Personal Goals Worth Stealing

94 goals for inspiration

Setting Goals: Where to Start?

“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” – Tony Robbins

I recently posted about setting your goals for the year in 4 easy steps and shared a goal look back for a past year. These posts give you ~30 goals you can use for inspiration to set your own for the year. Perhaps they aren’t quite right for you or you want more to help to get you going? I got you covered! Here’s 94 goals you can steal and modify for yourself. Remember, you want less than 20 goals. I usually have 10-20.

Goals Evolve with you

“That is what I mean when I say that we die many deaths in the course of our lives: The teenager in you dies, the college student in you dies, the single unattached you dies, the version of you that’s a parent of an infant dies, and so on. Once each of these mini-deaths occurs, there’s no going back. Maybe “dies” is a bit harsh, but you get the idea: We all keep moving forward, progressing from one stage or phase of our lives to the next.”
― Bill Perkins, Die with Zero:

When you’re in your 20-30s, most your goals will likely be about establishing your career and getting out of debt or getting yourself in better financial position. Perhaps you will be working on a degree or advanced degree and all that entails. You’re likely looking for a relationship or trying to decide if the relationship you’re in is the one you want forever. Kids or no kids? Buy or rent?

When you’re in your 40-50s, you’ll be thinking a lot about what changes you should make in your career path, when you can afford to retire, how you’re going to pay for college for your kids, your health, your aging parents, how to build friendships after devoting so much time to your career.

When you’re in your 60s-70s, you’ll be concerned about your health, legacy, staying fit, spending time with those you love and taking any trips on your bucket list.

Your goals change as you age. Make sure you do the things you should when you have the chance. Backpacking across Europe or South America is an awesome goal for a 20 year old. Most people in the 50s don’t want to travel like that anymore. Don’t wait until you’re in your 50s to do that trip, you’ll have missed your window.

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94 Goals by Category

The goals below are categorized for your viewing pleasure. Many of these are pretty general with a few examples of specific goals. For instance, take the goal, “Be a better spouse/partner,” this goal is way too general. To make it specific, have a conversation with your partner to figure out what would make you a better partner. Perhaps it means reading The Five Love Languages in the evening out loud together, taking on some chore they hate but you don’t mind (I like vacuuming, hate putting sheets on the bed), going to therapy or being supportive in some way.

Goals are meant to keep you focused on what you want in life. Setting goals is not about checking things off a list (although that sure is satisfying). Don’t try to take on everything at once, create some foundations to build upon. Ask yourself if each goal will immediately or eventually lead to more happiness and satisfaction with your life. Make sure the answer is yes or find more worthwhile goals to pursue and delegate the less-important item to your task list.

Mental Health & Personal Development

1. Practice Gratitude - start a gratitude journal and list 1 thing each day. Do for 1 month

2. Be a better spouse/partner - Read The 5 Love Languages together, plan and go on 2 dates/month, begin doing laundry, help more with kids or around house, establish back-rub night.

3. Find a spouse/partner - join online dating app, join 1-2 meetups

4. Evaluate sphere of influence and adjust based on insight. Who do you spend the most time with? Are these people adding to or taking away from your life? Be intentional about who you spend your time with and avoid or minimize time with those who bring you down

5. Be a more patient parent - listen to Dr. Becky podcast, read Scream Free Parenting

6. Find a therapist and begin biweekly sessions

7. Attend seminar - Landmark Forum, Meditation Retreat, Group Therapy Session

8. Connect with friends/family more often - do family reunion, plan trip with best friends from high school / college / early 20s / mom’s group / climbing gym.

9. Cancel or severely limit news - get rid of social media apps that add anxiety to your life, cut out news that catastrophizes everything

10. Meditate - get an app like Calm, Waking Up, Headspace, 10% Happier, Healthy Minds Program, Smiling Mind. Begin doing 10 minute sessions 2+ times per week

11. Define your core values

12. Find a mentor or virtual mentor

13. Become a proficient public speaker - join Toastmasters

14. Get drinking under control. Drink 5 or less drinks per week. Don’t drink 3 hours before bed

15. Quit smoking

16. Read >= 3 self-help books - list includes Mindset, Atomic Habits, The subtle art of not giving a f, 12 rules for life, Beyond Order, How to Keep House While Drowning, How to Make Friends and Influence people, Why We Sleep, When Things Fall Apart. So many more, look for what is most important to you.

17. Walk. Almost nothing correlates with mental health as much as walking. Walk at least x/week for a minimum of 15 minutes.

18. Have fun! Think about the things that bring you joy. Kids are all about having fun, many adults feel guilty when they have fun like they should be responsible or productive all the time. Figure out what helps you enjoy your life and make sure you’re doing it

19. Begin journaling daily for ~10 minutes

20. Evaluate last year, figure out what brings most joy and fulfillment, create goal to do more of that

Physical Health

1. Create a healthy eating plan

2. Begin doing cardio [x] times per week for at least 20 minutes each time

3. Create a strength building plan and follow it weekly (for men Bigger, Leaner, Stronger has detailed programs you can follow. For women, Thinner, Leaner, Stronger).

