(This post was last updated on: 2/12/2024.) Since 2020 started, I have been running through what my goals for 2020 should be and what areas of my life I want to focus on throughout the year. Goal setting for 2020 has been difficult since I have so much I want to accomplish, but setting too many lofty goals would be setting myself up for failure. I have been researching goal setting tips for 2020, and I think this post will be able to help you with setting goals for the new year.
I am not a huge believer in setting New Years Resolutions as I go into the year with the best of intentions but I don’t stick with it for the whole year because I didn’t lay out a plan to reach my New Years Goals. I think it’s important to take time to figure out what areas of my life I want to focus on and then prioritize that list.
To begin goal planning for 2020, I made a list of what categories I thought my goals should fall in to, but as I kept on writing the goals and categories morphed into something entirely different. Putting pen to paper was the best way to start. I brain dumped all of my ideas for the new year and was able to see which items were either repetitive or too similar. Some items also could be moved into different categories than I expected. I then was able to condense each category and decide what the primary focus will be and the remaining ideas would help create my action plan.
The Word of the Year: Automation
Looking at it all on paper, I came up with one word that encompasses all of my ideas and goals that I will use to keep me on track throughout the year whenever I need an extra boost to stick to my plan and not get sidetracked with extraneous things in life: AUTOMATION. We’ll dive deeper into this word of the year later but the idea is that by automating different areas of my life, I will be able to accomplish my goals for 2020.
Goal Setting Tips for 2020
If you need a little extra help in setting your goals for 2020, you can check out a few of our other blog posts:
- 21 New Habits to Start in 2021
- 20 Habits to Start in 2020
- How to Get Organized and Prepared for 2020
- 10 Simple Productivity Tips
- 5 Ways to Simplify Your Life
- Personal Development Challenges
- Why You Should Brain Dump Every Night
- How to Finish the Year Strong
- Why Detoxing from Social Media is Good
- How to Make Reading a Habit
My Goals for 2020:
INTENTIONAL LIVING The idea of living a minimalist lifestyle really appeals to me. I feel so bogged down sometimes by all of our “stuff”, commitments and pressure or desire to attain more. This year I plan to focus some energy on organizing our home through purging and creating new systems to be more productive.
PERSONAL GROWTH Taking classes to learn new things like how to use that awesome camera I got for Christmas and reading more books are ways I plan to expand my knowledge. However I also need to do some internal growth this year that I have put off for far too long. Each year I tell myself that I will finally deal with the death of a loved one but by the next new year, I haven’t done what is needed to work through my feelings of grief and anger. And this negatively affects every area of my life, so this will be the year that I learn to let go so I can finally live my best life.
CAREER I have so many ideas to improve my blog as I approach one year of blogging this spring. I have learned so much over the past year, and I have a ton more that I still need to learn. I have laid out my content for the next few months since I finally have narrowed down the purpose of my blog and have defined how to best utilize my blog. It took awhile, but I finally get it.
RELATIONSHIPS I feel that time passes by so quickly and focusing on improving my relationships and increasing my communication with those that I care for most, will improve my quality of life. I hate that days, weeks and months pass by before I even realize that it’s been that long since I spoke with or visited with someone in my life. Part of my action plan will include weekly date nights with my husband, monthly girls night out and weekly calls with family and friends that live out of town. I will also be looking closely at my current relationships because some are draining and I know I need to pull back and some may need to end all together. Developing new friendships with genuine people that are not one sided is definitely a priority this year.
TRAVEL I love to visit new places, explore new towns and experience things I have never encountered before. So part of my action plan will be to plan some vacations for the upcoming year even if it’s just a long weekend somewhere close to home.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT I hope to devise a plan to give back to my community in new ways this year. I love doing volunteer work and lifting people up that are in need. I also want to explore new things in my local area and meet new people that live close to us.
HEALTH I have been getting my health on track over the past few months by losing weight, getting routine health screenings conducted and by following up with specialists that I hadn’t seen in years. I have made great strides but still have goals to meet. Healthy eating and physical fitness seems like the most cliched New Years Goal but this has to be a priority. Under this category, I intend to include in my action plan carving out time for self care such as routine hair and nail appointments, the occasional massage, sticking to my weekly at home beauty routine and other things that will improve my mental health.
FINANCES Reviewing our financial health will also be a priority this year. That may include looking closely at our retirement accounts, figuring out how to cut down our monthly expenses and finding new ways to save and invest. Preparing for retirement is in the back of our minds and looking for ways to make that happen early needs to move to the front of our minds.
Review: 8 Goals for 2020
Now that I have narrowed down what I want to accomplish this year, it can all be condensed into 8 main categories: Intentional Living, Personal Growth, Career, Relationships, Travel, Community Involvement, Health and Finances. The next step in our goal setting tips for 2020, will be to create an attainable action plan to meet these goals. That will include daily, weekly and monthly action items that I will track by using my running to do list, Google calendar, monthly worksheet and any new systems that I need to implement.
Have you set your goals for 2020 yet? What are your best goal setting tips for 2020 and the upcoming new year? Leave us a comment, we want to hear your goals for this upcoming year!
