5 steps for productive Goal Setting in the New Year
Hands down the most productive way I goal set is by planning out my own personal goal setting retreat. This has been a tradition for going on three years now. In this blog post I am going to show you my exact 5 steps for goal setting in the New Year. But before I dive into the retreat details, I have to give the backstory on how the whole “personal retreat” thing came about.
In 2021, I was a full time stay at home mom, building an event business from scratch, and had just moved to a new area, a bit far away from friends and family. With 3 kids under 5, I was totally overwhelmed, stressed, scattered and lonely.
That year had seemed like such a chaotic mess with moving and getting my event planning business off the ground. I wanted the new year (2022) to be a real fresh start. But finding anytime to sit down and figure out what that looked like was nearly impossible. The hour I could slip away to a coffee shop was not enough time to dive into such a topic, and with real no quiet spots in my house, I decided to gift myself a “retreat”.
But where to go? I didn’t want to sit in a hotel room (boring), or in a park in the middle of January. But I wanted something quaint and peaceful.
Owning a cute little cabin in the woods to escape to has always been a huge dream of mine, and this would have been a perfect way to utilize such a place.
So I improvised with renting an air-b-n-b for the day and crafting up my own “personal retreat” filled with vision casting and setting goals, surrounded in a peaceful quiet wood. I reached out to a local owner and asked if I could just come for a day, which gave me a discounted price. I had my parents come up and watch the kids, and off I went.
This is manifesting. Pretending you have it, even if you don’t. Living in what it feels like. Not only daydreaming about it but creating the scenario to the best of your ability. It breaths actual life into your goals, dreams, and visions. It gives them a force and energy that can only continue to grow from there. But you must create it first, no matter how small. So, until I have the money to find a cute piece of property in the woods, with that quaint cabin to call my own… I can rent one!
Now on to the details of what the personal retreat “schedule” looked like and what was accomplished…
9am-10am Setting the scene
Setup the space the way you want, no matter how silly you think it is. For me, I wanted a cabin in the woods. I don’t have that. So, I searched for a local one, found a good fit, and reached out to the owner about renting it for a day. I brought a super cozy blanket, candles, my favorite crystals, laptop, and notebook.
Once I got to the cabin, I found a spot that overlooked the woods, setup my space, and put some calm music on. I made it as close as I could to what I see in my daydreams. I think the only thing missing was a warm fire and babbling brook right outside (#goals).
10am-11am Overall Reflection
This is a time to sit and reflect on the previous year. A time to just sit and ask yourself…how do I feel the last year went? Don’t overthink this exercise. Anything that comes to your mind, write it down, and get it all out. It’s kind of like a brain dump for the whole year. Do this first so you can get as much “old stuff” out of your head before trying to come up with new goals.
11am-12pm Vision Casting
What are all the things you want out of life – things you want to learn, places you want to go, impacts you want to make? The thing that helps me with this exercise is creating one of those famous “bucket lists”. Think hard and dream big. This is not a time or exercise for limitations or limiting beliefs.
This is also a great time to think about the life goals you have already accomplished. It’s very therapeutic to take a moment to reflect on all you have accomplished over the years and be able to measure how you are tackling your lifelong dreams. Visualize achieving your life-long goals. How do you feel, what are you doing? Create a detailed scenario. The key is to visualize already having achieved it.
12pm Lunch Break
Truly take a lunch break. Shut your computer. Stay off your phone. Sit outside, or on a comfy couch and eat. Let your mind rest for an hour. You’ve done a lot of thinking!!
1pm-2pm Future Goals
Now is the time to write out actual goals for the year. A bullet point list that is specific. You may have a non-measurable goal like, “get into shape”. That’s fine but you will need to go back and give yourself some specific measurable tasks towards getting there and determine what YOUR idea of success is for that goal.
My idea of getting into shape may be totally different than your idea. Maybe running a mile isn’t important to you but being able to lift 200lbs is. You must know specifics for your goals or else you won’t have a marker for success.
2pm – 4pm Create an Action Plan
Dreaming and goal setting is fun, but the hard part is figuring out how the heck you are going to get there. How and when will you accomplish all this great stuff!?
I think an action plan will look different for everyone depending on your goals and business or personal ventures. But overall, an action plan takes your big goals for the year and breaks them down into manageable chunks with a timeline or due dates.
The last part (and really my favorite part) is bringing these goals to LIFE, Frankenstein style. Personally, I like to cut up images from magazines and make a little vision board but you can do so many different things to breathe life into your goals and dreams. The key here is to visualize the success. What does the perfect day look like to you. Feel it. Write about it as if it already happened. Record a short video pretending to be interviewed for something you accomplished. The ideas are endless here.
And that my friends brings this blog post to an end. So I will leave you with this… “You must live out your dreams every once in a while, even if it’s your best pretending, so that you can embody what they actually feel like.”
Stephanie is hosting a virtual live personal retreat event this year for the first time. It is pay what you can, and you can save your spot by visiting this link. Hope to see you there!!
