For the past several years, I have decided on a word for the year. This has become very popular, and I would LOVE to hear if you have a word for the year! It is quite amazing how much that word actually does in my life, and as I look back on certain years, that word was very foretelling on those 365 days! This year my word is cultivate.
I plan to cultivate:
:My health by working out 4-5x per week, cutting things out of my diet (currently working on chocolate!), and eating whole food that will fuel me.
:My relationships by making time for the people I love and consistently checking in on them and by building my relationships on social media! Also, my relationship with the Lord by spending time with Him. One way I’ll be doing that is by using The Cageless Birds’ Cultivate Collection:
:My personal life by reading 25 books this year, organizing my computer files,
:My business by creating more resources for my teacher friends, learning how best to market myself, writing a blog post each Sunday, updating my website and store, amping up my email list, and much more. I’ve got BIG goals here!!
I was listening to Kayse Morris‘s podcast – The Go-Getter’s Podcast about Setting Measurable Goals and she has so much wisdom about this topic. I definitely have measurable goals for all of my business goals for my year. I have a few suggestions for you as you make goals for your personal life, your classroom, etc. These are also things that you can discuss with your students as we train them to become young adults who know how to set and crush their goals!
Okay, so I have another podcast suggestion for you…Rachel Hollis’s RISE podcast is another favorite! She shared how she reflects on the year and sets goals for the next one on What I Did Right and What I Did Wrong in 2018. She sets goals in these three categories: Personal, Create, and Market. If you’re a teacher, yours could be Personal, Classroom, and Create (or something else). Writing down all of your goals into these three categories is my first tip for you. It lets you flesh out all the things you want.
Once you have all of your goals down on paper, I suggest that you break those up into quarterly goals. For example, I have a goal to create 40 new resources this year, so I plan on making at least 10 before the end of March. Then, I can reassess at the end of Quarter 1 to see how things are going, and if I need to catch up on anything or if I can refocus on something else.
I love using a planner to break up my goals into bite-sized, attainable steps. As I wrote out my Quarter 1 Goals, I went through the calendar spreads in my planner and wrote down my due dates. When I would need to write my blog posts by, when I would take product photos, when I would make my new resources, etc. For you, it may be when you need to organize your papers, when you need to plan for centers, when you need to clean out your desk drawers, etc. Making due dates for those smaller tasks will help keep you on track to meet your larger goals.
Then, as I look at each week, and each day, I can write down my tasks to make sure I complete those steps on time. I like to batch my work too. For example, if you have math stations in your classroom, instead of coming up with new activities each week, spend a whole afternoon setting up and organizing math stations for your quarter of school. Then, all you’ll have to do is swap things out, and your time can be used on other things.
Also, as I write things down in my planner, I enjoy using different colored pens so when I get to a day when I want to batch my blog posts, I can find all of my blue tasks and write all the blog posts I need for the month. My favorite pens are Papermate InkJoy Gel Pens!
My last tip, which works great with our students too, is to keep your goals visible. Make a vision board (currently on my to do list!), write your big goals on your mirror or sticky notes, or even put your current goal as the background of your phone. For your students, Ashley at Teach Create Motivate has these awesome Student Goal Cards for your students to choose a goal to work on, and they keep that card on their desk, so they remember to work towards that goal!
I hope these tips inspire you to set BIG, MEASURABLE goals and work hard to break them down and crush them! I would LOVE to know your goals or word for the year. I’m sharing more about my goals on my instagram! Let’s keep the conversation going over there!
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