We know when you’re feeling stuck in the trenches of life (and a pandemic) it can be challenging to identify the light at the end of your tunnel – a.k.a your dreamy personal goals.
So, we’ve put together some examples of personal goals and dreams to get your creative ideas flowing!
This is certainly not an exhaustive list, even though it may seem exhausting to some, and may not represent the specific goals you want for your life. But that’s the thing about personal goals and dreams, they’re PERSONAL.
Examples of personal goals:
- Run a marathon
- Sell $100,000 worth of art
- Write a screenplay
- Get 5000 Instagram followers
- Have more, hotter sex with my partner
- Pay down my credit card debts
- Get an MBA
- Finish college
- Travel to one new country each year
- Own an apartment
- Own a second home by the beach
- Create deep connections with 5 new friends
- Go to Burning Man
- Get a puppy
- Start a family
- Fall in love
- Move to Portland
- Get a promotion to VP title
- Have a difficult conversation with my mother
Sure, these are good examples of personal goals, but they’re missing something.
I’ll give you one guess. Here’s a *hint*.
Right. They’re not specific enough. A really good, juicy goal needs a deadline. That’s what makes it exciting. YOU get to choose how far away the carrot is dangled.
Examples of kick-ass personal goals:
- Run a marathon in February
- Sell $100,000 worth of art before the end of the year
- Write a screenplay by the beginning of pilot season 2021
- Get 5000 Instagram followers in the next 3 months
- Have more, hotter sex with my partner every week
- Pay down my credit card debts by tax day
- Get an MBA by 2025
- Finish college in 2022
- Travel to one new country each year starting 2021
- Own an apartment by the time I’m 28 years old
- Own a second home by the beach before I turn 35
- Create deep connections with 5 new friends this year
- Go to Burning Man in 2021
- Get a puppy next Spring
- Start a family in the next 5 years
- Fall in love with my soul mate
- Move to Portland by Thanksgiving
- Get a promotion to VP title in the next 12 months
- Have a difficult conversation with my mother before my next birthday
See, by having a deadline, it means you also have to have a plan. If you commit to getting an MBA by 2025, you work backwards from there. You need to get clear on application and submission timelines in order to get into the class that graduates before the end of 2024.
Simple, right?
Not quite. As humans, we have to get over (and get a sense of humor about) the hurdles to reaching our dreams. This is the critical voice inside your head that doesn’t even want you to set a goal in the first place.
Yours might sound a little something like this: “you can barely walk around the block without passing out, you’ll NEVER be able to run a marathon,” “the real estate market is too unstable to make a commitment about purchasing a property right now,” “everyone at work knows you’re not really good enough to get that promotion, they’re only considering you because they think they have to,” or “you’re too shy to make new friends, and besides, your one college buddy who you no longer have anything in common with is plenty – you’re an introvert, after all.”
That is the little voice of fear (the chicken), complacency (the weather reporter), and anti-authoritarian backchat (the brat). More on those three advisors here, and in Inner.U, our online coaching course.
Sadly these voices have the power to squash your dreams and make excuses for what isn’t working in your life. Yes, while you may not have even been conscious to them (until now), these voices are the ones that justify staying mad at your partner for leaving dishes in the sink (again), but not telling them why. They usually drown your sorrows in a cocktail and a piece of cake…or three.
Once you start to hear these voices, you can get better at quieting them. Which is a good thing, because here’s another catch: The bigger your dreams get, the louder the chicken, brat and weather reporter in your head will complain.
Putting these voices in their place, and making room for your higher self to start dreaming is the secret to setting juicy personal goals that really get you excited.
When you’re ready to start listening to your higher self, get honest about your dreams, set personal goals (like the examples listed above) to make you proud (not your parents or your professors, but you in your heart), and hey, maybe even make them happen (why not!?), find us.
Register for Inner.U LIFE, our 12-module online coaching course that gives you the tools to get yourself unstuck and thriving where it matters most to you: your relationship to your SELF, CAREER, LOVE, BODY, MONEY, TIME, and more. It gives you the tools to get honestly happy, achieve your goals and reach your dreams in every other area of life, from wherever you are.