Goal Setting Tip#1: Word of the Year
Contrary to my first post (The Written Word) where I revealed my love language to be Words of Affirmation, I always joke that my true love language is the Shared Note app on the iPhone. The amount of joy I receive from creating and crossing off items on a to do list is paramount. I actually think that if you were to measure the dopamine and serotonin released in my brain, it would spike beyond normal levels during these activities. This strong love turned into a habit that has paved the way for my planning, organization, and goal setting skills. The way I look at it, there’s two primary components:
1) Personalization
The first thing to understand about goal setting is that there’s no template that can be applied for everyone. It is based on your interests, time you’re willing to commit, and you desire to accomplish them. In other words, it’s completely customizable. There’s so much beauty in this because, not only do you have the power to create your goals, but only you know how much progress you’ve made.
2) Desire
Once you understand that your goals need to be based on what you want to achieve, I urge you to ask yourself why you’re setting them. This will not only help you realize the gravity to which you want to accomplish them but also potentially weed out things you might want to accomplish due to society/social media pressure.
In this tip, I share something that I found extremely useful that incorporates the above components for goal setting.
Now let’s begin the fun –
Word of the Year
Every year, instead of a New Year’s resolution, I choose a word that encompasses a big picture quality I want to work on and live the year by. It was inspired by my sorority’s president (s/o Kelsey!) who practiced the same exercise with her mom. I threw out New Year’s resolutions that wouldn’t last a month and took on something different. Unlike most things that I’m incredibly indecisive about, I choose this word purely based on my gut instinct. The word usually guides my thoughts, reflections, and actions for the course of the year.
I choose a word based on something that I want to work on or gain from the year. This allows me to always check in with the word throughout the year and see if I’m making the progress desired. It’s basically an umbrella for the specific goals I set and a journal prompt that never grows old. What I like the most about this is that it’s so personal and actually not something I can cross off a list, it’s something that I create for myself and only I can determine whether I am living up to the standard of the word that I desire. Personal? Check. Desired? Check.
This year, my word is gratification.
Gratification: pleasure, especially when gained from the satisfaction of a desire
I chose this word because I have always been an individual who caved in easily to instant gratification and made several decisions based on what would benefit me the most in the present. I know that this mentality is something the millennial generation suffers with but realizing that pushing my goals off was only going to decrease the likelihood of achieving them was what led me to choose this word. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to obtain things like financial stability, owning a home, owning my own business, physical prime, qualify for Boston marathon, etc if I didn’t put in the time to establish discipline now. Taking the steps to allow discipline to become a habit has assisted me as I embark on my journey towards gratification.
Previous words I used were:
Exuberance
Indulge
Cognizant
Congruence
And being the list maker that I am, I’ve already began brainstorming my 2021 word list.
While this is a personal goal setting technique that I use for reflection, purpose, and guidance, I understand that it may not be for everyone. But for those who are interested in taking it on, why wait until the New Year?! I challenge you to start now! There are still 4 months remaining in 2020 and that will allow sufficient time to test it out and determine if it’s a good fit for you.
What will your word for the remainder of 2020 be?!
