Another new year, another chance to set some fresh goals (which I love doing, by the way). Except this year, I’m doing things a little differently. Instead of setting a series of goals like I’ve done in the past, this year I’m setting a single, overarching goal for the entire year. I’ll get to what it is in a minute, but first, I want to take a look at how I did on my 2019 goals.
In 2019, I set seven big goals to focus on. Here they are, along with a breakdown of how things went.
How I Did on My 2019 Goals
Take more stress-free time off
I made major progress unplugging more from work this year. I took two week-long vacations where I didn’t check in on work at all, which was huge for me. Every month or two I also took a long weekend where I turned on my out-of-office message on Friday and didn’t check back in until Monday morning, without feeling guilty about it.
I can’t overstate how much of a difference this shift has made for my sense of work-life balance and my overall happiness with my job. At the beginning of 2019 I was feeling stressed and stretched-thin when it came to work. I still feel this way from time to time, but I’ve set a lot of new boundaries that have helped ensure work is way less likely to put a chokehold on my life.
No wifi, no problem
Do more meaningful work
This was the second work-related change I made that contributed to having less stress and more satisfaction. I shifted from doing all kinds of different marketing projects to only doing writing, which I now realize I should have done a long time ago.
My mom and I also made a lot of progress growing her senior fitness business, which now has 1,400 YouTube subscribers and has started to generate consistent sales. I’m excited about the new projects we have planned for it in 2020.
Finish revamping my PR course
I did absolutely nothing on this goal and have pretty much abandoned the project. Ha. Honestly, I’m fine with it. I’ve learned the goals we don’t accomplish are meaningful because they tell us a lot about what we really want. Clearly this wasn’t important enough to me to make time for (in an entire year, mind you), so it’s not a project worth pursuing.
Eat less sugar
I’m shocked by how far I’ve come with this. In the last two years, the way I look at food has completely changed. I’m talking less about the sugar in obvious places, like candy bars, and more about the totally unnecessary kind that’s added to foods like milk and bread that aren’t even meant to be sweet. Cutting these added sugars from my diet has given me more energy, clearer skin, less bloating, the list goes on.
I haven’t gone completely sugar free and I definitely still enjoy treats I love like cake and donuts on occasion, but the amount I eat is dramatically less than I used to eat on a regular basis. I don’t think I’ll ever go back.
Drink less alcohol
I’d describe my progress on this one as “meh.” There were weeks where I didn’t drink at all and weeks where I threw caution to the wind.
Mainly, I want to continue to cut back on alcohol because it’s generally a good health choice and it means more money to put towards paying off debt. I’m going to try doing dry January (aka no alcohol) for the first month of the year to kick things off in the right direction.
Work out most days
I was doing great on this goal…until it got cold out. In spring, summer and early fall I was super active with hiking, kayaking, yoga, surfing and even getting back into running a bit.
I know cold weather is no excuse, but when it hits, I go into hibernation mode. Joining a gym seems like a cliché way to start the new year, but maybe it’s what I need to get my butt back into gear in the fitness department until it warms up again.
I find it so much easier to exercise when it doesn’t feel like exercise, like hiking with this mutt!
Write for money
As I mentioned above, I transitioned my freelance work to focus entirely on writing this year, and so far it’s been going great. I wish I would have made more time for pitching original story ideas rather than simply taking what was assigned to me, but that’s something I plan to focus more on in 2020.
My Big 2020 Goal
I have a singular focus for the year ahead. If you’ve read my last few posts, it should come as no surprise that my big 2020 goal is to pay off my debt.
This goal feeds into so many other things I want to accomplish, like improving our house, buying a rental property, traveling more, starting a family and saving more for retirement. I can’t really go hard on any of those things if I still have debt, so this year I want to pay the whole thing off (read about my progress so far here and here).
Right now the amount of debt I have is $8,935. That comes out to about $750 a month to get rid of it by the end of 2020. It’s an ambitious amount, but knowing that I could have the whole thing paid off within a year makes me so motivated to set a disciplined budget and stick to it. This is also the first year since I became self-employed that I might actually get a tax refund, so that could be a nice little chunk to put toward it. I have a meeting with an accountant later this week to find out more about where I stand.
So that’s my big goal for the year ahead. I’m really looking forward to taking it on and think having a single, large goal instead of several will help me make the kind of big progress I’m hoping for. Are you setting any goals for 2020? Leave a comment and tell me what they are!
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