I took a quiz recently that put all personalities into four categories. I’m never a huge fan of things that pigeonhole people, but the results made me think. I was categorized as an “Upholder.” The description basically summarized me as someone that creates goals and sticks to them without needing any outer pressure.

I had never really thought of myself as that type of person before. But then I thought about how I plan my weeks. Or my year. I always have a list of goals for the week in my planner. I always write out a list of goals for my year. Even at work,  every week I create an enormous to-do list with my goals for the week at the top.

So I looked at my 2017 planner, which had an enormous amount of goals set, if you recall these are the categories I used in my planner last year. I hadn’t even so much as glanced at them in months, but when I looked I was surprised how many I had actually completed. The first one that jumped out at me:

• Workout 3x a week - I signed up for an unlimited membership at my yoga/fitness studio and workout there 3-6x a week! 

I did that one so easily. I wanted to workout; I needed to work out for my mental and physical health. This inspired me to take different approach to goal setting this year. After going down the list I realized all the goals I met were parts of true wants and needs in my life.

I have a tendency to always do what I think I “should” be doing. This year, I’m going to do what I want and need. I’m going to pinpoint my focus, while letting go of the things that don’t really matter. Lots of small, mundane, specific goals are great for a to-do list, but not a long-term goal. It’s easy to lose focus on what’s important with “Keep a cleaning chart” as a goal.

My first goal:

Do more of what you truly love and fulfills you.

What does that mean for me? It means writing on my blog or in my journal. It means doing more yoga. It means putting down my phone and picking up a book.

So ask yourself when you’re setting goals this year (or anytime), what is something you need? What is your heart’s desire? What fulfills you?

Try to craft goals from the things that come to you.

Yours will be different than mine, of course, so let me know one you’ve crafted in the comments!