Did you know that only 41% of Americans make New Year Resolutions, and of those, only 9.2% feel that they were successful in achieving them? That means only 3.86% of individuals are setting and achieving goals in a first world country! So, what areas of life should you focus on, and how do you attack these goals to become part of that 3.86% of individuals?
You do not need to search anywhere because we have prepared a list of what you should focus on when writing goals and a process to attack them. And because it’s been working so well for us here in Student-tutor, we wanted to share it with you!
When you’re trying to change your life, you need to look at all these areas, because they feed into each other. Your health affects your personal relationships. Your physical environment affects your work and financial goals. For the right goals that align with your overall happiness, you need to recognize that you are a whole person with a multi-faceted life.
At no time will every area of your life be perfect. It is your job to reflect and try to live a balanced life, so if one area falls apart, you have other passions to fall back on.
Please Note: This list has been made for both parents and students and comes straight from our Student-Tutor Mastermind program, which is designed to help teenagers and college students learn digital age skills they are not learning in school while connecting with other ambitious students from across the world!
Table of Contents
Category # 1 | Health
1. Spirituality
Whether it be with God or not, what are you currently doing to develop your spirituality? Do you know who you are? Your identity, what you want, your strengths?
Many people mix up happiness with pleasure. Happiness is the pursuit of a worthwhile goal which helps you develop self-confidence. Here are some goal suggestions anchored to working with your spirituality:
- Meditate every morning after you wake up or before going to bed.
- Develop rituals in your life.
- Join some meditation circles.
- Have a clear definition of spirituality in mind.
- Try yoga exercises.
- Keep a journal.
- Assess your state of mind whether you are staying true with your goals.
2. Living Environment
How is your room environment? Do you keep your room clean, neat, and orderly, or is it chaotic, messy, and unsanitary? How are your relationships with those you live with? Can they be improved?
Here are some goals to set to achieve a peaceful living environment:
- Put pictures on your wall.
- Try redecorating and decluttering.
- Look for new furniture!
- Clean your bedroom.
- Have a scheduled cleaning time.
- Make your kitchen spotless.
- Set up a meditation spot.
- Revamp and organize your wardrobe.
3. Romance
What are you doing with your love life? Are you treating those you have romantic interactions with fairly? Are you opening yourself up and being vulnerable, taking chances, yet not settling and keeping your integrity and honestly intact? You are getting to that age where this is starting to become important to you.
Here are some goals to set to achieve a healthy relationship:
- Date once a week.
- Go on a vacation without the kids even just once a year.
- Go snowboarding!
- Do not forget to say I love you every day.
- Clean the house together.
- When spending time with each other, turn off all your gadgets.
- Cook together even a simple dish.
4. Health & Fitness
What are you doing to improve your health and wellbeing? What are you doing to work out, what are you eating, etc.
Read on to check out some goals to set:
- Attend a health retreat.
- Do yoga.
- Run every morning.
- Cleanse for a week.
- Try going vegan.
- Do simple exercises at home.
Category # 2 | Professional
5. Growth & Learning
What are you doing to learn more and grow outside of school? What are you doing to learn about yourself, educate yourself on topics, and help give yourself a competitive edge to thrive in college & beyond, etc.
Here are more specific things you can do:
- Set a reading goal every month. Self-help books are more suggested.
- Participate in a seminar about personal development.
- Set your goals every beginning of the month and assess them as the month ends.
- Practice how to express yourself more confidently through your language.
- Work on your leadership skills.
- Listen to music that soothes you.
- Figure out what are your core values and align the way you live.
- Practice time management.
- Enroll in courses you want to pursue like combined bachelors and MD programs.
6. School
How are your grades & standardized test scores? Are you taking classes in school to learn rather than just get an A? If you’re in College, are you taking internships to get a better idea of what you want to do rather than just for the paycheck? Are you constantly looking for how the topics you learn in school connect to areas of your life that you are curious about?
Here is how you can focus more on your school stuff:
- Build good relationships with your classmates and teachers.
