Maximize Success with Mini Goals in 2022
The following is a post of mine from an old blog I’d written a handful of years ago. It’s still applicable so I’m reposting and hoping it can help someone else.
UPDATE: I have not had a soda since then. Once I made it through January, I decided to try to do February too. Then it snowballed into “can I do 6 months?”, then “can I make it a year?” It’s been 4 years now and I don’t have a desire to have a soda at all. That mini goal turned into something much bigger. Maybe it can for you too.
I’ve never been one for setting huge resolutions for a new year. Of course, I, like everyone else want to start out on the right foot. This year I had the same goals as I have every year, (i.e. eating cleaner, being more patient, running more miles, staying active) but I always have those things in my mind to work on. They are a constant. I wanted to do something a little different. There had to be some way to do the things that I wanted to do and not feel like a complete failure on December 31st.
As we were driving to make some New Year’s Day purchases, I told my husband I thought it would be fun to do something monthly. Give something up together each month. We can build on it if we want or we can just give it up for 30-ish days and then move to something else. Of course the goal would be to start and keep it going for the rest of the year. You could also choose to pick up a good behavior/habit for the 30 days. Sometimes giving up something doesn’t end up being what’s best for you. Many times we need to gain something to make ourselves better.
Don’t we all feel awesome when we set a goal and actually follow through and achieve it? YES! So give this method a try with us and see if it works for you. We all have different vices so your goals/resolutions may be different from ours. Sometimes ours may even be different from each other. If that’s the case, find a partner to give that up with you too. Nothing says you can’t give up two things with two different accountability partners during the same month! Talk about maximizing success and achieving goals!
Here are some examples of things you may want to consider giving up. Also keep in mind that giving something up that you wouldn’t consider your vice is not really doing anything to help yourself. 🙂
Sodas
Fast food
Chips
Fried food
Alcohol
Candy
Chocolate
Facebook/Twitter/Instagram
Gaming
TV
Smoking
Complaining
Gossiping
Avoiding change
Here are some examples of things you can start doing:
Exercise
Whole30 🙂
Drinking the amount of water your body needs daily (find the calculation here)
Wake up 30 minutes earlier each day
Make your bed every morning
Ask your children something that makes you both engage in conversation each day
Share a story from the Bible with your children or spouse each day
Write in a journal for 5 minutes (or whatever time you set for yourself) each day
Connect with a friend every day. Ask them if they need anything and how you can pray for them.
Say hi to at least one stranger every day
Read a book every week
Purge a room every week for a month, tossing stuff each day. This is a great one to start and continue throughout the entire year, building up to your entire house and then maintaining the other rooms that have already been done. Check out my Minimalism posts I’ve written to see what I’ve done in our house.
Share your challenges an goals with me here in the comments! I’d love to see what you’re up to and hopefully one of your goals will inspire me!