Last updated on December 27th, 2021 at 06:30 pm

As we get closer to 2022, a great way to hit the ground running is to identify your personal goals for the year! 

You don’t have to do all of these, just do the ones that resonate most with you! But, I’ve found following different approaches helps show me the bigger picture of what my goals are for the year. 

So, let’s start working on your personal goals for the year! You don’t have to do everything at once, but make sure you carve out a little time for yourself when you start!

Dianne’s Goal Planning Process

Jen and I are both planning and notebook geeks. I think we both start looking for planners in August (I know I do!). So, I actually didn’t know until I read Jen’s process of how much detail she goes into (I’m impressed!). I think you’ll love her ideas. My process is a little bit simpler and shorter.

I start out my goal planning with two things: 1) A dedicated time to sit down to reflect and write them and 2) a “theme” for the year.

My favorite time to write down my goals is New Year’s Day, early in the morning. Jeff is a night owl and I am a morning person so it works out perfectly. Even though we might be up late on New Year’s Eve, I will still be up before him. So I will have the house to myself for a little while. (And if you follow us on social media, you know that I am a football fan, so that’s another reason why I do this early. I like to be done before the games start!)

This doesn’t mean that this is the first time I start thinking about my goals for the year. They start popping into my head usually around December and I make a mental note of them. But I like dedicating a specific time to writing them down. I always find a planner with blank pages in the back – that’s where I write them down. For me, I like having everything in one place. As I go through the year with my planner, I can stop to look at my goals and see how I am doing.

So my first step is reflecting on last year’s goals. If you didn’t write any down last year, that’s ok. You can still spend time thinking about the things that you accomplished last year, things that you wish you had gotten to do, etc. Take a few minutes to write those down if you want.

I go through last year’s list and see which goals I accomplished and which I am still striving for. To be totally honest I have to say that I NEVER achieved all my goals I set out to do. I used to be very hard on myself about that, but not so much anymore.

What I’ve found is that when I look at what I have accomplished, they are usually the most important. I will give you an example from 2021. I had goals for some re-organization projects last year, which I never even started. But, I did create two videos for my sons’ weddings (that took a lot of time). Feeling that I prioritized things in the correct order feels like a win to me!

My “theme” for the year comes after I spend time thinking about the year ahead. For 2021, my theme was “Family First”. Just like everyone else, 2020 was tough on our family. My grandson was born in November 2019 and I saw him for the first time shortly thereafter. The next time I saw him was July 2021.

My son Scotty’s wedding was supposed to be in 2020 and it got postponed a year. I don’t have to go on, I am sure you had a similar year. Mine was no worse than anyone else’s, but it did help put things in perspective. Which is why I focused on those wedding videos instead of reorganizing my closet!

Like Jen, I also have categories that I plan my goals around. Mine are a little bit different because I am in a different life stage than Jen. The category that used to be “Career” is now “The Harper Girls”. There are no right or wrong categories – you create them based on your own life and priorities. These are just some thought starters to get you going. My categories are:

Health
Fashion/Beauty
Home
Family/Friends/Relationships
Crafts/Hobbies
Personal Growth
Spiritual

The goals that I write down are personal to me. I “stole” an idea from my friend Sarah and on New Year’s Eve, Jeff and I sit down and and talk about our goals as a couple for the year. That’s where we talk about the trips we want to take, larger house projects, financial goals, etc. We usually grab a drink and sit down for an hour or less and just talk through it. We do right them down and look at last year’s first, just like I do for my personal goals. It’s become a fun tradition that we both enjoy.

Read on for Jen’s goal planning process – she has a great goal-setting worksheet that you can download!

And, if you haven’t signed up for our Newsletter, now is the time! In our next newsletter, we are going to share with you all our planning tools – from our favorite notebooks/planners to the best pens to write with! This is exclusive content you’ll only find in the newsletter, so sign up below!

