Hello! As we turn the page on a new year, it’s time for some goal setting. While it’s always a good time to re-evaluate your personal and family goals, there’s nothing quite like the calendar year changing to push us into gear. Today I’m back with a post a little different than usual and a little different from your typical goal setting post. It’s important not to loose sight of ourselves when we become parents. So with that in mind, I have techniques for goal setting for you, and thing you can expect from me in the coming year.
Here are all the details on how to set goals if you are a parent of a young child!
Skip ahead!
How I Approach Goal Setting
Many people like to come up with a New Year’s resolution: one thing they really want to work on. Others like to come up with a word of the year, to set the tone.
Personally, I am a pragmatist, and high and mighty ideas of things I probably won’t follow through with are a recipe for disappointment. I much prefer to focus on different areas of my life and things I would like to achieve in those areas.
Every December, on a cold day, I take myself to a coffee shop and sit with a pen and a paper to think about the year to come. Something about being disconnected from the internet and the computer helps to think through my words and scribbles.
I find inspiration in being in a new environment, away from home. Then I jot down words and arrows until I can come up with my SMART goals for the year.
Have you heard of SMART goals?
SMART Goals are goals that are fit within these parameters: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time bound. Here’s a very short explanation for those that like to geek-out on this stuff (like me). 🙂
Specific
Specific goals state exactly what you intend to do. So no vague “get healthy” going on here. I like to use the same general categories from year to year in coming up with my goals, though the specific tasks change.
Measurable
Goals should be measurable. That means there is a way to see if they have been achieved using some sort of metric. Either yes/no, or a certain quantity can be attached to each goal.
Attainable
Something that is within my capacity to actually do. No pie in the sky here. I do have three kids to take care of and they are my first priority time wise, so I always keep that in mind.
Relevant
Along the same lines as attainable, this is something that would actually work with my current lifestyle.
Time-bound
It’s good to specify when you intend to complete a goal, or hit certain benchmarks. In some years I have designated specific months for certain goals.
Setting my Goals
As I mentioned above, for setting my personal goals I use a few general guidelines. I generally aim to have around 10 goals for the year, revolving around different areas of my life.
Personal Goals
My personal goals are those relating to my physical and mental wellbeing. I usually have one physical goal, and one or two goals relating to my personal fulfillment.
Interpersonal Goals
Here I will write goals relating to my family and friends. It is helpful to see myself within related and interconnected circles of influence. Some goals may relate to my spouse, others to my kids, my friends and my extended family. At this stage in my life, it isn’t very realistic to have community related goals, but those would certainly be a great addition to this area.
Professional Goals
These goals are a little different depending on what you do. As I have been primarily taking care of my kids and home, these goals have more to do with continuing education and learning. Others may find more satisfaction in targeting financial and career goals.
I find it helpful to think through what your life actually looks like. Where you’d like to make small, incremental changes. What are concrete actions that you can take that will make you happy a year from now?
As I have already written extensively, we have a lot of changes on the table and things coming up for our family in the next year. Therefore, I am really limiting my goal setting this year to a few personal items, to leave space for exploration and adjustment to what comes our way.
A Tiny Trip in 2020
After all that, I should still share some details about the blog, and things that you can expect to read about in the year ahead!
Mexico
More tips and advice to add on to our previous two trips. Backpacking with a Baby and Toddler, and Road Trip with 3 Kids, if you missed them!
Israel
We took so many tiny trips this summer and have yet to post about them! In the meantime, you can see some small trips we took in the Spring in Israel, and in the Summer in Israel, before kids. Here’s our trip with a baby to Israel.
New York City
Still trying to catch up on our big list. We have just about completed it! Hoping to check off the last couple museums this winter, and then I will write, write, write until you have a complete guide to New York City with kids.
Guides, Summaries and Catch up
There is a lot of older content that I intend to update and put together for you guys to make the hundreds of posts on this site easier to navigate. I also have a few USA destinations to write some catch-up posts on.
Life with Kids, Baby, Pregnancy
I have written a lot about this in the past, so posting will be light on this matter. Then again, I probably won’t resist a few posts about the kids, because in between travel we still need to live our day to day!
Living Our Values
I put a lot of thought into how we live and keeping that in line with our values. Sustainability, kindness, organic and natural products and choices guide both our day to day life, and the way we travel.
The reason we want to explore the world with our kids is part of a greater goal that has less to do with FOMO than with learning, growing and making a positive impact. As you read through our posts, I hope that this comes through even when the topic is seemingly unrelated. (This whole paragraph is the opposite of a SMART goal…[shrug]).
Update:
Want to know how we did on these 2020 goals? Despite the unusual year, I am calling it a success! All the details on our 2020 round up here!
Have you made goals for 2020? Care to share?
