Tips for Setting Goals that Stick this New Year with Camille Walker

CAMILLE WALKER [0:00]

Every new day is a new beginning. And I think that that is something to remember that as you’re setting these goals, it is best to remember that perfection is not a part of this equation. It is about improvement and finding space to improve in things that you want to do on a day-to-day basis.

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CAMILLE [0:25]

So, you want to make an impact. You’re thinking about starting a business sharing your voice? How do women do it that handle motherhood, family, and still chase after those dreams? We’ll listen each week as we dive into the stories of women who know. This is Call Me CEO.

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Hey, hey, hey, everyone. Today is a special episode because it is December 27th. It is that weird fog week where we’re in between Christmas, New Year’s Eve hasn’t quite happened yet and we’re wondering what is next for the new year and what are we doing with our life? I’ve seen a lot of funny memes about this where people will be in some kind of a fog with chocolate dribbling down their mouth and wondering what day it is. The kids are home. It’s chaos. It’s crazy.

This episode, I really wanted to devote to you, my person in the fog, and hopefully give you some direction for how to set goals for the new year. Now, this is something that may not attract to you. Some people who I‘ve talked to will say, I do not like New Year’s resolutions. I don’t like the way that it feels so finite.

So, maybe this is goals or tips for setting goals in general. If you do not like setting New Year’s goals, maybe you’re someone who likes to set goals for the month, for the week, for the quarter or for the year. And that can be different for each of us. So, however that looks for you, take this and use it for whatever you think would be most beneficial for you in setting goals.

Now, I am a person that likes goals. And my name is Camille Walker and I’m your host, for those of you if it’s your first time listening. I have always enjoyed setting goals even as a kid. I liked writing things down. I feel like intentions are hard to reach or to understand for ourselves unless we write them down and we create an understanding around what it is that we want to achieve because if we don’t know what we want, how do we know to get there? Or how will we even know when we have arrived?

So, for today, I want to go through some tips that have been shared not only on this podcast through the year, which I really love some great goal-sharing tips that I’m going to share with you today, but also what has worked for me in my personal life.

So, as an introduction for goal setting, I want to say thank you for listening to this episode. If you’re thinking that there are some goals that you want to set, then that’s amazing. And I think that there are always stirrings within us of ways that we can improve. And that doesn’t mean that our improvements have to be perfection.

Every single day is the beginning of something new. In fact, I have a quote in my kitchen that says, every new day is a new beginning. And I think that that is something to remember that as you’re setting these goals, it is best to remember that perfection is not a part of this equation. It is about improvement and finding space to improve in things that you want to do on a day-to-day basis.

And if you don’t make it work some days, that’s okay. Maybe it wasn’t meant for that day or it was a day to move forward with something else and you did something else well. And some days are just crap days and that is totally okay. I am of the mentality that we only can do the best that we can do and it’s about grace not perfection.

So, my number one tip is to write down your goals. Figure out what it is, what your intentions are for your new year. If you’re starting out a new year and you have a focus, some people like to select a word for the year where maybe you don’t select exact goals that you want to work around, maybe you select a word that you want to be the intention for the year.

And the number one thing to do is to have it somewhere where that word or those intentions or those goals are visible on a daily basis. Now, if you’re anything like me, you may set out a goal or an intention and you write it up and you put it in a place. Maybe it’s on your bathroom mirror and you forget about it because it becomes so familiar to you of seeing that goal and that intention in that exact same place.

So, my tip for you is not only to write them down, but create opportunities to see them differently throughout the year or throughout the week or through the month, whatever your intention is for that period of time.

Now, some creative ways that I’ve heard people share this on the episodes this year on the podcast, one of them was given to us from Leah Remillet, who said she likes to do her goal setting in the shower where a lot of us when we’re showering, I don’t know what it is about the magic of the water when it’s draining on us is that you can think of things in a creative way or think of them differently in a way you may not have when you’re away from distraction and ideas come to you.

So, she keeps shower notes where there’s actually special boards that you can buy. You can find them on Amazon where you can write love notes to your loved one or you can write reminders or goals for yourself, which I think was a really creative way that I’ve never heard before.

Another really cool opportunity and way to remember your goals is to write your number one and number two goals on your sticky note and put it on your computer. Now, this was one that was shared with us just recently, just a couple episodes. Actually, I don’t know that you’ll hear it until maybe in a few weeks forward because I’m recording this just right before Christmas and I think this episode is coming out a few in the future.

