One of my main goals for this year is to be mindful of my actions. Be mindful of what I think, what I eat, what I do, how I treat others, how I am doing at University, how much I'm reading. It's important for me to set goals at the start of the year to make sure I have something to guide myself through the year, I like to look back at my goals at the end of the year and see how far I have come.
Goals should be realistic and achievable, creating unreachable goals puts yourself up for failure and that will never end well. So, for example, don't set a goal of feeding every hungry child in the world, even though it would be fantastic to do this, it is not achievable unless everyone participates. Focus on yourself, and your relationships with others, don't rely on others to hold up their goals for the success of your own.
Goals should also be specific, don't go writing 'do well at life', what does that mean? Do you want to do well at University? Be more productive at work? Make your goals specific and measurable. A good way to start would be listing all of the aspects of your life and reflecting on how you want to improve some or all of these aspects, for example, I would like to read more consistently this year, to achieve this I will try to read a few pages every day, I will hopefully read 12 books by the end of this year, but I won't limit myself to 12. I will also try to be more mindful on how I spend my free time, as I waste a lot of time browsing through my apps on my phone. Using apps like Flora may be useful for this.
Writing down your goals means that they will be set in stone and you can refer to them whenever you want to, this helps remembering what they are.
and, of course, don't forget to reward yourself. It’s nice to recognise your own achievements and how hard you’re working. Each time you reach a milestone treat yourself. Have a pamper night, buy new planner accessories or take a day off. Anything that makes you feel good and will motivate you to keep putting in the hard work.