- Join study groups.
- Explore school clubs that interest you.
- Give tie for yourself to rest if you are already too saturated with academics.
- Practice time management by keeping a scheduler.
- Strive hard to get to your dream college.
- Ace your AP or honors classes.
7. Financial
What are your financial goals, and how do you plan on reaching them? Have you started to look at what the different pay is for different degree options? What is the ROI?
Here are some clear cut financial advice you can consider:
- Save money for emergency fund.
- Pay off every debt.
- Choose a job that can fully pay the bills.
- As much as possible, buy things with cash and not credit cards.
- Ask the help of a financial advisor.
- Make sure that you have a positive net worth.
Category # 3 | Personal
8. Family & Friends
Below are some things you should do to improve your relationship with family and friends:
- Keep in touch with your friends!
- Visit them if you have the time.
- Be a good listener.
- Reach out to family members.
- Be very supportive of their goals.
- Teach your child how to deal with bullies.
9. Fun
What are you doing for fun? Are you actively seeking things to do on a weekly basis to free your mind from the daily grind and live in the moment? Do you allow yourself to have pleasure in your life?
Here are some things you can do for fun:
- Learn how to make art.
- Go on a vacation.
- Try extreme sports.
- Go on a random road trip.
- Date yourself!
- Learn how to do calligraphy.
- Try skydiving.
- Learn how to cook.
- Learn to play a musical instrument
Helpful Links: Want to learn how to play the violin? Check out LVL Music Academy today!
10. Community
What are you doing to give back? How are you helping the community you live in? Are you part of a group and taking on a leadership role, using your skills to help, etc.?
Here’s how you can give back to your community:
- Pay for someone’s groceries if you are feeling generous.
- Buy presents for every occasion.
- Help your friend who is financially unstable.
- Do volunteer work.
- Donate to charities.
Now that you have analyzed the 10 areas of life it is time to create some goals and attack them!
When creating goals for your wheel of life make sure you only attack 1-2 goals every 3-months and ensure they are:
- SMART– Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based.
- Providing the greatest value for the least amount of effort.
For example, say Adriana is 16 years old and reflects on the 10 different areas of her life.
She is doing well in her personal life and health, but jumpstarting her career is something she has not even thought about yet.
She has mentioned to her friends and family a couple of times that she would like to one day own a jewelry store but hasn’t taken action.
Realizing that we live in the digital age and starting a business takes virtually no upfront capital. She decides that she is going to focus on that.
Adriana first writes out a Non-SMART goal, but then as she asks herself if it is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based? She catches herself, and fixes it!
- Non-SMART goal: Start a jewelry business.
- SMART goal: Start a jewelry business by December 1st, 2018 by selling 10 pieces of jewelry per month.
She realizes that goals don’t just magically happen and needs to create a plan to go after it!
She also realizes that she needs to create the RIGHT plan and focus on tasks that provide the most value for the least amount of effort.
She writes out some potential baby-steps or tasks she needs to complete to turn this goal into a reality, and analyzes their importance using the value vs. effort matrix as shown above.
Adriana’s Thoughts As She Analyzes The Situation:
- To be in the business, I need to have customers! Creating a company and logo would be nice, but that isn’t going to help me get customers.
- Creating a website would also be nice, but I don’t have any skills to do that and hiring someone could be very expensive.
- I do need to create jewelry, but I don’t have anyone to buy them yet.
- I could also take the time to make a plan but that will take a long time, and I already have a SMART goal to sell 10 pieces of jewelry per month.
- I am going to focus on selling 10 pieces of jewelry by asking friends what they would like. I will also message people on Instagram who show interest to my product, hustle and create relationships and ask them if they would like to buy something or have a friend that might.
“Too many people start businesses and spend way too much time on the planning, creating fancy websites, and making sure they have the perfect logo, etc. Although, these things are nice to have they are not necessary for you to start a business. They take a lot of time and provide little value to helping you get started.”
– Todd VanDuzer