Do you like planning and goal setting?
I do. I love to plan and organize but if I’m not careful, I can get bogged down with planning. So this year, my goal is to develop some specific habits instead. This habit strategy came to me during a workout. Which is a new exercise habit I established last year. While exercising, I learned by accident what author Octavia Butler said:
It happened in a recent workout. The trainer encouraged us to keep our fitness goals in mind to help us power through the tough parts. As the workout got harder I tried to focus on my fitness goals. But I couldn’t think of any! My only goal was to “get in shape.” No S.M.A.R.T. goals for me! Instead, it was really vague, but that’s all I had. Nevertheless, I kept on grinding.
Later, I realized it wasn’t any particular goal that inspired me to complete 216 workouts in 2022 (which I’m super happy with, btw!)––it was the established habit that did it. In the beginning, I made the habit super easy to accomplish. Over time, more intensity and time came naturally. But starting easy kept me at it on a regular basis. And the habit kept me going when the work got tough. It was part of my new normal. The happy result is now I am in “better shape” and I have a year’s worth of data from which to start new goals. One of which is to beat last year’s number of workouts.
So for my work life, I’m not setting new goals. Instead, a keen focus on daily habits will support my previous plans. For instance, one habit is to create content every day. To make it easy, I’ll commit to a minimum of 10 minutes of writing or designing content each day as part of my routine. That way I can reach out to you more often (but not too often, I promise) to bring you inspiration, observations, tips, and cool stuff. I hope you find it useful.
Here’s to you and your goals in 2023!
