90-Day Goals: How they Worked for Me

As we slowly but surely make our way through the last week of June, I can’t help but wonder how quickly 6 months of 2018 have flown by.

I’ve realized that half-time is a good time to pause, reflect, re-strategize and plow on ahead to crush some goals!

Just ask any football fan.

While I’m trying to wrestle the TV remote away from my husband during half-time, the teams are probably making the most of that 15 minute break… planning how they can score more goals in the second half and win the game.

Side note: I’m not really a football fan, but my husband and sons are… so, I’m learning more about the game than I really care to!

Well, so back to the topic…

I’ve always been a goal-setter, list-maker, checkbox-ticker… Writing down everything I want to get done gives me almost as much satisfaction as getting it all done!

I had taken a break from setting yearly goals the past 2 years since my husband was away and our life seemed to be on survival mode.

So, when 2018 dawned, I knew it was high time I got back to my goal setting ways.

I already had a running list of things I wanted to accomplish before I turned 40. So, I decided I would incorporate some of them into my yearly goals as well.

In truth, I was looking for a different method of setting goals because working on only one set of goals for a whole year can be quite boring and exhausting.

When I came across a couple of articles about setting 90-day goals here and here, I jumped at the idea.

After 2 quarters of following this plan, I’ve made more progress than I expected to.

In case you’re interested, here’s the method I followed.

1. List the different areas of life where I wanted to see progress.

For me, it was:

• Spiritual
• Physical
• Intellectual
• Relational

2. Note down specific things I wanted to accomplish in these areas over the course of the year.

Here’s what that looked like…

Spiritual:

• Read X books of the Bible.
• Revamp my prayer list
• Read X non-fiction books by Christian authors.

Physical:

• Walk/Run X Km on the treadmill.
• Reach a particular goal weight.
• Relearn swimming.

Intellectual:

• Journal consistently. (I hope to publish another blog post on this soon!)
• Read good literature to improve my vocabulary and writing skills.
• Publish X blog posts.

Relational:

• Go on X dates with my husband.
• Travel to one new place as a family.
• Visit/entertain friends and extended family.

3. Take just a few of these goals and focus on them for just 90 days.

I did not want to overwhelm myself, so I listed only 10 goals for the first 90 days. In complete honestly, I did not achieve all 10 by the end of the quarter.

But I chose to look at what I did accomplish (which was quite a bit):

• 6 goals fully completed
• 2 goals partially completed

The beauty of setting 90-day goals is that you can add/delete/tweak them as you see fit each quarter. You get to start afresh every 90 days, instead of waiting a whole year and feeling like you’ve failed at achieving your goals.

Out of the 11 goals I listed for the second quarter (April to June), I’ve completed just 4. But I’ve made quite a bit of progress on 4 more.

As much as I love setting goals and achieving them, I’ve also realized the importance of giving myself wiggle room and being gracious with myself.

I’m ending this month going back over my previous 90-day goals and setting new ones for the upcoming quarter.

I’ve written a lot about goals over the past 6 years. I look back and laugh at my naivety now, but I’m thankful for the lessons I’ve learnt through the years.

If you want to laugh along, you should check out these posts from my archives.

Is goal-setting something you’re interested in? How do you do it?

Photo Credit: freestocks.org on Unsplash

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