2019 Goals!

I was introduced to Dave Ramsey's principles to get out of debt in January 2018. To keep motivated while paying down my debt, I often watch his clips on YouTube. Lately, I've seen several videos about setting goals - it's that time of year, you know.

Ramsey recommends creating goals for each of the following seven areas: physical (health, exercise, weight, achievements), intellectual (read, study, learn something new), career, social, financial, family/relationship (one example I heard was about putting the phone away when the family is all together), and spiritual goals.

The next step is to make them SMART goals. When goals aren't specific or measurable, they are only wishes. Do you want goals or are you happy to wish your days and year away?

While not exactly as shown in the image below, I've heard SMART goals described this way:

S - specific
M - measurable
A - attainable
R - relevant
T - timely

The written component is very important too. When goals are not written down (or shared), how do you keep yourself accountable?

So, with all that said, here are my 2019 SMART goals in each of the seven categories:

1. Physical - lose 20 pounds this year; run a 5K
2. Intellectual - read at least one non-fiction book each month
3. Career - research one career or field of study that interests me per month
4. Social - meet with one friend per month that I haven't caught up with in far too long
5. Financial - be completely out of debt by the end of June (six more months!)
6. Family/relationship - TBD
7. Spiritual - TBD

I haven't come up with any specific or measurable goals for two of my categories, but I'm not going to let that hold up my post. I'll plan to do an update at some point this year - maybe then I'll have something to add to these outstanding categories.