2016 Goal Check-In

Instead of 2016 New Year’s Resolutions, I like to call them my 2016 goals. Some people say that resolutions are meant to be broken. Is that why herds of people viciously abandon their New Year’s Resolutions? Or do they haphazardly make resolutions up just to tell to friends and family how they are going to change their life at the stroke of midnight of a new year? Who knows? For me, goals are something I constantly track and work towards (baby steps peeps), all year long. Not just a wishy washy promise made at the beginning of the year, forever to be forgotten by February (mid-January in some cases).

You may be thinking, it’s the middle of April. Why are checking in on your “2016 goals” now? Here are a few reasons. I do a goal check-in every few months to:
1. See if I am on track. If not I reevaluate my timeline and adjust the completion date. Sometimes these run over into the next year. It doesn’t mean they are not a goal for the current year, it just means I need to continue to work on them and I will eventually accomplish it, whether that be this year, next year, or the following year.
2. Make sure my goals are true to me. Why would I try to accomplish a goal if it no longer fits me, my life, my passions and dreams, or my focus? Nix them if they no longer apply to your life.
3. Adjust the goals to make them realistic based on the baby steps I’ve been working on. If there is no way I am going to accomplish a goal, even with the baby steps, I modify to a more manageable, but still challenging goal.
4. Reaffirm these are the goals I set for myself, not that others have unintentionally set for me. My goals are for me, by me. End of story. I’m not going to let someone get into my head by telling me, “I bet you can’t accomplish XYZ”. Who cares? Don’t make something a goal just to prove someone wrong (or right). (Read more about my struggle with proving myself in CrossFit HERE)

 

So…What are my goals?

To start, I accomplished one goal already in January – going through hundreds of family pictures and sending them off to be scanned and put in the cloud (I just didn’t have time and the money was worth it). The rest of these goals were already modified once in March. Looking at them, it’s uh, time to get real with myself…

• Pay off final credit card by 4/1/17 I am changing the date to be more realistic. This is a bit too aggressive considering I’ll be paying rent again starting in July and need to reevaluate my budget. My new deadline is going to be 5/11/17 (my 29^th birthday eeek!)
• Move out of the parental units casa by 7/1/16 We are on track here!
• Complete Associates degree in Computer Information Systems- Digital Media by December 2018 I have two degrees already. Really, I need to see if the entire degree is necessary for what I’d like to do or if it makes more sense to take the classes that apply to my needs and wants. I am already signed up for 3 online classes for this summer.
• Get Powers of Attorney drawn up by 12/15/16 Working for estate planning attorneys I have come to realize how important this is. If I get in a wreck and go into a coma my parents and boyfriend cannot access my bank account to pay my bills or make medical decisions for me… Yikes!
• Pay off IRS by 12/31/16 This goal is on track and not by choice. I’m on a payment plan.
• Run 1.5 miles in 12:30 and run 1.5 miles 2x/week by 11/30/16 I’m nixing this goal and creating an entirely new one. Most people that know me have come to find out that I am a mermaid and mermaids don’t run.
• Save $1,000 in my emergency fund by 12/15/16 I’ve recently had a set back with this. I emptied my emergency fund to pay a bill because I decided to spend money a lululemon instead of follow my budget (whole different blog post to come!)
• Do the splits all the way down (center and side splits) by 12/31/16 I work on this pretty consistently 4-5 days a week. I don’t feel like I’m getting very far, but I will continue to chip away at it.
• Only eat sweets on the weekends by 4/1/16 I have definitely already failed this. Boooooo. What do I do? I’m going to adjust the goal, reset the date, and try again.
• Start my company (apply for LLC and have a product design ready to be manufactured) by 10/31/16 This is definitely something that I’ve been wanting to do for a while. I need to figure out some baby steps to get here first.

Drumroll… Below are my adjusted goals for 2016

• Pay off final credit card by 4/1/17 5/11/17
• Move out of the parental units casa by 7/1/16
• Complete Associates degree in Computer Information Systems- Digital Media by December 2018 Complete three online summer classes by 8/7/16
• Get Powers of Attorney drawn up by 12/15/16
• Pay off IRS by 12/31/16
• Run 1.5 miles in 12:30 and run 1.5 miles 2x/week by 11/30/16 Increase my aerobic capacity and general rowing ability by doing the Rowing WOD program and incorporating Assault Bike workouts 7/2/16 (read more about how I’m focusing on myself, my fitness, and my workouts after the 2016 CrossFit Open HERE)
• Save $1,000 $500 in my emergency fund by 12/15/16
• Do the splits all the way down (center and side splits) by 12/31/16
• Only eat sweets on the weekends by 4/1/16 5/14/16
• Start my company (apply for LLC and have a product design ready to be manufactured) by 10/31/16

There you have it, my 2016 goals! I will do another check around July, stay tuned!

What are your goals? How did you choose them and how are you staying on track?