How to set new year goals

The start of a new year calls for new goals and new ambitions, it’s the chance to set yourself in the right direction and realise the steps you need to take to get to where you want to be. This week’s post sets out my recommendations for how to create new year goals, talking you through my process for goal setting and also providing you with a free resource so you can take part yourself.

So often, new year goals are vague, such as wanting to be healthier and wanting to do better academically.  Realistically, goals like these are difficult to achieve, unless you specify how you are going to get there. Therefore, after putting some thought into how to best set new year goals, I have come up with some ways in which new years goals can be made in an ambitious, trackable, and realistic way.

Follow along and create your own new year goals using my free resource. Copy the template into your own excel document to take part.

Firstly, I divided my goals up into different categories. It is important to note that your categories may vary depending on what you want to focus on in the new year, but the categories I decided on include:

• Physical
• Career
• Academic 
• Mental 
• Financial
• Friends
• Self-care

Following this, I brainstormed where I wanted to be at the end of the year in relation to each category. In order to be specific, I created several weekly goals for each category as I find that this makes achieving my goals more realistic, as I am able to continually track my progress. However, you may prefer to do monthly goals if this works better for you. I have given an example of one of my weekly goals for every category:

• Physical- Do one gym class every week
• Career- Check LinkedIn 2/3 times per week
• Academic- Attend all live lectures and tutorials 
• Mental- Go for a walk every day 
• Financial- Stay within my weekly budget
• Friends- Meet up with at least one friend every week
• Self-care- Do my daily skincare routine every day

As shown in the resource I have made, there is space to mark every week whether a goal has been complete or not. This can be done using a colour scheme of your choosing. There is also space to make notes on your goals each week if you would like. For example, if something wasn't completed, maybe note down why.

In the resource, there is a spreadsheet for every month. This gives you the flexibility to change your weekly goals monthly if you feel that is appropriate. For example, some months, you may wish to save more money or study more,

It is good to be ambitious, but also realistically not every single goal will be completed every week. Therefore make sure to be kind to yourself! These goals are simply a guide for yourself to set you in the right direction.

Good luck with goal setting! I hope everyone reading has a brilliant new year.

Kathryn :))