So, this is one in advance that if you have a goal for your business or an intention for your mind, your body, your spirit is to write it on a sticky note and put it on your computer and use it as a filter of the way that you’re using your time, of the content that you’re putting out into the world or the way that you are trying to achieve that next goal. I thought that that was a really clever way, a sticky note. I love sticky notes.

Another way that I’ve achieved a goal with sticky notes is a project-based goal with sticky note goals that I do one at a time. So, to give you an idea of what I mean, when I was writing my 60 Days to VA course, I took the advice of Amy Porterfield who said to write out the course in its modules and in the lessons with sticky notes and put them on a gigantic wall.

And you could do this with any big project that you have, whether it’s health goals or relationship goals or finance goals or anything like that. And every time that you accomplish a piece of that big project goal, you get to remove a sticky note from the wall. And it was so fulfilling and such a wonderful way to see that visual representation of yes, there’s more clear space on the board.

So, if that’s something that you might like, try using a group of sticky notes and creating rather than a to-do list, a project-based goal using sticky notes and removing them one at a time. I was actually given advice from someone who had ADHD. It was actually someone that works at my husband’s office and he says if he writes to-do lists, it feels way too overwhelming for him. And so, he likes to write his projects or his to-dos on sticky notes and puts them on the wall and takes them off because it’s a more visual representation of what he needs to have done and it feels less overwhelming to him that way.

And that’s what I love about this is for some of us, it’s going to be writing it down in a Notes app in our phone. For some of us, it’s going to be in a planner. For some of us, it’s going to be in the shower or on a wall. Find a place to write your goals where you’re going to see it often and it is a fun way of processing, getting the thing done. So, that is number one.

Number two is to create goals in different areas of your life. So, this is something that won’t be new to you, but as you’re creating goals, imagine creating one in each area where you feel like it is an importance in your life. So, for example, it could be in a relationship, it could be with self-care, it could be in financial goals, health goals or the way that you are using your time.

What is really cool about this is that when you break it down and you’re looking at relationships specifically, you can break it down into relationship with self, with your partner, with your children, and then creating very specific goals for each one of those areas in your life. Now, for some, you may say, if I break it down into all of the areas, I get really overwhelmed.

So, there is a process that I like to take my goals through where I create my most important goal for the season. And what I mean by the season is that could be for the week, the month or the quarter and I’m looking at each of those goals and I’m identifying one or two in each area that I want to focus on so that I don’t get overwhelmed by the whole of it.

So, if you’re writing these down and you’re creating categories, come up with one or two in each area and make it specific so that as you’re going through the goal, you can relate the time that you have with what you have to give in that season and make it small.

So, my tip number three is to make it realistic. So, we’re not talking about changing the world in one week. We’re talking about breaking it down in a way that you feel it is attainable for you and plausible. One of my favorite books that I’ve ever read is Atomic Habits by James Clear and he talks about actionable habits that are stacked upon something that you already do.

So, an example of this is say that you have the habit of brushing your teeth every morning and night, but you’re not very good at taking your daily vitamin. So, a habit stack for that would be to brush your teeth, but create the opportunity for the next habit that you want to develop that could relate or stack upon it very, very easy. So, an example of that could be every time I brush my teeth, I take my multi-vitamin because it’s right next to my toothbrush.

Another habit stack that you could relate to that is I want to do a better job of flossing. So, maybe you have your toothbrush and your floss and your multi-vitamin together in one place. So, every time you do that one habit that you’re used to, it leads you into the next one and into the next one. And the idea is that you want to take one at a time and stack them as you go. So, it’s something that you’re not trying to change everything all at once, but it’s a step-by-step process. Because as you make it realistic, it will help you to feel like you can add something new very, very slowly so you can achieve those new goals.

Number four is to make it measurable. So, if you’re writing a goal let’s say for our health, for example. One goal that I have for this upcoming year is to incorporate more strength training into my weekly routine. So, one of my goals is to weight train or incorporate weights three times a week with cardio two times a week. That means that I would be active for five times a week.

Now, I’m going back into a routine where I had been in a really wonderful habit of going to Pilates five days a week, but I’m recovering from a surgery right now and I made the mistake of taking on too much too soon. It was in my mind, my body is ready to be active again. It’s been a few months into my surgery. It’s actually been four and I got back into Pilates. I went three days a week and I did a high low high fit class. And I was like, I’m taking it slow.

