10 areas of life to set goals for 🎯 –
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Introduction 👋
Setting goals for your life doesn’t have to be just for a new year’s resolution – you can make changes at any time of the year!
Adult life can feel like a whirlwind of responsibilities. 🌪️
Having clear goals can give you a road map, helping you to feel more in control. 🗺️
The problem is, there are many different goals you can choose to pursue – and it can be difficult to know which areas of life to set goals for!
Here is our ultimate list of areas of life to set goals for, and how they can help improve your life!
What are goals? 🏅
Goals are promises we make to ourselves, and the deliberate steps we take towards making our lives better. 👣
Why is it important to set goals? 🏆
Goals help to give you direction to your improvements. 🗺️
They:
- make it clear what you want 🙏
- help to motivate you 🏃♀️
- help you feel in control 💪
How to set goals 🗺️
To set goals, you should:
- Decide what’s important to you: Consider what matters to you. Align your goals with what you value to make sure that they’re meaningful.
- Be realistic and SMART: “SMART goals” are a recipe for goals that you can actually achieve. Create Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-focused, and Time-Bound (SMART) goals. For example, a SMART goal could be: “I am going to go for a 30 minute walk, for 3 days every week this year” – It’s specific, achievable, and you can measure your success at the end of the year.
- Break it down: Divide your goals into smaller steps This makes the process less overwhelming and helps you to feel accomplishment as you make progress.
- Stay flexible: Life is unpredictable. Be willing to adapt your goals as your situation changes! Changing your goals doesn’t means that you’ve failed.
- Celebrate progress: Acknowledge and celebrate your achievements, no matter how small. Each step forward is a victory!
- Get support: Share your goals with those around you – their encouragement can help you to stay motivated to achieve them!
10 areas of life to set goals for 🎯
1. Physical health goals🏃♀️
Setting goals for your physical health can have a huge impact on how happy you feel.
Research has shown that looking after your physical health can help you to:
- Reduce your risk of diseases 🦠
- Improve your mental health
- Increase your energy 💪
- Sleep better
- Feel more confident 🤩
- Live longer
- Be more productive ⚙️
You could set goals for things like:
- getting enough sleep
- keeping active
- eating healthy food
- drinking water
- improving your hygiene
- taking medication on time
2. Mental health goals🧠
Setting goals for your mental health can have a huge impact on how happy you feel.
Research has shown that looking after your mental health can help you to:
- Feel more emotionally well 🧘♀️
- Reduce stress
- Improve relationships 🤝
- Cope better with life
- Become more self-aware 🪞
- Make better decisions
- Improve your quality of life 👍
- Prevent mental health issues
- Build positive habits ☀️
If you struggle with your mental health, speaking to your doctor can help you find ways to feel better.
Apps like Headspace can give you tools like meditation, sleep stories, positive music, and exercise ideas to help you reduce stress, and feel more positive.
You could set goals for things like:
- Practicing gratitude
- Getting therapy or counselling
- Seeking help for mental health struggles
- Improving your social life
20 ways to practice gratitude 🙏
3. Friendship goals 🤝
Having a good network of friends can have a huge impact on how happy you feel.
Building friendships can help you to:
- Feel supported
- Improve your emotional wellbeing 💖
- Feel less lonely
- Learn how to manage conflict 🥊
- Improve your communication skills
- Feel more positive ☀️
- Experience new ideas and different perspectives
You could set goals for things like:
- Trying to meet new friends
- Spending more time with your friends
- Reaching out to old connections
- Supporting your friends
4. Career goals 💼
Having a great career can have a huge impact on how happy you feel.
Setting career goals can help you to:
- Feel more satisfied with your career 🙌
- Become more financially stable
- Feel more focused in your career 👀
- Develop new skills and abilities
- Feel more motivated 🏋️♀️
- Become more respected in your profession
- Develop your professional network 🕸️
- Feel more confident
- Get more job security 🔒
You could set goals for things like:
- Finding a new job
- Getting a promotion
- Setting better boundaries at work
- Finding an exciting new work project
- Developing your skills for work
- Getting a pay increase
How to find your dream job 🦸♀️
5. Financial goals 💰
They say that “money can’t buy you happiness”, but it’s a myth!
