Planning Ahead: Goal Setting for 2017

Planning for a New Year

Have you started thinking about next year yet? I can’t believe we are already in November and 2017 is almost here!

This month I started using the Living Well Planner from Ruth Sokup at Living Well Spending Less. I love my bullet journal but the set up in the Living Well Planner is very similar to what I was creating each week anyway. Now I can plan farther ahead since all the months are set up in advance.

I will still be using my bullet journal for my business since I love the flexibility for brainstorming and stat tracking. It is nice to have a separate place for all of that information since it helps create some boundaries between family and business.

I took some time to get setup in my Living Well Planner since it comes undated. I decided to start in November so that I could get a head start on planning for next year.

The beginning of each month has pages for setting goals and breaking the goals down in to manageable steps. There are also pages for budgeting, gratitude, notes and of course the weekly spread.

I got started on my first month and realized that although I have a great goal this month I am still not looking at the big picture. So I decided to create a 2017 Goal Setting Workbook.

Why Set a Big Goal?

I first ran across the idea on Money Saving Mom a few years ago and thought it was brilliant! I had never really thought about where I wanted to be in three years or five years. Living day to day, struggling to keep sane with a toddler and baby in the house kept me from thinking about the future.

Goal setting helps you to focus on the big picture and work towards what you really want in life. If you are feeling that life is passing you by and you aren’t getting anywhere then goal setting might help you.

It can be difficult to see the big picture when you are the mom of little kids. They suck so much time and energy out of you that it can be hard to just get to the end of the day. Once you start setting some big goals and figuring out some action steps to take it can make the day to day seem less of a struggle.

One of the realizations that I came to was that I am not looking at the big picture when it comes to my blog. I have been setting monthly goals but not really working towards any big goal. If I want to make this a business I am going to need to think longer term.

My Goals for 2017

I have chosen three areas to set goals in next year: personal, professional and family. This blog has been a bit overwhelming since there is so much to learn and absorb. I want to make sure that I make sure my family is a focus this coming year and I don’t miss out on things because I am working all the time.

Speaking of focus, I have chosen that as my word of the year. When I am working I want to focus on work and when I am with my family I want to focus on family. It is not just about balance but about creating boundaries so that I am not always thinking about work when I am with my family and missing my family when I am working.

I chose three goals in each category.

Personal

1. Read one book each month
2. Work on a creative, hands on project once a week ie: crochet, needle felting, coloring
3. Pay off my credit cards

Professional

1. Create and launch a class for Mompreneurs
2. Reach $2500 a month in blog income
3. Take one e-course and read one e-book each month

Family

1. Go on one-on-one dates with each of the big kids once a month
2. Spend quality time with my husband once a week
3. Plan a summer vacation

Breaking Down Goals

I realized as I was going through this that I have purchased enough e-courses and e-books to read one a month for the next year. One of the downsides of being unorganized is spending money on things you don’t need. I am determined to finish up theses courses and book before I spend anymore money on educational material.

Other than assigning an e-course and an e-book to each month I am also thinking about how I can accomplish my other goals. Using my workbook I have broken some things down in to bite size pieces to concentrate on for each month of the year.

I have a reminder for each month to schedule some one on one time with each child. I have already started working on some creative projects again too. It is nice to be crocheting and sewing a little bit, I have missed having that hands on activity in my life.

The big project for the first quarter is of course creating and launching my e-course. The outline is just about done and I am working on a plan for completion. This will be the focus of the first three months of the year and might take up a little more room in my life than some of  my other goals.

Breaking down your goals in to smaller monthly goals now, while you are focused on the process can help you stay on target through out the year. I plan on checking in with this workbook every month, doing a monthly review of my progress and making sure the goals for next month are on target.

A Gift for You!

Are you setting goals for 2017? I have created an entire workbook with pages for Yearly Goals, Monthly Goals and Monthly Review. If you want to grab it for FREE just enter your email below and I will send it to you!