Goal Setting – 10 Important Areas6 min read

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“What would I do if I were me?”

Goal setting. We have a hate/love relationship with it. Some of us use New Year’s Day to make goals. What better time to make goals than the present? I love goals. They allow me to strive for something to make myself better.

So, I just got done reading a post where Derek, the author was writing about asking himself what he would do in various situations and put out a challenge to set some goals in different areas of his life. I thought it was pretty cool, and thought I would put up a reply post to try it myself.

In his post, he tackles the following: Finances, Health, Sleep, Career, Social, Family, Self improvement, Physical fitness, Spirituality, and Tan line.

Since I’ve now become a stay at home dad, I think this is the perfect time to start reflecting on these different areas of my life.

Ask yourself what would I do?

So, here goes.

Finances

At first glance, things are good here, however, they can always be better. I would like to try to better stick to my sinking funds and not let them go negative. I think if we better mapped out our month we could make it happen. We tend to stay within our yearly sinking fund totals, but sometimes, it’s pretty hard to stay within what you have in there at the time when bigger things come up. We end up smoothing it out with our other sinking funds that have extra in there at the time while that fund takes the hit.

Health

Since I started this blog last year, it seems that I have gotten off track of my health. Now, I eat pretty healthy, but my weight have stayed within the same 20 pounds the entire time. My goal here is to finally kick the 200 lb weight, about a 28 pound loss.

Sleep

As far as sleep goes, I tend to get plenty of it. Being that I’m now a stay at home dad, I think I actually get to sleep in now since I’m not setting an alarm. I am just waiting for the girls to wake me up. However, as I am learning how to get my routine down, this might have to change. I typically get between 6-8 hours of sleep a night, so I’m pretty happy with that.

Career

Well, being that I am now a stay at home dad to two girls, I think my career choices are going to be pretty limited for the time being. I plan to keep up with the various phones and operating systems that I have researched in the past, just not at the same pace as before.

More consistent blogging and building my audience is another area that I’m going to be building. I am looking to start doing more in depth posts and hopefully adding a lot more value in the coming future.

Social

I am hoping that with me staying home with the girls, it will allow me to work more visiting with friends into my schedule. When we were both working full time, we were always just playing catch up it seemed. Now, I am hopefully able to build a little margin and get more of these outings in.

Family

I am definitely incorporating more family time into my routine. As far as direct family (my wife and kids), we are already seeing a better impact since we don’t have to worry nearly as much about chores (I get those done Mon-Fri during the day now!) and I can pretty much have dinner ready to go by the time my wife gets home.

As far as extended family, I’ve started making my rounds visiting as I’m able. I think it will be easier to get to see them since I’ll be able to take the girls over during the day when time allows and won’t have to worry so much about schedule yet.

Self Improvement

I have been working on reading more lately. Generally during the girls’ naps. I am going to work on building up my leadership skills as well as my writing skills.

Leadership Skills – This is mainly going to consist of learning to lead as a father and as the head of my family.

Writing Skills – I would love to learn to write in a more conversational tone that told better stories while writing. Part of this will be me reading and reviewing other people’s content as well.

Physical Fitness

This one kind of ties to my health goal of losing the 28 pounds. By going to more parks with the girls, trying to get more active and intentional about getting back on the running cycle and hopefully eating better portion wise, I will be able to increase my physical fitness and get back to at least working out for 30 minutes a day and at least 3 times a week. Another thing I’d like to add back into my routine is doing the 7 minute workout again. I really have no excuse for not doing it as it only takes about 7-15 minutes depending on how many circuits I do!

One way I might start getting my runs/activity in is by getting up with my wife and go running while she gets ready.

Spirituality

As far as my walk with Jesus, I’m really hoping to deepen it in this time home with the girls.  I’ve been working on 2 devotionals as well as have started “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren. I’m hoping to start finding a daily time to work this half hour or so into my schedule.

Also, I’m most likely going to be attending a Men’s Bible Study Small Group at my church starting next month. I had been a part of it a number of years back. I ended up dropping out though due to overbooking in my schedule.

Tan Line

Working on my tan line! Don’t we all love to do that!?! I take this section to be scheduling in some down time. My goal is to continue to save for our next vacation in our sinking fund. Our family just went on a fantastic week long trip to Cancun, Mexico this spring and it was great. It took two and a half year to get it done, but it was paid for in cash. We are saving again and hoping to go back again in another couple years.

We do try to do getaways from time to time. Walker Stalker Con in Chicago had a bunch of meet and greets with the cast, not to mention great interview panels. It was actually my third time going. We love doing little getaways as long as they don’t sacrifice us saving for our bigger dream vacations!

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Goal setting and reflection can be so helpful. I would challenge you to ask yourself “What would I do?” It never hurts to have goals and do that gut check. I want to know, let me know either by  or below in the comments!