2020 Goals

This past summer, I was inspired by my friend Kay and her 2019 goals, so much so I decided to copy her!

Here are the videos that spawned my inspiration:

Subscribe to her YouTube channel: Passports & Pizzapies https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIHmd_j3oI5wXpUMlWKI3Xg
Follow her on IG: @passports_and_pizzapies

I have decided to implement goals instead of resolutions this year. While resolutions are nice and some people truly follow through, most do not. Goals can be much more meaningful and can give you a sense of accomplishment, which is where most resolutions are lacking.

Kay executes SMART goals for 5 categories and has 2 goals in each category, 10 goals total for the year. Just for reference her 5 categories are: business, finance, personal, family, and travel. Now, I’m not going to copy all 5 categories (or the 2 goal per category layout), since I am a new mom and I’m not sure how travel would work this year as we (my husband and I) have not even talked about any travel or vacations, but I will have five categories! Keep reading to find out 🙂

First, what are SMART goals? Read my post for setting SMART goals here.

SMART is an acronym for:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable/Attainable
Relevant
Time-based

Here’s a quick run down:
S – the more specific the goal the better. Do not be vague. Umbrella goals usually do not succeed.
M – Quantify your goal.
A – Achievable/Attainable – be honest with yourself. You don’t have to accomplish every goal, but you should be at least close to accomplishment.
R – Choose something closely related to your ideals and appropriate at this time in life.
T – A deadline! Pick an actual date in the future on the calendar. Include checkpoints if you desire 🙂

For my goals I’m going to tackle business, finance, health, family, and personal.

Business Goals: This category has 2 goals. I have the desire to increase my earning power in one of my current income sources and also establish a new income source.

1. Launch blog by the end of January 2020.
   • Pick a paid host
   • Establish a “niche”
   • Have at least 1 blog post for each category by May
   • Create at least 1 blog post a month
   • Establish an email list for the blog and have it functional by March.
   • Share with at least 2 friends to increase exposure. This one I find tricky. I will be exposing a lot of my vulnerabilities in this blog and to have people so close to me reading about them makes me a bit uncomfortable, but if your friends can’t support you and cheer for you, then who do you really have?
     
     
2. As a current spin instructor for a small women’s gym in Boston, I want to make myself more marketable to the owner. I teach 1 lunchtime spin class per week and sub the Monday night class if need be. The lunchtime class is ideal since my primary job is about 1 block from the gym and I can get in a quick workout! This also allows me some extra money per month and a free membership to the gym which I use for yoga, cardio, and various other group classes on my lunch breaks. I am AFAA certified through FiTOUR. Use FiTOUR to also get AFAA certified in either yoga or group fitness in order to be able to sub more lunchtime classes during the week. Ideally, I would like to do both, but certifications cost money and it needs to be a useful certification. I’m leaning towards yoga. The gym owner has asked me to sub in the past thinking I had been certified so this is the most likely. The time frame to achieve the first certification is February and the second is April.
   • By the end of January, pick which certification best appropriate for me. Talk to the gym owner and determine which she sees the most opportunity for.
   • Last week in January – pay for the class and download the course materials.
   • Take the exam by February 28.
   • By the end of March  – pay for the class and download the course materials.
   • Take the exam by April 30.

Finance Goals: Part of my ambition in 2019 was to get consumer debt free. The one problem was – the goal was too vague! I crunched the numbers and thought it was actually possible to be almost 100% debt free aside from the car payment and mortgage by August 2019. Oh how wrong I was! I did not write the goals down, lay out a plan, or set specific dates. I just ran the numbers and talked about it. This went well for a couple months! Progress was made; however, because of the lack of a SMART goal surrounding this and lack to include sinking funds in my budget, I was not prepared OR accountable. (You can read about my prior debt payoff attempts here).

