2020 Goals

Nothing like writing a 2020 goals post in APRIL, right? Ha!

I love talking about goals, thinking about goals, reading about other people’s goals, and most of all, checking off progress towards those goals. The reason I love setting goals is really simple and important: it helps me make what matters most happen.

I set goals using a lot of different tools (and putting in a lot of thought!) and wrote a little bit about some of my favorite goal setting tools in this post.

Additionally, I may write longer posts behind some of these goals, as they are a culmination of a lot of thought, which I would love to document and share. I am also hoping to write monthly goal updates to share progress on the goals below, if you’d like to follow along.

Without further ado, though, here are my 2020 goals:

Goal One: Read 52 Books – I thought long and hard about this book goal, and you can read a bit more behind the why in this post. In short, reading one book per week ensures reading remains a habit for me, but does not make it an undue burden or something I do to achieve.

Goal Two: Love my People Well – This may sound vague, but it is actually quite specific in the way that I define it! I have wonderful people in my life and they are without a doubt my greatest blessings. I wanted to focus on the ways that I can love my people well, both near and far, from right where I am. I will almost certainly be writing out a longer post about how I am hoping to do this (let me know if you’d be interested?). Here are my action steps relating to this goal:

• Instituting monthly prep days: This is inspired by my favorite blogger, Em for Marvelous, I have started grouping together some tasks that both make my month run smoother and allow me to love my people well. I typically do this at the end of each month and it’s a game-changer!
• Writing lent letters: this year for lent, I am writing a letter to someone I love each day. This practice has infused great joy into my day and I hope receiving them (when I start sending them out!) infuses joy into the days of those I love, too.
• Using the reminders feature of my phone: When someone tells me they have something they are looking forward to/nervous about/big on their plate that has a specific date or deadline, I put a reminder in my phone to check-in with them about it! It makes me seem so much more thoughtful than if I naturally tried to remember 🙂
• Call my grandparents each week

Goal Three: Cultivate a Peaceful Home and Headspace: I am definitely a do-er, and I realized when setting goals for the year that I was allowing the do-ing to take over my life (and for a lot of reasons in 2019, it had to!). I want to infuse more of the margin and peace in 2020 and eliminate some of my pain points and distractions, too. Here are a few action items I am focusing on:

• Read books on related topics, namely When Less Becomes More, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, Deep Work, Digital Minimalism, and Essentialism
• Meditate with Headspace everyday
• Work on cementing a great laundry and meal-prep routine (pain points!)

Goal Four: Make Philadelphia an Ideal Home: I moved to Philadelphia last summer and started a job two weeks later, so the rest of the year was mostly about keeping the wheels turning. In 2020, I am hoping to plant deeper roots and make this city a true home. Here are the action items I am focusing on:

• Find a good primary care doctor/dentist
• Reach out to acquaintances/potential friend connections
• Start a book club (done!)

Goal Five: Preserve my legacy by organizing and centralizing my Photos and ordering photo books from the past four years (2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019): This was also a 2019 goal, and I did not get far, mostly because I don’t think I had a great action plan. This year, though, I am off to a great start! Here are the action steps I am focusing on:

• Choose centralization location (done!)
• Identify areas where photos are currently stored (Facebook, Google photos – under two separate accounts 🤦🏻‍♀️, and iPhone
• Centralize photos from all the different places they are stored in six month chunks (Jan – Jun 2016 is up next!)
• Back up photos to external hard drive
• Choose photo book company
• Create and order each album

Goal Six: Cultivate creativity through photography, calligraphy, cooking, and writing: I have not always done the best job of giving space to my creative side, but I always feel energized when I spend time doing something creativity, especially doing something creative with my hands. Here are some of the action steps I am focusing on:

• Practice calligraphy once/week
• Research and order 3-4 cookbooks to try new recipes
• Try one new recipe/week
• Purchase a website and start designing its’ layout (done!)
• Move all reviews from instagram to website (done!)
• Watch three photography tutorials on new Sony a6000 camera
• Launch website

Goal Seven: Create a FUN workout routine. I have been working to get back to a good workout routine since I moved to Philadelphia in July. Here are some action items I am working on:

• Do BBG 3 times/week
• Do cardio 1 time/week
• Find tennis clinics to sign up for
• Play tennis 1 time/week

Alright, that is what I have on deck on 2020! I hope this was helpful, or at the very least, interesting! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to drop them in the comments. I am also hoping to write a post on my favorite goal-setting tools soon!

If you have posted your 2020 goals somewhere, I would love to read them!