The first week I just did one. Second one, I did two. Third week, I did three classes and a high low class. And I pulled a muscle. I strained a muscle. And it was a huge setback for me mentally because in my mind, I thought, no, I’m ready for this. My mind is ready for this. This is who I was, but I also have to give myself grace and go slower, even slower than I thought I had to before because my body just wasn’t ready for it yet.

So, now, I’m in a place where I have to be careful for another six weeks of getting back into my routine. So, with this, I think giving yourself grace and respect for your limits is a huge part of making those goals achievable because you have to respect your body too and it will come. So, patience is a huge part here. I’m definitely going through that myself personally.

And then, the last bit of advice here is to create accountability or partner goals. So, I’m going to split this into two parts because my husband and I are very much of the mindset that we create goals together. I think it’s a really cool way for us to bond. And we talk about finances. We talk about places we want to travel. We talk about how we want to spend time with our kids or with each other.

Date night is something that we’re really focusing in on in 2023. Our kids are old enough now that we can go in a weekly date and not have to pay for a babysitter, which is huge for us and a big part of our values system is to really create that time for each other and creating that priority.

So, in this part of it, I want to suggest creating goals with your partner is a wonderful thing to do quarterly. That’s something that my husband and I will do and we will have weekly meetings that we do together. But one of our most fun ways that we create goals together is something that I have named the dream car goal setting. I need to come up with a better name. Dream driving? I don’t know.

But when we’re out on long car rides, my husband and I like to come up with our goals and we talk about, shoot for the moon, what are some of the most outlandish wonderful things that we could achieve together? And we will write them down. And I promise you we’ve been married now, oh my gosh, it’ll be 19 years this coming fall. So, 18.5 years and I have found papers of goals that we wrote from our first year of marriage, our 5 years of marriage, 10 years, 15.

And what’s really cool is that I believe that because we wrote them down and we made a goal together, we were able to achieve those goals. And it’s such an encouraging time when I’ve accidentally found the papers and be like, oh my gosh, look at this goal that we had to pay off your student loans or the goals that we had to start a college fund for each of our kids or a goal that we had to travel and to do these different things together.

And it’s a really cool way to dream, but also achieve because if you don’t have a plan or a goal, you can’t create a plan. And if you don’t have a plan, it’s less likely that you’re going to see those dreams actualized and to see them happen in your life. So, if that is something that you’re interested in, please do it. I would love to hear if you tried that because it’s been such a fun thing for us to do in our marriage and I think it’s really bonded us over the years of always trying to learn and grow and achieve goals together.

My last bit of advice with that with accountability is to have a partner or a coach that you are achieving your own personal goals with. I think a lot of times, we get lost in the minutia of the day and taking care of everyone else’s needs or deadlines or goals that are set for us by someone else where if you are setting a goal for yourself for accountability, whether it’s with work life balance or your health or your motherhood or your business, it means everything to have a mentor or a coach or a friend to have as an accountability partner because they can help you remove roadblocks that you have that you may place in front of yourself or they can help you organize it in a way that you’re able to achieve a goal that you have so much more quickly because they have walked the path that you have walked.

And that’s been one of my favorite things about coaching women in business is that there are so many pitfalls I’ve gone through and mentors that I’ve learned from and years and years of building online business that now I get to turn around and help women with creating a healthy balance with motherhood and business.

And so, if that something that you’re listening to this now and thinking, man, I would love to have help with that, whether it’s in motherhood or growing an online business or how do I start or how do I organize my thoughts and achieve this goal, that is one of my favorite things to do in the world. So, I hope that if that is something that you need that, you could reach out to me and I could help you coach through that.

But more than anything, I want to wish you a very, very happy new year and thank you for investing your time with listening to this podcast and supporting me and being inspired by these incredible women that come and share their stories here in such a raw, beautiful way.

I love doing the podcast. I love meeting new women. I love motherhood and the beautiful gift that it is and that we live in a day and age that women are celebrated in both. And so, I wish you the happiest of New Year’s. I hope your Christmas was wonderful and I’m looking forward to 2023 with you. See you next time. Bye!

Hey, CEOs. Thank you so much for spending your time with me. If you found this episode inspiring or helpful, please let me know in a comment and a 5-star review. You could have the chance of being a featured review on an upcoming episode. Continue the conversation on Instagram @callmeceopodcast. And remember, you are the boss!

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