4. Find a Primary Care Physician. Do annual physical. Have blood work test annually to catch any issues early

5. Learn to cook/prepare healthy meals. Perhaps read The Four Hour Chef. Do batch meal prep each Sunday

6. Run > [xxx] miles per week/month/year

7. Hike. Do 1 hike per week. Be able to do >8 mile walk easily. Hike x peak. Do 5 day backpacking trip. Complete the PCT, Appalachian Trail, Continental Divide.

8. Join group tennis/basketball/climbing/running/biking/rugby group and go weekly

9. Sign up for event. 5k. 10k. 1/2 marathon, marathon, trail run, polar bear dip, triathlon

10. Learn new activity. Swim, dance, scuba diving, skiing, backpacking, climbing, etc.

11. Work on flexibility. Stretch daily or begin doing yoga video or class every other day

12. Work on pain. Consider body aches and research what can be done to minimize. Go to a physical therapist

Finances

1. Get finances under control - create budget / spending plan

2. Emergency Fund >1 years worth of expenses (interim goals of 1 month, 3 months, 6 months). I wrote a whole post about an E-Fund here.

3. Learn personal finance - Read The Millionaire Next Door, Total Money Makeover, Your Money or Your Life, I Will Teach You How to Be Rich

4. Create Personal Balance Statement - List all assets and liabilities in spreadsheet. Figure out net worth

5. Net Worth Goal - increase Net Worth by $ X this year OR Net Worth > $X.

6. Debt Goal - reduce Debt by $ X this year

7. Credit rating - conduct activities to increase credit score by x points

8. Invest - invest x% of income, purchase a house, buy an investment property, max out 401k or Roth 401k, set up 529s for kids, max out IRA, spousal IRA, etc.

9. Financial Independence - become financially independent by xx age which means being able to stop working if desired but does not necessarily mean retiring.

10. Passive income of $xx,xxx/month or year. In this case, I like to have a goal for the future, ie $10,000/month of passive income and a goal for the year ie $1,000/month by end of year with a stretch goal of $1,500/month.

11. Create personal income / expense statement and track monthly

12. Start a side hustle

13. Do a “no-buy” month where you stop buying anything other than the essentials.

14. Track spending for 1 month to see where your money is going. You will be surprised

15. Make list of all subscriptions. Cancel all but the essentials

Work / Career

1. Get x professional designation or certification

2. Take x test or course to advance in field of work

3. Organize schedule to work x hours/week

4. Learn about how to negotiate raises and ask for raise

5. Update resume

6. Create LinkedIn profile and post x times per week/month

7. Find a mentor or virtual mentor

8. Career plan - put together plan for where you want to be, the steps needed to get there including the people/skills/experiences that can help and put plan in motion.

9. Present at X conference

10. Expand network - seek out xx number of people who would be valuable to have in your sphere of influence

11. Start business

Household

1. Live more sustainably. Put together plan for reducing my household’s carbon footprint. (More details here)

2. Clear out / organize attic

3. Clean out garage. Be able to park cars in it

4. Sell / donate any clothing not worn in over 1 year

5. Cloud backup for all photos. Upload all photos from devices, organize in folders. Backup to cloud (I use Dropbox but Apple and Google are good too)

6. Create organized system in closet, bed/living/kids room so things have a place

7. Prepare Emergency Kit include list of things to grab in case of home evacuation

8. De-clutter home. Get rid of things sitting around collecting dust. Ask yourself if you would buy the thing today. If not, get rid of it. When new things are brought into house, get rid of an old thing

9. Train dog

Travel

1. Begin a travel fund, contribute $ X per month

2. Attend x event in x country

3. Spring break in x place

4. Pay for family reunion in X location

5. Go somewhere international every year

6. Visit a new state

7. Bourbon Trail in Kentucky

8. Broadway play in NYC

9. Live Jazz in New Orleans

10. See favorite band in the top US venues

11. Winter girls trip to spa in Palm Springs / Scottsdale / Santa Fe. Guys trip to golf Hawaii, Florida, Arizona

12. Trip to see great museums of the world

13. Visit a new stadium to watch favorite sports team/event

14. Ski trip in Colorado/Utah/California/Canada

15. Inca Trail to Machu Pichu

16. Camp on the Great Wall of China

17. Hut to hut walk in Swiss Alps

18. Scuba Dive in Belize / Australia

19. Cruise fjords of Norway

20. Rent RV and do ring road in Iceland

21. Family trip to theme park

22. Hawaii: watch sunset from Haleakala, swim with Manta Rays, snorkel with Spinner Dolphins, poke bowl at Hanalei Bay

Giving Back & Community Building

1. Research local charities and nonprofits to determine where I can donate 5+ hours per week. Join organization and begin volunteering

2. Become member of local museum, botanic garden, nonprofit, hiking / running / birding / gaming / shooting / archery club. Participate in activities monthly

3. Thing about a problem that matters to you in your local community (homelessness, women’s shelter, at risk youth, trash, recycling, trail building, arts, environment, biking), join or start local group to do something about it

4. Take a class. Drawing, ceramics, art, golf, flying, climbing, language, etc. What is something you liked as a kid or something you always thought you’d like?

5. Write down list of people important to me, include their birthdays. Put birthdays in calendar and reach out during year.

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Which of these speak to you and are you adding to your list? Have I missed any? Share in the comments, I’d love to learn from you and so would the other readers.

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