Are you moving forward in your life? Are you taking steps to live simple? We can talk all day about clearing clutter and getting rid of unnecessary stuff. We can claim we’re going to become minimalists or pragmatists or whatever you want to call someone who is mindful about simple living. But if you don’t set any goals, you won’t be moving forward.
In October of 2014, I started Hip Diggs with my classic, most-visited post:
Take The Ten Step Challenge To Simple Living.
That post was simply a list of simple-living goals that I’d decided to begin working on in my own life. Many of the weekly posts at Hip Diggs have stemmed from that first post. I’ve come a long way on several of the goals on that list. But I always try to keep moving forward. On January 1, 2015, I set five specific goals for this year in the post:
5 Promises To Practice What I Preach.
I wanted to set some specific simple-living goals to review at the end of the year. Last week, I reviewed my successes and failures for 2015 in the post:
5 Promises: Reviewing My Successes And Failures Of 2015.
Do You Notice A Trend?
Goals: One reason many people find themselves struggling to accomplish things in life is a lack of goal setting. Whether you want to clear clutter, lose weight, write a book, or start a business, you need to set goals.
As we end another year, it’s the perfect time to set our goals for the coming year. As you do, just keep these five things in mind.
5 Criteria For Goals That Keep You Moving Forward
- Keep your goals simple: You should be able to describe a goal in a sentence or two, any more than that and it’s getting too complicated.
- Keep your goals attainable: Don’t shoot too high. If you need to lose 100 pounds, it’s not going to happen in a month or two. Create attainable goals. Losing eight pounds a month for a year is much more attainable than losing 30 pounds a month for three months.
- Make your goals measurable: Don’t say you want to reduce clutter in 2016. Instead, say that you want to get rid of a set amount of items. You could let go of one item per week. That’s 52 items for the year.
- Don’t set too many goals: Keep things manageable. For 2015, I only set five goals for simple living. I accomplished four of them. That’s an 80% success rate. If I’d have set 20 goals, I’d probably not have reached an 80% success rate. This would have left me feeling more like a failure.
- Know that you may not succeed at every goal you set: I attained four of the five goals I set for 2015. That’s not bad. I didn’t beat myself up over the one goal I didn’t accomplish. I just keep moving forward.
Another, unwritten goal, I set last year was to take a full year to work on the content and simplicity of Hip Diggs. You can learn more here:
My Perspective On Personal Growth.
Rather than chasing the numbers and generating traffic to Hip Diggs, I made an intentional decision to work on the quality of the writing. I chose to study simple living. I chose to practice simple living. I wanted to create a solid foundation for the blog. This leads me to my goals for Hip Diggs and simple living for 2016.
Moving Forward Into 2016
- Grow Hip Diggs: In 2016, I’m going to begin the process of growing Hip Diggs. I just added Google Analytics and I’ll increase my traffic by 50%. I’ll create the Hip Diggs’ Live Simple course for 2017. I’m also going to be opening up the comments and engaging others in the conversation.
- Limit technology and social media: In 2015, I successfully spent less time on social media than I did in 2014. I turned the Internet off for the summer. I watched less TV. In 2016, I’ll continue to cut back on technology and social media. I’ll limit my screen time to no more than 10-15 hours per week. That might seem like a lot, but when you’re operating a blog, you have to put in the work. In the past, I’ve spent as many as 30-40 hours per week online.
- Ride a bicycle more often: I’ve spent a lot of time on bicycles over the years. In 2015, I spent less time riding than I have in previous years. In the coming year I’m going to begin riding my bicycle more often. I’m going to start riding to work and back in the spring. I’m going to ride my bike a minimum of 1000 miles in 2016.
- Expand my garden: I really enjoyed starting a garden in 2015. In 2016, I’ll increase my garden space by 50%. I’ll add three more types of vegetables and/or fruits.
- Spend more time in nature: I think life gets more complicated when we don’t take the time to get away. In 2016, I’m going to intentionally spend more time in nature. I’m going to take one weekend each month to go unwind and explore nature.
How about you? Will you be moving forward in 2016. Will you take an hour or two to create some goals for the coming year? If you do, I think you’ll discover that you’ll accomplish more. If you’d like some help with setting goals, writing, or a blog project, I’m opening up a few spaces for personal coaching in 2016. Check out my simple coaching packages here.
