Do you ever wonder where the time has gone? Another year has passed without accomplishing much. Another year of dreams not fulfilled. Another year where life got in the way.

Today, we are going to work through our 2019 goal setting together in order for those dreams to become a reality this year.

“The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals.” – Melody Beattie

What do you think about when you hear the phrase “setting goals”? Do you think about where you’d like to be several years from now or do you think about where you’d like to be next year, next quarter, next month, even next week? Do you think about that dream vacation you’d like to take? Or do you long to be debt free?

To set goals and actually achieve them, you must start with your vision of what you’d like to accomplish.

Assignment one: make a brain dump list of all the things you’d like to see happen by the end of 2019? If there are any longer term goals you’d like to accomplish, what are the benchmark goals you need to complete in 2019 to be on track to achieve those larger goals?

Now that you’ve made your master list, it’s time to start planning which items are realistic for your every day life. In order to set goals and actually achieve them, they must be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely.Let’s walk through this a little bit more by breaking down your larger goals into bite-sized manageable pieces.

Let’s say you want to write a book in 2019. That goal by itself won’t accomplish anything until you break it down into more specific action items.

Get SPECIFIC – I want to write a 60,000 word 12 chapter book in 2019.

Make it MEASURABLE – I will need to write 5,000 words or one chapter per month to accomplish this goal. In order to write 5,000 words per month, I need to write 1,250 words per week.

Is this goal ACHIEVABLE? – Set goals that challenge you but are still attainable. If you say you want to earn a million dollars in a year from your blog and you haven’t even started it yet, then your goal probably isn’t achievable.

Is this goal RELEVANT and realistic within your life and responsibilities? – Does it fit with what you’re already doing that are non-negotiable such as your job and home life?

Is it TIMELY? – Does your goal have a target deadline and even benchmark deadlines within that goal? Looking back at my example to write a book, I set a deadline of finishing my book in 12 months with smaller benchmark goals per month and per week. I believe the key to achieving your goals is in setting these smaller bite-sized benchmark goals for small victories along the way.

Assignment two: look through your list of dreams from assignment one and determine which ones have the potential to be SMART goals. Then, break them down in to small, measurable goals with deadlines.

I’d love the hear from you in the comments. What big goal would you like to accomplish in 2019?