1. ave an emergency fund: $3K. Time frame: February 2020. Simple and straightforward. We have a high interest savings account we pay into monthly, but we want to pretend those funds do not exist. If you are a child of Dave Ramsey you know this is not the way he teaches, but I don’t believe there is a one-size fits all approach to debt payoff. We want this $3,000 emergency fund to be accessible at any time for any emergency and we thought $1,000 as suggested by Dave was just too small.
2. Have all credit card debt paid off by December 31, 2020. The 3 credit cards are American Express, Capital One credit card, and Citizens. These are just under $15,665. I am planning to use a combination of the debt snowball and debt avalanche to attack all our debts, but for the credit cards we are using the debt snowball. The first to go will be the American Express, the smallest debt with a moderate interest rate; the second to go will be the Capital One; and the last will be the Citizens, the highest balance with the highest interest rate. I will be using our debt spreadsheet to track this and track how much extra payments we are making so we stay consistent throughout the year. I will also be budgeting for Christmas this year so as not to fall back into the bad habit of using the credit cards. Read more on my first attempts at debt pay off here.

Health Goals: Health and fitness are very important to me. You only get one body, so you need to not only care for it, but optimize it to be the best version you can be.

1. Crossfit on average 3x per week. I love Crossfit, it’s a great workout and great community! It’s an expensive membership so I need to be diligent about using it and not getting lazy and just skipping out. 
2. Make it to my lunch time gym on average 2x per week. This can include my spin class I teach, but I should be there more than just that day whether it be to get my run in or a yoga class. 
3. Run at least 1 mile per week. I know this seems trivial, but if you know a crossfitter, chances are you also know they hate running! I’m setting the bar really low here in hopes I can finally improve my running over the year and perhaps even not hate it (gasp!).
4. Stretch on average 3x per week (yoga counts!). I used to be so flexible! I want that back.
   
   If you’re into maths like me then:
   3x a week on average equates to 156/year, 39/quarter, and 13/month
   2x a week on average equates to 104/year, 26/quarter, and 8-9/month
   
   I wanted to keep this as an average because things come up like illnesses, emergencies, and (on a good note) vacations.
   

Family Goals: As a new family of 3, I thought these would be fun goals to get into the habit of.

1. One date night with my husband every month, child free. 
2. One family event with the 3 of us. This can be a walk, a picnic, visiting a park, or maybe even a hike! Our daughter is only 5 months old right now, so family days out are pretty limited and basic; however, this is something I feel strongly about establishing early. 

Personal Goals: Perhaps the most selfish of the goals, but if you don’t make goals for self improvement and to do something enjoyable for just you, you are failing yourself. If you have something for just you alone, it builds self-confidence and inner-growth. Additionally, it gives you something to talk about other than the latest TV show 😉

1. Book reading: Read 6 new books this year. Broken out this will be 1 book every 2 months. These must include one non-fiction book and one finance or self-help book.
2. Finish started knitting projects. I have 2 projects started this year, one is a baby blanket I wanted to finish before my daughter was born (oops) and the other is a cowl. I’m aiming to finish both by March 31, 2020. 
3. Stretch goal: knit 3 baby blankets. One of my SILs is pregnant and 2 of my friends are. That’s 3 preggos! 2 are due in June and one is due in May. Obviously my SIL takes priority and she is one of the 2 due in June. 
4. Super stretch goal: knit an adult sized blanket for my SIL (my husband’s sister) to gift her at Christmas.

In sum, because I love lists and they make a nice at-a-glance, here’s a list of all goals:

1. Business Goals
   • Have a blog!
   • 2 more fitness certifications
2. Finance Goals
   • Emergency fund of $3,000
   • Pay off all credit cards
3. Health Goals
   • Crossfit average 3x per week
   • Lunchtime average gym 2x per week
   • Run 1 mile/week
   • Stretch average 3x per week
4. Family Goals
   • 1 child-free date night with the hubs monthly
   • 1 family outing monthly
5. Personal Goals
   • Read
   • Knit

I will be doing quarterly blog posts for updates on all my goals! I hope this has inspired you to set goals for yourself and not merely catch-all resolutions. Here’s to accomplishing your 2020 goals!