In my blogging group, we have a monthly accountability thread where we list some of their blogging goals for the month. Some of the member’s goals were to increase how much they wrote on their blogs and to gain more followers on various social media platforms. One of my goals is to continue increasing the page views here, and at Seasonal Family Fun, because although I’ve been blogging for a decade (crazy that it’s been that long), these two blogs are new. My other goal is to downsize my domains and websites because I have several that can be deleted or condensed into other sites.
I bought the journal in the photo above, at a second hand book store a few years ago. I loved that it was spiral bound and had pretty drawings with much needed reminders throughout the book, like this one.
I’ll share how I set my journal up in another post, but for now I want to focus on one of the sections, which is for my current goals.
One of the keys to accomplishing goals is to write them down. The other is to have accountability. Tweet this
Writing your goals out is the first step in actually achieving them. The first page in my goal section is ‘Goals For This Month’ and at the end of the month, I write out 7-8 goals for the following month, each one on a small post-it note. Sometimes they carry over from the previous month and sometimes they’re new goals.
Then, I give each goal it’s own page. On that page I start by writing what will happen when that goal is accomplished. For example, on my page for increasing my page views I wrote that I would be able to attract high paying sponsors like I have at some of my other blogs. Next, I write down how that will make me feel and I wrote that it would make me feel more successful.
I think that writing this out is super important for two reasons; to help me remember why this goal is important on days when I lack motivation, and the other reason is by connecting to the feeling of actually accomplishing the goal brings it more into my reality.
After that I write 5-6 steps I can take to reach that goal, each one on a separate post-it note. For my goal of increasing page views, I wrote down steps like finding a new related posts plug in, participating in link ups on other blogs and writing more consistently. Then on any given day, I can look at these and choose 1-2 steps towards achieving my goal. This help to break it down into manageable, bite-size pieces and helps me not feel overwhelmed.
I’m a big believe is writing stuff down….like with actual pen and paper and this is especially true for my goals. Putting pen to paper makes it more real for me in a way that doing it on my laptop can not.
I hope this was helpful and I will share more on goal setting in future posts. I’ll also write a post on my journal and how I use it.
Goal Setting is such a HUGELY important part of living a great life, in my opinion. I love this!
I never thought of writing goals in a journal. That is really a great idea! I am a to-do list kind of girl, but unfortunately, less of a “goal” kind of girl. That means I spent most of my time putting out fires and doing busy work rather than accomplishing what I really would like to accomplish. My head know you are right; if I start with written big-picture goals rather than a list of to-do’s, I’m much more likely to achieve the desired outcome. This has actually been huge on my personal radar the past couple of weeks, and I’m starting to make a little progress (I hear angels singing! 🙂 ). Now…I need a pretty journal… #simplysunday
I’m good at seeting the goals. My problem is staying focused. Accountability to others or group would definitely help. Thanks for the tips.
Thanks for these great tips! I need to be better about keeping my journals in a central place so I can check off my goals as I accomplish them!
I’m a paper and pen kind of girl. I keep a goals section in my planner for my blog and homeschool. It helps to look back and see what has been accomplished!
Like you, I set goals for myself every month but I’ve never actually written them down before in a journal and reflected on them the ways that you mentioned. I will definitely have to give this method a try next month and see how many of my goals I’m able to achieve.
That’s such a pretty journal! I also like to write down my goals and what I need to do to reach them, but it’s actually moving forward and working through those steps that’s hard for me.
Good for you for writing down you goals and going for it! I need to come up with some new goals… Or better yet, write down the ones I have in mind so I can make them a reality. Great tips for making my goals successful ones.
I am all about goals! Writing it down makes them real and a good reminder for what you are trying to accomplish.
I’m so with you on writing goals down with pen and paper. To me, it’s like they are not real until they are in a notebook!
I love this! The goals are laid out in an easy and clear way. Steps to actually accomplish them and ways to be accountable for yourself. I recently got a new planner which has a similar setup. I’m going to pull it out again and start using it.
You are so right about writing it down for accountability. I like that you also write what will happen when you achieve. Great advice!
I can totally relate with your post, I buy journals and create my own goal setting systems. I write them down and make visual rewards when I accomplish them to keep myself motivated. Great post thanks for sharing.
That’s a great idea to write what will happen when you achieve the goal. I didn’t realize you had more blogs, I don’t know how you do it, blogs are awesome but they are definitely time takers. 🙂
You are so right Joanne. It’s been said for a person to retain information it’s better to use more than one of your senses. Writing it down, reading what you wrote and speaking it out loud will help greatly. Thanks for sharing.