Straight Finessing My Vision Year

It’s that time of the year again. Where we’re thinking about more than the Mighty Pup toys we have to buy for our kids or that overly priced purse you’ve been saving up for the entire year to gift to your wife. It’s also 2020 goal setting time. I love the work behind goal setting, but not always keen on doing the actual work. Don’t confuse that with me not getting the work done, I just don’t have a smile on my face while doing it. I’ve been consistently goal setting each December for the following year for a really long time now. My lover/homie/partner/friend, Julia (unlearningexperience@gmail.com), has been instrumental in helping me create timely and realistic goals. Additionally, she’s been a human reminder of sorts to help me execute the things that I have written down. The reason she’s so great at holding me accountable, is she’s a certified life coach that has helped several of her clients maximize their potentials.

With the help of my ace boon coon and my own sheer will, my 2019 went swimmingly. My first goal of 2019 was to lose weight. That didn’t happen until late Q3 of this year after I got serious with sobriety and really started paying attention to the what I consumed. Training for a half-marathon has helped as well, but I sure wish I was as consistent earlier this year as I am now. Such is life. We only ponder on poor decisions in the past to use as learning opportunities for the future. My second goal consisted of growing my career outside of my current corporate gig. I’ve definitely have had some success in this through joining two professional organizations, starting course work on subjects in new fields for me, and consistently writing. Even though I joined two professional organizations to help with my career, I missed the goal of obtaining a professional certification. I’m now in the process of making some tough decisions for 2020. Regularly updating this space for myself first and for you second was never factored into my plans for this year, but I’m glad you all figuratively and quite literally forced my hand. Your boy’s keyboard game has been hotter than the wings Idris Elba keeps struggling with. I’ve discovered some life goals through writing that I want to see come through fruition, and I have no plans on slowing down for the foreseeable future. Finally, I’ve been creating an environment of being debt-free. This plan like the two others I discussed was meticulously outlined and I followed it with a grimace on my face. The idea was to have one credit card at a 10% utilization rate and that same methodology that was used to achieve that goal was adopted with other financial situations in my life. These same skills have been passed down to our kids as well. As they’re learning more about money and its use as a tool, they’re really starting to understand that there’s no such thing as a “money store”, as our daughter eloquently phrased it, that we could just get more capital from. With these detailed efforts, my credit score has shot up rapidly and affords our family even greater opportunities. What I’m most proud of is sticking to the script so to speak and having a great village around me supporting my endeavors.

In an effort to help as many people as possible in achieving their goals for our vision year, 2020, I asked my significant other a few questions on goal setting and how to manifest our best selves. Julia encourages anyone creating objectives for themselves to always write them down, but most importantly to use the SMART method. She explains, “SMART goals are the most realistic ways to set goals. They are things that are specific, measurable, achievable or attainable, realistic or relevant, and time bound. Whenever you’re setting a goal, you want to be able to fit into those categories and I think those are the most effective and realistic ways to set your goals.” What I’ve run into in the past was not sticking to my goals, hence me still needing to go into the hefty section of clothing stores to pick out my brunch outfit. I still look fly in whenever I’m rocking including the Chelsea boots. Y’all can go straight to hell if you think I’ll stop wearing those. Mrs. Not All Nerds feels that most common reasons people aren’t disciplined when it comes to their goals is because they’re not following the SMART goal pattern. She goes on to state, “a lot of times we set goals and they’re not realistic. You can’t measure them and there’s no way of telling if you’re even on the right track to meet those goals. One of the biggest mistakes that I see with goal setting is there’s no time on it. People say for instance, “I want to lose 30 pounds”. When do you want to lose 30 pounds? How do you want to lose 30 pounds? Do you have the tools to lose 30 pounds?  Is there a check point where you’re checking to make sure you’re on track? Again, going back to SMART goals a lot of times it’s not specific. Those are some of the pitfalls people approach with goal setting.” It’s important to note that January 1st is a good starting point, but any day and any time can be your kickoff to do something good in your life. Julia uses her birthday (today by the way) as a starting point for her goals. “My birthday is my new year and instead of waiting until January 1st or December 31st like a lot of people, my birthday is my new year. It’s a new chapter in my life. That’s the time that I feel like I really sit with myself. I reevaluate the previous year and the things I felt like I did right, wrong, or was hesitant on. That’s my time to set my goals. Not saying you have to wait to your birthday or the New Year to set a goal, but that’s my check point with where I am and where I want to be.”

Aside from the great recommendations my better half provided, I ask that you get yourself some accountability partners. If you don’t have any, then reevaluate the people that you choose to be around. Strong emphasis on the word choose, because your associations are solely on you. Also, check-in on your goals weekly or daily if you have too. I enjoy the daily approach, because it really keeps me focused and productive throughout the week. Keep your goals everywhere and broadcast them if you have too. I have sticky notes of some of my goals posted to my bathroom mirror. It’s a great place to have them because I walk past that area of our home several times. Even Zora has jumped on the hype train and has left inspirational notes for me to read when I need that extra bit of encouragement. I’m exciting to write down my plans for the next year and create actionable steps around them. Let’s make the most of some of the free time we’ll all have around the holidays to manifest a grand vision for the year 2020.