The “No Fail” Way to Set Goals and Achieve Them

I strongly believe that your life is created through your daily actions and intentions. This means that if you aren’t consciously planning and working towards your desires for yourself and your family, you are much more likely to feel unsatisfied and unfulfilled in life.

This is why I set goals and intentions every year, and then work them into my daily routine so that the goals are achieved.

I am writing this in the beginning of December 2022 and I plan on having my goals for 2023 planned out before December 31st. I like to get this done before January 1st because at that point, I’m exhausted from the holiday’s and don’t have the mental capacity to set goals.

I’m going to walk you through my “no fail” goal setting process, sharing the goals I set for 2022 and where I stand with those goals right now. I’ll also share with you my goals for 2023.

I’ll also share with you THE MOST IMPORTANT thing you can do to assure you don’t give up on your goals, and you end 2023 feeling satisfied and proud of what you accomplished!

The Goal Setting Process

Year in Review

This is the step that many people skip. It may not seem productive to review your year, but it’s crucial to remind yourself of how much you accomplished so you can move into the next year with confidence.

Plus, as a busy mom, I bet your default thinking is set to focusing on all you didn’t accomplish, instead of seeking out everything you did get done!

Taking time to reflect over the last year will show you that no matter what goals you set, you created change through how you showed up day in and day out. In the moment, it may not feel like anything changes or gets done. Through reflection, you see that even little action, taken consistently, created change.

For example, while reflecting, you might realize that you started out 2022 with no solid morning routine. But as the year went on, you started slowly changing the way you showed up in the morning, and now you have a routine in place! Or maybe you’re child started out 2022 not knowing how to make their bed, but over the year, they learned the skill and now make their bed every morning.

When you notice these little wins, you create evidence for your brain that you can get things done and meet your goals! It’s a great way to get yourself excited for the following year.

As part of the review, you can assess how you did with the goals you set for 2022.

I’m going to share the goals I set for 2022. You will notice that I write my goals in past tense as if they happened already. Writing out your goals in past tense tricks your brain into thinking you’ve achieved them already. This helps keep your brain out of self-doubt and spinning about how you won’t achieve your goals.

My 2022 Goals and Reflection

“I’ve maintained a weight between 145 lbs. and 150 lbs. and settled into the believe that I’m someone who doesn’t overeat.“

I’ve been working on losing 10 pounds for the last few years, but I knew this year was the year I would lose the pounds for good. I’ve worked hard on my mindset around overeating, and I was starting to see the results show up on the scale. I was confident that if I committed to this goal for the full year, not giving up on myself when I overate, or the scale didn’t move, I would see results. I’m happy to say that I am in my weight window now as we close out 2022. Some might say this has been a slow weight loss process. But allowing for the process to be slow, showed me that when I overate or the scale went up (both things happened many times), and I didn’t give up on myself, I could easily recommit and meet my goal instead of throwing it all away over one “mistake”.

“We met our savings goal and put aside money for vacations along with reducing my student loan debt by $10,000.”

We readjusted our goal numbers in some of these areas. We also decided to buy a boat (something that was not on the agenda for 2022) so this changed up our finances. However, we are really close to meeting our savings goal and we almost met our vacation savings goal for 2022. With the state of student loan forgiveness right now, I decided to hold back on aggressively paying on my student loan and using the extra money toward our vacation account instead. I think I paid down $2,000 overall on my student loan.

I feel really good with where we are with our finances. My husband and I decide together what we want our money goals to be each year.

“I spent at least four hours a week working on This Routine Life and made it into a money generating business.”

I accomplished this goal because I started scheduling work hours for This Routine Life (TRL) into my weekly schedule. Many times, I worked over four hours a week. I’m happy to say that TRL has started generating revenue. I tend to always want things to happen faster, and I’m working on enjoying the process and appreciating what I’m accomplishing in the moment. I assessed the last year for TRL and it was great to see how showing up consistently and sticking to my plan created the results I desired.

“I spent a few minutes everyday intentionally focusing on my future.”

I’m going to talk more about this later, but this goal alone provided the foundation for my other goals to flourish. Most mornings, as part of my morning routine, I looked over my goals (these exact goals I’m sharing with you), and then set my timer for 2 minutes and wrote in my journal as if one of the goals had already happened. I focused on how I would feel and how my life looked now that the goal was accomplished. Taking these two minutes every morning kept my goals top of mind all year. Reviewing the goals daily helped me focus on ways to accomplish them and then I would put those ideas into action.

