feel like there are some big questions around how I want to work in the future. I love what I do, but I’d also like to plant some of those seeds and my brain is a bit fogged up about how best to do that. So, with that in mind, I might actually invest in working with a coach. I’ve not completely made up my mind on this yet, but I think by the end of this month I’ll have made a decision.
Family, marriage and joy
These are all pretty personal, so I don’t think this is the space for them, but I will say that actually, none of these have goals against them any more. I set some goals for each area at the start of the year, and I found them really limiting.
So instead of goals, I have affirmations, that I keep pinned to the top of my Google Keep account, and see pretty much every day. It’s a nice way to be reminded of the things I want to focus on in those areas without feeling like I have to be ticking things off a list. Sometimes, goal setting isn’t the right answer after all…
How about you – have you set any goals for this year? Have you looked at them since you set them? How are you getting on?
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