Jen’s Personal Goals Planning Process

Vision Board

I didn’t realize until I got older that I’ve been making vision boards since I was a teenager! It was cool to cut out photos/phrases from magazines and have your own binder cover (I feel very old just typing that out). 

It’s really easy to do, you just need a poster board, magazines, scissors and a glue stick! 

Start going through your magazines, and rip out any pages with phrases or pictures that resonate with you. 

Once you have a big pile of magazine pages, start cutting out what you want to include on your vision board, and start placing on the poster board. 

Once you’re done cutting everything out, start arranging and gluing everything down on your poster board! 

After you’re done gluing, you can also write some phrases or things you want to continue to remind yourself to keep going! 

SMART Goals

Have you heard of SMART goals? SMART goals help put your goal setting into perspective and help you identify if your goals can feasibly happen!

Don’t feel like you have to follow each of these steps as you’re setting your goals, but do keep these in mind. Having some perspective up front is really helpful, to help mitigate any disappointment later on. 

Specific – what are you trying to accomplish

Measureable – how will you be able to measure the goal? With data? A specific outcome? 

Attainable – is this goal doable? Do I have what I need to be successful? 

Relevant – does this goal align with my larger goals?

Time-Bound – what is the time frame for accomplishing this goal? 

Goals by Category

It’s time to start putting some goals on paper! Choose any of the below categories that you want to set goals for, and set up your sheet of paper. 

Personal
Health
Career
Financial
Recreational
Spiritual

Write the first category at the top. Underneath, write a 1., and under that write 1, 2 and 3 on subsequent lines. Leave a little space if you want to add some other notes. 

Do the same for all of the categories you choose! 

OR, you can download my goal-setting worksheet! 

Stick to three goals per category, so you don’t get overwhelmed. 

For each goal, start writing out the steps you need to take in order to reach the overall goal. And start small! You want each of these steps to be actionable, so you know it’s possible for you to work toward them. 

Process, Performance and Outcome Goals

Something else to keep in mind, there are three types of goals- process, performance, and outcome goals. (Via Eastern Washington University)

Process goals are specific actions or ‘processes’ of performing. For example, aiming to exercise 30 minutes a day . Process goals are 100% controllable by the individual.

Performance goals are based on personal standard. For example, aiming to feel more comfortable in your jeans. Personal goals are mostly controllable.

Outcome goals are based on winning. An extreme example of this could be becoming a famous fitness model. Outcome goals are very difficult to control because of other outside influences.

Process, performance, and outcome goals have a linear relationship. If you achieve your process goals, you have a better chance to achieve your performance goals. Similarly, when you achieve your performance goals, you have a better chance of achieving your outcome goal.

When setting your goals and coming up with your achievement steps, try to keep some of your initial goals process specific. It’s great to have lofty outcome goals, but they’ll be really difficult to achieve without identifying process and performance goals first.

Make sure you put your goals somewhere you see them everyday, so you always know what you’re working toward!

Revisit your goals every couple of months, and revise as needed or add some more steps to get closer to your lofty goals!

“I Want To” Goals

Last but not least, are “I want to” goals that I learned from Jen Atkin. Grab yourself some sticky notes and write each of the prompts on separate stickies. Or, you can write them on a piece of paper too!

These are great, quick, prompts for you to keep in mind as you’re progressing through the year. They’re different from the goals you set earlier, as these are more to the point. Like, I want to quit doubting myself, or I want to learn a new hobby like knitting!

I want to:

Quit
Start
Learn
Continue to
Try
Stop
Have
Be

Make sure you have all your goals in a place you see often, so they’re always top of mind and keep you motivated to grow and learn more in the new year. We’re all in the process of becoming the best versions of ourselves!

Are you thinking about taking time to set your personal goals? Or did you do it already? Let us know in the comments below!

Looking for some planning “gear”? Check out our post on the best planners, notebooks, pens and accessories. You can see that post HERE.