Setting Goals | December Inspiration en masse

And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been.
Rilke

Hey, how was the weekend? Good I hope.

Now, the most important thing to do in December is not celebrating Christmas but to set goals for the New Year! Especially these few days between Christmas and New Years Eve, setting goals is a great activity!

I’ve been emphasizing the importance of finishing your year by Writing a List of Achievements, big and small, but writing that list will be much easier next year if you set a few big goals now, track them and finish projects all through the year!

That’s my plan. Here are some links to what I’ve been reading to get inspired. Hope they’ll help you too!

Setting Goals

Great place to start if you need some guidens, at BrainPickings article How to Find Your Purpose and Do What You Love: Why prestige is the enemy of passion, or how to master the balance of setting boundaries and making friends.

How to Change Your Life By Setting Goals by Crystal Paine, who is fanatic about setting goals. Why? Because she has experienced firsthand the fruit and fulfillment that comes from setting a goal and working hard toward it. In addition, without goals, you have nothing that you’re aiming for. She writes:

Once you have those Yearly Goals in place, take some time to map out a plan for how you’re going to accomplish your goals. Write down the specific steps you will take each month to get where you hope to be in a year from now.

I encourage you to take this two steps further and break your monthly goals down into weekly and daily goals. You don’t have to do this for the whole year right now, but definitely make a plan for January.

Also: How do you decide your yearly goals?

Why You Should Set Radical Goals

How tracking your successes can help you stay focused and achieve more – about having meetings with yourself, which I want to start having next year

Vision & goals: why we love them and how to get started

6 Tips to Create Everyday and Build the Habit

New Year = New Bullet Journal – a video and blog post by my newest favorite blogger, Kara Benz of Boho Berry!

Create Your Personal Mission Statement for 2016 + a free worksheet! And Level 10 Life – 100 Goals in 10 Areas of Focus – more ideas from Boho Berry.

Goal setting videos

But what ever your goal is, make sure it’s smart! On SMART goals, here’s Amy to explain it all:

What is a SMART Goal? with Amy Schmittauer of Savvy Sexy Social

Jake Parker, the creator of Ink October, on how he set goals and manages them weekly:

Achieving Your Goals by Jake Parker: It’s a year in review, a planning session, and a “how to succeed this year” video. Plus, there’s lots of drawing and coloring to watch while you listen.

And another video on goal setting:

James Wedmore, my favorite Strategic Video Marketing Coach, on How to Set Goals that you Actually Accomplish

One of your goals for next year, must be, to become a feminist, if you’re not already. To be brave enough to state it for all to hear. Or help a friend understand that the fight is not yet over. Why? I’ll let this gal, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, explain it:

We should all be feminists With Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at TEDxEuston.

Chimamanda’s definition of feminism is one I totally agree with:

My own definition of a feminist is a man or a woman who says, ‘Yes, there’s a problem with gender as it is today and we must fix it, we must do better,’” writes Adichie in the essay. “All of us, women and men, must do better.

Chimamanda’s speach is made into a beautiful little must-own-book, We Should All Be Feminists, and I just saw it in the book shop because it has been translated to Swedish now. Everyone should read it, especially young peeps, and loads of Swedes will, according to the Guardian: Every 16-year-old in Sweden to receive copy of We Should All Be Feminists

Blogging Success – six ways to get a step closer to success, by Erik Emanuelli

Podcast: Finding Confidence To Make the Big Promise interview with with Sue Bryce[found via xo Sarah]

11 Tweaks to Your Daily Routine Will Make Your Day More Productive – quite a few good reminders that we all probably know already, but need to read again. For example, number one is what I need to read daily:

Researchers at the University of Bristol found that people who exercise during the workday have more energy and a more positive outlook, which are both critical to getting things done. Getting your body moving for as little as 10 minutes releases GABA, a neurotransmitter that makes your brain feel soothed and keeps you in control of your impulses. Exercising first thing in the morning ensures that you’ll have the time for it, and it improves your self-control and energy levels all day long.

What Matters MORE Than More Followers – Some great advice from Tara Swiger, the starship captain

Tools to setting goals and planningout your best year

New Years Revolution Planner Pages – I have downloaded mine, and started filling them out even though I find it difficult to plan ahead… But these pages are for everyone who wants to start the New Year with a revolution! This is the book I printed, it’s mostly a monthly calendar for setting deadlines & dividing your smaller “wins” up onto the months. But darn, it’s difficult to know what you want to concentrate on!

How to get what you want exercise – doing this exercise right now.

Your Best Year Workbook by Lisa Jacobs – the printed version looks fab, but I found it a bit late. I’m considering getting it for next year’s planning…

Tips for success with long-term projects by Elise Blaha Cripe – she always has some insight into goal setting, planning and making stuff while life goes on at the same time… Love her ideas.

Permission to Sin – How Moral Licensing Sabotages Your Long-Term Goals, about willpower.

10 Things Organized People Do Regularly – because getting organized is also on my to-do-list…

Free printable: To do list – super cute design!

And finally what I wrote in my post Goal Setting & List Writing in 2006:

I think setting goals is an important way to keep developing in your life. Or just to have a reason to get up in the morning, right? If you have no appointments and no tasks to complete, you are very likely to go to bed at night feeling that you’ve not had a good day.

And if all this is a bit overwhelming, and you don’t want to plan, remember that you can also just Find Something Useful and Do It!

10 Reasons you Should Write a List of Achievements – my advice!

12 Signs You Accomplished More Than You Think You Did This Year …

Good luck planning. Let me know your biggest creative goal below.

Thanks for reading!

I have linked to others for many many years, but since I started this series a few months ago I fint it’s much more fun to share it all in one big swoop! You get a lot of inspiration in just one post, or at least that is my hope, so let me know if you like it!

October’s Inspiration en masse was named Everyday is a good day when you paint and November’s Big Magic – check ’em out too. And have a great rest of the year!