As we've just started a new year, I thought it would be the perfect time to share how I set big goals in my journal. You can follow this process at any time of year and it's something that I review and adapt regularly.
1. What is your Purpose or Mission?
Before setting my goals, I like to consider what my wider purpose or mission is. This really helps to set the tone for my goals and ensure I am working towards something that is important to me, rather than just what I think I should be working on.
The next step is to consider what areas you need to focus on, to ensure that you are working on things directly related to your purpose. This helps to narrow the field a little and makes goal setting more straight-forwards.
2 Vision Board Pages, Word for the Year & Mantras
One of my favourite things to do is create vision board pages in my journals. It's really fun to do and I find that visuals can have a strong impact on my motivation. I found some images that tied in with the areas I want to focus on and that speak to me on a profound level. This page is the exact look and feel that I want to bring about in my life.
The next step that I followed was to pick a word for the year. I try to pick a word that I can attribute direct actions to and my word for 2022 is refine. I feel that I now have most of the building blocks in place and the next step for me is to focus on refining what I'm doing. In previous years I have picked words such as grow, explore and balance. It's good to spend some time playing around with different words until you have one that feels right for you. I also added some supporting mantras/quotes to bring home what this word means to me.
3 What does Success Look Like?
At this stage, it's a really good idea to journal about what success looks like in each of the areas you have chosen. You need to know where you want to go, before you start setting out the road map to get you there. It doesn't have to be massively detailed, but it does need to resonate with you.
4 Where do you want to be 12 Months from Now?
Now that you have an idea of what long-term success looks like, it's time to think about what you want to have achieved in a year's time. I like to be stretching with my goals, but also something that feels hopefully realistic, even if I haven't worked out all of the steps to get me there at this stage. Journals are a perfect place to set goals and reflect on how you're doing. Again, I'm sticking to the same categories that I identified right at the beginning of the planning process.
5 What about 6 Months & 3 Months from Now?
This is the step that starts to get really exciting for me as we are beginning to deal with much shorter periods of time. I look at at my 12 month goals and setting smaller goals that I would like to achieve within the next 3 and 6 month periods.
These goals tend to be more tangible and I'm starting to think about individual steps that will need to be achieved in order to reach my goals.
6 One Month from Now
At this stage, I write down the steps that I want to achieve within the next month. Each of these is always tied into the vision that I have for success. So, I guess this is the nitty gritty of making sure that you are taking actual actions which are going to move you forwards within the next month. I add the individual tasks into my bullet journal, along with dates for completing them.
I also include a review section which I think is really important. At the end of the month I will reflect on what is working and what needs tweaking. I never miss this step out as it's so valuable. I can adjust goals, change the way I'm planning my days, ask for help, learn new skills or anything else which will move me in the right direction.
7 Extra Journaling Inspiration
I really hope this blog post has helped give you some ideas that you can use in your own journals. If you are looking for additional journaling inspiration, I will leave you with a list of resources below:
Patreon: You can join my Patreon community here. Each month I share journal prompts, creative challenges, journal printables, videos and lots of posts to help keep you inspired.
My books: My first book gives you lots of inspiration for adding creative elements to your journal. My newest book shares tons of journal layout ideas and journal prompts.
My online classes: I have lots of online classes available, about a wide range of journaling styles and techniques. You can find them all here.
I do hope you're feeling fired up and ready to take your journaling journey to the next level. I can't wait to hear about how you get on, Helen x