Setting money goals can help you to:
- Become more financially secure
- Manage debts/money you owe 💳
- Save money and spend less
- Learn how to invest money 📈
- Get better at budgeting
- Save up money for things you want to buy 💰
- Gain enough money to retire comfortably
- Feel more financially independent 🙌
- Improve your relationships and avoid borrowing money off friends/family
- Reduce stress 🧘♀️
4 money myths you shouldn’t believe 🦄
You could set goals for things like:
- Learning more about finance
- Budgeting better
- Paying off debt
- Saving up money
- Increasing your income/how much money you earn
How much money should I save each month? 💷
8 bad money habits you should break💰
How to start looking after your money 🌱
8 signs that you’re financially healthy 🥦
6. Learning goals 👩🏫
Making room in your life to learn new things can a huge impact on how happy you feel.
It can help you to:
- Develop new skills
- Improve your confidence 💃
- Be more adaptable
- Become more valuable at work 💰
- Solve problems more easily
- Broaden your perspective 🌍
- Become more creative
- Feel like you’ve got a purpose 🙌
You could set goals for things like:
- Reading books
- Learning a new skill – Websites like Codeacademy can help you to develop your tech skills, by teaching you how to code for free!
- Studying for a new qualification, course, or certificate – Udemy offers lots of different courses and certificates that you can complete online.
- Being more creative – Skillshare offers hands-on courses to help you explore creativity through things like writing, music, drawing, painting, marketing, animation, social media, graphic design, and crafts.
- Practicing skills to get better
- Watching documentaries
- Being more curious and asking people more questions
7. Family goals 👪
Your family relationships can have a huge impact on how you feel, which makes it really important to set goals for your family life.
Family goals can help you to:
- Improve your family bonds
- Make sure you spend quality time together ⌚
- Improve communication with your family
- Help share responsibilities with your family 🤝
- Learn how to manage conflict with your family
- Create family traditions 🎄
- Feel emotionally supported by your family
You could set goals for things like:
- Spending more time with your family
- Doing tasks to look after your family
- Finding ways to improve your family relationships
8. Home goals 🏡
The environment you live in can have a huge impact on how happy you feel.
Setting goals for your home can help you to:
- Reduce stress at home
- Improve your financial stability 💰
- Make your home more safe
- Save time by making your house more organised 📦
- Feel more like your home reflects your personal style
- Enjoy your home more 🙌
You could set goals for things like:
- Reorganising your clutter
- Finding somewhere new to live
- Improving your home
- Decorating your home
9. Fun goals 🤹♀️
Making time to have fun can have a huge impact on your happiness!
Fun goals can help you to:
- Have fun!
- Reduce stress 🛀
- Balance your lifestyle more
- Create positive memories ☀️
- Improve your mental health
- Feel more motivated 🙌
- Improve your relationships
- Boosting your creativity 🎨
You could set goals for things like:
- Travelling – Secret Escapes can give you lots of holiday ideas and travel deals.
- Booking comedy show tickets
- Going to the theatre
- Creating art
- Starting a new hobby
- Going on an adventure
- Trying new foods
Setting goals to have fun experiences can also likely make you happier.
Why life experiences are worth more than buying things ✨
10. Kindness goals 💖
Being a kind person not only benefits others but can also make you significantly happier!
Setting kindness goals can help you to:
- Build new relationships
- Create a positive environment ☀️
- Improve your mental health
- Create a sense of community 🤝
- Try new things
- Make the world a better place 🌍
You could set goals for things like:
- Volunteering at a dog rescue centre
- Visiting neighbours
- Sending people Christmas cards
- Volunteering at a food bank
- Raising money for charity – Cancer Research UK‘s online charity shop offers gifts that also donate to the charity.
Conclusion 👍
So that’s it!
Having clear goals can give you a road map, helping you to feel more in control. 🗺️
There are lots of different areas of life to set goals for, to improve your happiness.
This year, you should consider setting goals for life areas like:
- Physical health goals🏃♀️
- Mental health goals🧠
- Friendship goals 🤝
- Career goals 💼
- Financial goals 💰
- Learning goals 👩🏫
- Family goals 👪
- Home goals 🏡
- Fun goals 🤹♀️
- Kindness goals 💖
If you know any friends or family members who might benefit from learning about areas to set life goals for, share this post with them!
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