“I take an intentional walk everyday.”

I created this goal to build up my discipline. I knew that I wouldn’t be excited to take a walk everyday, but pushing myself to do it would prove to myself that I can do things that I don’t want to do…A good part of life is doing things you aren’t excited about doing! So making this commitment to myself strengthened my discipline muscle. Plus, it made me go outside and enjoy fresh air, even on days when the weather wasn’t great. I will be honest, I fell behind on this goal within the last few months. I average about 3-5 walks a week. I’m hoping to give this a go again in 2023 because it really does feel good to complete something that you know is good for you, but you don’t want to do. In case your wondering, this was usually a 5-10 minute walk.

“I take time to read for pleasure and use a reading journal to reflect on books I completed.”

Reading is my favorite hobby. I average about a book a week. But what I find is that I read so fast, that I don’t always absorb and appreciate what I’m reading. I thought a reading journal would help me process the story so that I benefit fully from my time reading. However, I’ve tried to keep a reading journal twice over the last year and I just don’t stick with it. So for now, I’m ok with leaving this goal behind in 2022.

“I completed 3 cross-stitch projects”

Embroidery is another hobby I enjoy. I did complete three projects this year, even though they weren’t the projects I was expecting to complete. The point of the goal is that I made time to cross-stitch, which I did.

“I coached my son’s soccer team.”

I’m a strong believer in pushing yourself out of your comfort zone as you get older. This is why I set a goal to coach my son’s soccer team even though I’ve NEVER played a sport, let alone knew anything about soccer. I knew this would be something different for me that would feel uncomfortable and take some learning. I also knew that the soccer league really needed volunteers so I would be helping the community. I took the plunge into this new experience. I actually really enjoyed it! I was so proud of myself for pushing past the part of me that didn’t think I was qualified, or had the time to do it.

“I recertified as a Life Coach through The Life Coach School”

Back in 2013, I completed Life Coach training through The Life Coach School. I had my own coaching business for a few years, then took time away to stay home with my kids full time. However, I’ve been working my way back to coaching now that both of my kids are in school. Coaching has truly changed my life by giving me the tools to understand how my mind works and how I can use my mind to get the results I want in life. In this world where mental health is at such a crisis point, I’m passionate about helping others learn the tools to manage their emotions and mindset. Since I had taken a break from coaching, I had to go through the process to recertify. I’m happy to say I completed the process and was recertified in February.

“I published the Angry Mom blog series”

In October of 2020, I started working on how I was showing up as a mom to my kids. I was exhausted with constantly feeling guilty and frustrated with how I was showing up as a mom. I yelled too much and was routinely disappointed with how I handled situations. Because I was feeling so horrible about my parenting, I chose to work with coaches because I knew I needed help changing my mindset so that I could show up as the mom I wanted to be. This process was life changing so I decided to create a blog series using the steps I went through to feel less angry and overwhelmed, and more happy and confident as a mom. I published this blog series in the spring of 2022, you can find it here.

And if you are interested in going through this process to become a more happy and confident mom, check this out.

How To Set and Achieve Goals

Here’s the step-by-step process I use to set my goals for the year. This process assures that you stick with them and don’t give up weeks into the new year.

Step #1: Reflect on the previous year.

Once again, reflection has to be part of the process. You just finished the year and you owe it to yourself to look back on what you accomplished. I use my journal to write about what I completed in the year. You can use the questions below to guide your journaling:

• What change was created over the last year?
• How was this change created?
• What worked?
• What didn’t work?

As I was reflecting over 2022, one of the biggest themes I noticed was that I didn’t give up on my goals. Even when I had days when I wasn’t working towards them and fell back into unhealthy habits, I didn’t throw in the towel. For example, I had weeks when the scale kept going up. I also experienced a car theft while traveling which set us back on financial goal and left me without some belongings (ie – the notebook where I recorded and kept my goals) that I was using to achieve my goals.

In the past, I would have used these experiences as evidence for giving up on my goals. However, over time I’ve trained my brain to stop the “all or nothing” thinking so little disruptions no longer derail me. In fact, I’ve learned that it’s much easier and quicker to recommit to your goal then to deal with the mental drama of giving up on yourself.

Once you stop giving up and just keep moving forward, no matter how slow the pace, you will get there eventually. This new found discipline feels freeing to me and fills me with confidence going into 2023.

I wouldn’t have made this connection if I didn’t take the time to reflect on 2022. Make sure you don’t skip this step!

