2020: Creating the Perfect Vision for the New Year and New Decade
Happy New Year and Decade! Here are the Five Steps for Setting, Attaining, and Crushing those Goals!
Last year, I cannot even remember what my “New Years Resolution” was, or the year before that, or really ever. However, this year it is about to change. Not only am I going to remember what my New Years Resolutions are, I am going to be intentional about setting them and more importantly, resolute on meeting those goals. I asked some of my best friends, family, and of course, google how they go about setting and reaching goals and based on the answers, I was able to distill it down to five easy steps (note this post has a few affiliate links at the end):
Step 1: Knowing Where You’ve Been Before you can Know Where You’re going- Before we can move forward, we need to take stock in our journey so far and then figure out where you want to go from here.What were you doing in NYE 2009- ten years ago? What have you accomplished in that 10 years? What is different now from then? I think if you sit down and really reflect on where you are in your personal and professional life and how that compares to 2009, you will be really proud of yourself and what you have accomplished. Definitely take a moment to recognize the accomplishments you have made in these last ten years and give yourself a “You’re doing amazing sweetie!” pat on the back.
Another important aspect of reflection is implementing and continuing to build on what you learned over the past year. For me, I like to go back through my pictures and calendar and then think about what happened over the past year on a month by month basis. After reflecting on this past year, I realized there were a lot of new challenges we faced with parenting, increased workloads, and having no family support because we live so far away from both of our families.
What I learned in 2019 is it is so important to 1) when you are busy being a mom, professional, and wife, don’t forget take time to be yourself; 2) be selfish and deliberate with your time management and scheduling; 3) take a vacation; 4) it is quality over quantity of spending time with your children; and 5) sometimes a half hour of working out, will make a better 23.5 Hours of the day; and 6) you need to SLEEP!
I definitely want to build on these lessons and implement that into both goals for the new year, but also in setting a ten year plan.
Step 2: Envisioning the Future and Making it a Reality- The next question is, on the dawn of the roaring 20s, is where do you see yourself ten years from now? Where do you see yourself in your career? Do you see yourself living in a new house? Do you envision yourself to be debt free? Is there a place you definitely want to check off the bucket list by then? Once you sit down and visualize yourself ten years from now, you have the foundation of the goals you want to set. What you envision for yourself in the year 2029 is the more general “ten year plan.”
Now that you have at least a general “ten year plan” in your mind, you can start creating a timeline of how to meet those goals. The little ticks or benchmarks on your timeline are really “steps” to reach that more overarching “goal.” You have a roadmap and are more organized in your plan to reach those goals.
Step 3: As Zoolander once famously asked,“Who Am I?”- In addition to envisioning your “ten year plan” and setting goals for your professional life, it is so, so, so important to create goals for your own personal life too. The year 2019 was all about self-love and to stop talking badly about yourself. Keep that up in 2020 and make it a decade of self love. Instead of putting yourself down, ask yourself what would you like to be different and what type of person do you want to become? You need to take the time to contemplate what would make you feel like you are living your best life. So figure out what that is for you and do it! Ask yourself what brings you down and then, quite simply, get rid of it!
Another way to set personal goals for yourself is to think about what you want to achieve for the mind, body, and spirit and overall wellness. Not just something general like “I want to work out more” but ask yourself, “why do I want to work more?” Does it make you feel better? Do you get more restful sleep? Once you determine the true reason for the goal, then you can make adjustments in your daily routine to help you remain consistent in achieving that goal.
For example, using the step above, you can to set a timeline within the goal for yourself, like “I would like to workout at least three times a week.” The more specific, the better, for instance, deciding you can probably work out on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at 8am. Then, you are more likely to make it a priority and schedule around that time for everything else. When you are specific about your goals and build it into your routine, it becomes a habit and statistically you are more likely to meet those goals.
Remember, as the flight attendants say before takeoff, you must place your oxygen mask on first before assisting others. Meaning, if you don’t take the time to take care of yourself, you can’t take care of those around you and there’s no way you can be your best self.
