Effective goal setting is vital to decluttering. Without a bigger plan and vision for your year and life, decluttering is useless. You have to have a why to declutter for.
Here are some keys that I believe are vital to effective goal setting in a way that will make you feel inspired, authentic to you, and (most importantly) achievable. If you're hoping to better stick to your resolutions (no matter what time of year it is), make big changes, and yet balance your big ambitions with your reality, here are some great things to keep in mind:
1. Be Kind to Yourself
In thinking about failures and regrets of the past and while planning for the future, give yourself kindness, honesty, and grace. No need to beat yourself up to improve. Take it one step at a time.
2. Dream BIG
The sky isn't even the limit. Write out your biggest ideas and your deepest desires while thinking about the new year. We often think practically when setting new goals, but the truth is in order to do great things, we need to dream great things first. So dream big.
3. Simplify
While I fully recommend you dream big, I don't recommend you attempt everything in the new year that your dreaming cap thinks up. After brainstorming your big dreams, DECLUTTER THAT LIST. Simplify down to 1-3 most exciting, most important, most impactful goals. Then maybe tack on a few easier big tasks as secondaries. Leave the rest somewhere you can refer back to and work on in the following year and beyond.
4. Get Specific (but stay kind)
Make sure each of your goals are very specific. Include what your "bare minimum" looks like and what your "ideal" looks like.
If you want to meditate more, make your goal something like, "Meditate every day for at least 3 minutes" or "Meditate 30 min, at least 15x per month." Making your goals specific helps you know if you've really accomplished it or not.
Also notice that both of these examples are pretty easy. This goes back to being kind to yourself. If you are sick, burned out, or going through a loss, you want to be able to stick to your goals anyway. Give yourself some leeway. You can always meditate longer if you are in the mood, but setting your goal as "Meditate for 30 minutes every day" is just setting yourself up for failure.
5. Commit
Now that you've got your specific (and kind) top 1-3 goals. Give yourself 100% over to them. Write them where you will see them often. Say them out loud. Tell all the people you live with, your mentors, your coworkers, and/or your close friends. Shout them from the roof tops! Your goals will slip into "eh" mode in a month or two, so don't let that February/March slump get to you by committing 100% NOW.
6. Create a Clear Plan
Part of committing is setting up a plan. Your plan for each goal should include any tasks you need to accomplish, habits you need to form, and any systems you need to set into motion. Make sure you also have a way to track your progress on each of your goals and habits.
If your goal is "Meditate every day for at least 3 minutes", your plan may look something like this:
"Plan to meditate every day for at least 3 minutes this year:
Tasks:
Create Daily Habit Tracker (in mediation app, other app, calendar, planner, or computer doc).
Download and try a few meditation apps.
Pick a favorite to stick with (at least for a month).
Habits to Form:
Every day after brushing my teeth, pull out my meditation app and mediate for 3+ minutes.
Track every day using habit tracker.
Systems to Set up:
Set notification on my calendar for the end of every month to check my mediation habit tracker, consider my progress and failings, try new meditation app if needed, and adjust goal to fit current needs."
7. Be Flexible
Notice the example of a system to set up in the last step? That's what being flexible looks like. Set yourself a monthly or quarterly time to reassess your goals. Check your progress and decide if you need to adjust (not fully give up on) your goals, Then do so. You are constantly changing and therefore, so should your goals. This will make sure your goals stick for long past January 31.
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Comment below your top 3 goals for the New Year!
Love it! These are great tips. This year I want to work on my capsule wardrobe, travel more and get stronger at the gym. I think these steps will help!