Step #2: Think about what you want for next year.

Once you finish reflecting on the previous year, shift your focus to what you want for the next year.

It might help to think about this time next year, and what would bring you joy to accomplish? These are your goals so nothing is too big or too small.

If you need some help, use these categories to get your mind moving:

Family + Friends – Are there traditions you want to start? How do you want to spend time with family and friends? Is there a relationship you want to nourish? Do you want to instill new family routines?

Household – What projects would you like to complete? Are there systems you want to put in place? New routines you want to start? Areas where you want to declutter?

Mental + Spiritual – Are there aspects of your mental health you want to work on? Or believe systems that you no longer want to abide by? Do you want to strengthen your spiritual relationship?

Finances – What do you want to save for? What debt do you want to lower or pay off? Do you want to create a budget or system for managing your money?

Business – Do you have a business idea you want to work on? What goals would you like to achieve? How much money do you want to make? How many sales do you want by the end of the year?

Health – How do you want to feel in your body by the end of the year? If you want to lose weight, how much? Do you want a new exercise routine? How many steps a day will you aim for?

I created a fun “Best Year Yet” printable for you to record your goals and put them in a place you can look at regularly.

Step #3 – Take two minutes everyday and write about on of your goals as if you have achieved it. (The most important thing you can do to assure you don’t give up on your goals.)

In 2022, I wrote all my goals on a piece of paper and read them daily during my morning routine. I then used my my journal to spend two minutes writing about a goal as if it happened.

If this seems difficult for you at first, use these questions to prompt your journal session:

• How do I feel now that the goal is acheived?
• How is my life different now that the goal is acheived?
• What was the best part of the journey to achieving the goal?

This may not seem like a big deal, but this is a complete game changer with keeping your goals alive and achieving them. Writing about your goal as if it has happened provides food for your brain to support your goal, instead of going into self-doubt about it.

For example, if I wasn’t reviewing my goals daily and writing about them, I probably would have easily avoided volunteering to be a soccer coach. But because I saw the goal everyday, and wrote about how it would feel once I was coaching, or finished coaching, I pursued the opportunity when it became available.

Spending two minutes a day is a small price to pay for achievement of your goals and to feel more fulfilled in life. Grab the “Best Year Yet” printable to record your goals/dreams and then review it everyday until your goals are completed!

Step #4 – Drop “all or nothing” thinking.

As I mentioned previously, refusing to play into “all or nothing” thinking is what helped me stick the course when things weren’t going my way. Please do yourself a favor and make it a priority to no longer play into this mindset.

You will be amazed at how much you can accomplish, and how easily you create consistency when you no longer give up on something the minute it isn’t working for you, or the actions don’t meet your intentions.

My Goals for 2023

Finally, let me share with you my goals for 2023. I’ve spent some time journaling about why these goals are important, and how I will achieve them. However, on a daily basis, I review my “Best Year Yet” goal sheet and use that to do my future writing.

Household

I maintained a weekly cleaning schedule.

I’ve cleaned and organized all closets and have a system in place.

We practiced “one in + one out” for everything we purchased.

Mental + Spiritual

I used compassion and curiosity when dealing with others instead of judgement.

Finished 2023 Reading Challenge and additional books I wanted to read.

I completed three cross-stitch projects.

Finances

We saved money and started planning our Disney World trip for 2024.

I chose not to engage with money scarcity thoughts.

Business

I’ve met my 2023 business goals (I’ve planned these out separately).

Health

I’ve beat my workout days and 10k steps days for 2022. (I keep a habit tracker to record workouts and 10k steps, and then add it up monthly.)

I continued to stay in my weight window.

Family + Friends

We transformed our parenting to use less threats and consequences with the kids.

I played tennis with the boys once a week, during the summer.

We took a family vacation over Thanksgiving break.

The “No Fail” Way to Set Goals and Achieve Them

I’ve walked you through my “no fail” goal setting process and shared with you my 2022 goal status, and my goals for 2023.

I hope you find this helpful to consciously plan your goals so that you are working towards your desires for yourself and your family. Goal setting is a fun way to feel satisfied and fulfilled in life. And remember, no goal is too big or too small.

As a quick recap:

Step 1 – Reflect on the previous year.

Step 2 – Think about what you want for next year.

Step 3 – Use the Best Year Yet printable to review and write about your goals everyday as if they have happened.

Step 4 – Drop “all or nothing” thinking.

I would love to know what your goals are. Share them with me in the comments below!