Step 4: Make it Real, Write it Down - So many times we go through this exercise in our mind, but when you write it down, studies have shown that you are more likely to follow through. Therefore, when you create your timeline, you must WRITE IT DOWN! I would recommend that once a quarter in 2020 take stock of where you are in your timeline, make adjustments, and hold yourself accountable! I will write a follow up post in March, July, and September to remind us all of those goals we set for 2020 and make sure that we are all being accountable to ourselves!
Step 5: Don’t Beat Yourself Up- If you are running into roadblocks, things spiral out of control, or you need help, ASK FOR HELP! Consult with friends, talk to family, reach out to a mentor! There are so many people who have already paved the way, so you don’t need to be a trailblazer! Learn from their mistakes and ask questions on how they were able to get to where they are and what lessons they’ve learned along the way. As they say, there is no reason to re-invent the wheel.
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I hope if you have taken the time to read this, you go through this exercise. I found it extremely therapeutic and helpful. For us, 2020 is going to be a lot of change. We will be finding out where we transfer to hopefully in mid-January. Then, we need to sell our house, find a new house, then move (which means packing, unpacking, utilities, all of that annoying moving stuff) depending on where we transfer, I may need to get a new job or take a new bar exam, get the kids set up again in day care, etc. etc. etc.
With all of these uncertainties and major life changes I do NOT want to forget those six things I listed above of what I worked so hard to learn in 2019. In addition to that, I want to continue to grow as a professional, parent, wife, and as a person. With that said, my main goal in 2020 is just to stay as calm as possible during these major life changes. I have already sat down with hubs and we created our timeline and it truly has taken this immense feeling of overwhelming anxiety and suddenly made everything seem so much more manageable.
In order to help maintain the calm and to not freak the f out, one of my other goals in 2020 is to practice daily meditation and gratitude. For meditation, I just purchased this book called Stillness is the Key by Ryan Holiday. What I like about the book is it gives historical examples of great leaders who were able to find stillness in the middle of crisis and because of their resolve, were able to avoid disaster. The books talks about JFK during the Bay of Pigs doodling during meetings and Winston Churchill laying bricks so he could think clearly during WWII. The more I learn about meditation, I have found that all of the most successful business people in the world take the time to meditate, so if they can do it, then maybe I should try it too!
Another goal is to journal more and keep a hard calendar in addition to my calendar on my phone so I can write down notes, jot down ideas, and have a broad overview of what is coming up for both personal and professional matters. I really like this journal because it doubles as a planner and focuses on gratitude. For just a straight planner, I am obsessed with this Moleskine Planner. I had one in 2019 and I am really excited for my 2020 one. It is the perfect size and can travel with you, it has lots of useful stuff in it, and I just really feel fancy carrying it around. It really has helped and I will be even more consistent with it this year.
The other goal in 2020 is to take some time to digital detox. I want to take one day a week where I am completely off of my phone. Another huge tip that the experts agree on is to GET THE PHONE OUT OF YOUR ROOM! Now for me, that is really hard because I use it as an alarm, but then I remembered that duh, before phones people had alarm clocks. So, I found this really great alarm clock on Amazon that not only tells the time, but has nice soothing alarms and light simulations. The goal is to get the phone out of the room, wake up and do my morning routine and wait at least 30 minutes before getting on my phone to check emails, instagram, etc. It will be hard, but I am writing it down and holding myself accountable!
The main takeaway to setting our intentions and having “20/20” vision for 2020 (I’m sorry it’s corny, but I can’t help myself) is to be clear, deliberate, and thoughtful in setting and establishing a timeline for your goals. Like I said above, I will be checking in and reporting back on how the goals for 2020 are going so far! Good luck, and may you all have a very happy, prosperous, and healthy New Year! Here’s to the 20s ol’ sport!
P.S. The amazing sequin romper is perfect for NYE. And although this particular one is sold out, I found a very similar one from the same brand available here.
-Lindsey
