I’ve become quite accustom to setting goals at the start of every new year, and unlike some people who dread resolutions, I absolutely love them. I’ve averaged around 70% success on my goals for the past couple years and I want to keep that momentum going. Life is too precious to accept mediocrity and plateauing. And based on some big events in my life last year, 2015 is going to be a fresh start for exciting and challenging changes.
An encouraging and supportive reader commented to me recently that if we achieve 100% of our goals each year, we set the bar too low. As much as I’d like to meet or even beat each of my goals each year, I have to agree with him that goal setting isn’t just about setting targets we think we can achieve. It’s also about pushing ourselves a bit further and taking on new challenges.
After all, what’s the fun of only doing things that are easy? That’s not how our role models got through life. They took on challenges that people told them couldn’t be done or that they’d previously failed at, and figured out how to overcome all sorts of obstacles to make things happen.
2015 Targets
There’s a lot I want to accomplish in 2015 and it’s entirely up to me whether I make them happen or not. I’m tempted to write a huge list of goals as I’ve done in past years, but I’ve learned that splitting my focus too many ways doesn’t lend itself to strong results. Without further ado, here are my 2015 goals.
* Smoothly transition into a new career – This is a big goal for me because I’ll be leaving a stable job of 10 years this year to venture deeper into entrepreneurship and potentially a new full time job in a different niche. I’ll be taking a big pay cut to do all of this, but the timing feels right and I saved up a lot of money in 2014 to help cover my drop in income. I’ll need to stay driven to regularly apply to jobs, take on more freelancing hours, and adjust to an irregular and less stable pay check.
* Save 25% of my income – I blew my 35% savings goal out of the water last year, but I have to set the bar lower in 2015 because I will be taking a significant reduction in compensation. Nevertheless, I still want to put money into savings and investments each month and contribute to my retirement accounts.
* See all of my immediate family – This is a repeat goal from last year because it’s becoming more and more important to me. I live thousands of miles away from most of my family, so finding the time to see all of them can be challenging with work and things that pop up. Even though there is inevitably some type of family stress or drama to cope with, I can’t use that as an excuse to be distant. I really enjoyed the time I spent with my family last year, and I want that to continue.
* Complete 1 item on my bucket list – I’ll be very career focused in 2015 but I hope to have the flexibility and funds to complete a travel related bucket list item. I would love to be able to go to South America for the first time or South East Asia. My desire to frequently travel has been dwindling because I got burnt out, but it would be fantastic to take at least one international trip this year to a new country.
* Improve technical skills in editing, SEO, and tech – I plan to do a lot more editing work this year and need to brush up on my grammar skills and speed. In addition I need to be more aware of what’s happening in the SEO world, while also increasing my knowledge of plugins, tools, and site optimization.
* Keep my files better organized and continue to declutter – Every time I travel I feel so free to only have a backpack and a laptop. We really don’t need much to be happy and live a good life. Yet it’s so easy to get attached to junk, papers, clothes, etc. that slow us down. I need to do a better job keeping both my digital and hard copy files organized this year. I plan to reduce the amount of papers I have lying around for work and personal stuff, and keep my office clean and organized like the sanctuary it should be.
* Exercise 1x week for health and stress reduction – Yes this sounds a bit pathetic, but it would be close to a miracle if I manage to pull this off. I am one of the biggest procrastinators when it comes to exercise because I’d much rather be working on my laptop than breaking out a sweat. And every exercise goal I’ve set in the past has always ended in failure. But the older I get, the more my doctors remind me to get regular exercise, and they’re right. I need to keep my heart strong, improve my circulation and endocrine system, and maintain muscle tone. I also must reduce stress (my stress related back pain has been bothering me a lot lately) and exercise should be a good outlet for that.
Take On New Challenges And Have Fun While You’re At It
I hope you had a successful 2014 and are looking forward to a fresh start for exciting and challenging changes in 2015. We’re all capable of so much more than we give ourselves credit for sometimes. And even if you’ve failed at all your past resolutions, don’t let that get you down. You can do anything you want if you have enough drive and persistence.
Try setting more realistic and action oriented goals this year to give yourself the best chance at success. And don’t forget to find more ways to laugh and smile this year. Laughing is priceless to me and I feel fortunate to have laughed so hard I started crying several times last year. I also started keeping a written log on my phone of these funny moments to help me remember them later, which I really recommend if you have a bad memory like me. Having a log of funny memories is a great resource to get you smiling when you need a pick-me-up.
Recommendations
We all have different individual goals, dreams, and resolutions, but at the end of the day a lot of them revolve around personal finance, career and business, health, lifestyle, and self improvement. All of which are categories I love to write about on Untemplater.com! Here are some resources and recommendations to get your year off to the right start.
- Finally get your finances in order for free and all in once place
- Turn your creativity into a career
- Effective weight loss is all about the diet
- Create the online store for your business that you’ve been dreaming about
- Reduce stress fast with these 60 tips
- Finally break your bad habits with these suggestions
Untemplaters, Happy New Year! Are you looking forward to a fresh start for exciting and challenging changes this year? What are a few of your goals and resolutions?
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Sound like a reasonable list of manageable goals for someone with provably effective willpower. Best of luck to you!
Thanks Brian. I’ll be trying my best!
Awesome goals for 2015 Sydney, and a really nice balance of categories, even though your career will be the big focus.
My big goals for the year are focused on generating more income. I’ve always been much more focused on ‘quality of life’ type goals, but I do want to push myself this year which is something I feel I haven’t really done much recently. But it will be difficult to not make things like health, fitness, time with family or even continuing to sustain a good work / life balance the bigger priorities when it comes to the crunch.
I also tend to have your same problem of writing too many goals, but am also trying to narrow the focus this year – which is why it’s taken me so long to put up my post for these goals!
All the best for 2015!
Cheers,
Jason
Thanks Jason! I used to make a big list of goals with tons of categories. It was fun to try to improve in so many areas, but I ended up spreading myself too thin.
That’s awesome you’re focused on generating more income this year. More income gives us more choices, it just can be a challenge to stay balanced.