It’s a new year so of course everyone is busy making goals and resolutions and I’m no different. I usually set some sort of goal for myself or make a mental resolution but I rarely write things down or attempt to track them. Unfortunately, this is one of the best ways not to achieve a goal. I want to change my approach and hopefully achieve my goals.
I’ll start the broad concepts or ideas I want for 2012:
- Read more
- Spend less
- Write more
- Better health
Not the most original goals, I know, but I have to start somewhere.
These vague concepts are great but they are only a starting point. If you subscribe to the SMART system then you know that goals need to be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. I like this approach because it requires the goal setter to really think about each goal before just throwing it out there. With a little more thought I can turn my vague concepts into actual goals.
1) Read more
This one is simple. I don’t read nearly enough. Why do I want to read more? I enjoy it and it has other positive side effects such as improving my vocabulary, writing, and exposing me to new ideas and concepts. Worst case it just gives me more topics to talk about with friends. So, read more, but how much more? I’m lucky if I read three books a year. Last year was an exception because I rolled through the Harry Potter series over the summer thanks to Jess.
Rather than read more, my 2012 goal is to read 1 book a month. It’s specific. I can measure it throughout the year. It’s definitely attainable. It’s relevant to me and there is a measure of time tied to it.
2) Spend less
I’m betting everyone has this on their list. Looking at my expenses last year I spent a lot of money on dining out. Correction, I spent way more than I should. So rather than simply spending less, I’ll target my excessive eating out habit. I’ll spend $100 less per month on dining out. I could make this more specific and say I’ll pack my lunch instead of buying it at work but I know myself. I’ve tried that approach in the past and I get burnt out or end up eating odd lunches when I haven’t gone grocery shopping for the week. I’ll keep this goal slightly vague on purpose to give myself the flexibility to achieve it.
3) Write more
This one is similar to my read more goal. I want to write one blog post a week. I have a feeling this one will be the most difficult to achieve.
4) Better health
Improved health is another common goal. For this I’m taking a slightly different approach. I like to focus on exercise to maintain health and specifically running. I thought about setting a weekly or monthly mileage goal but I decided instead to focus on two key events: the 1/4 marathon in May and the 1/2 marathon in October. I ran both of these races last year and I’d like to improve my health by improving my race times. I’d like to finish the 1/4 marathon in May in 55 minutes and the 1/2 marathon in October in 1 hour and 45 minutes. Notice that the 1/2 marathon goal is a little more aggressive since it takes place later in the year. An achievable 1/4 marathon goal will hopefully give me the motivation to push harder for the more difficult 1/2 marathon goal.
To recap, my 2012 goals are:
- Read 1 book a month
- Spend $100/month less on dining out
- Write 1 blog post a week
- Finish the 1/4 marathon in 55 minutes and the 1/2 marathon in 1 hr and 45 minutes
Thanks for reading. I’m not sure how entertaining it was but it was certainly helpful for me to write it. It even helped me get started on one of my goals for 2012 (write more!).
Happy New Year everyone!
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