Happy New Year! We reveal our 20 for 2020 lists of goals, plus five tips to help you stay on track with your own goals.
In today’s episode, we’re celebrating the start of the new year and talking about our 20 for 2020 goals.
For the last two years, we’ve done this alternative to setting New Year’s resolutions, inspired by the Happier with Gretchen Rubin podcast, and we really like this way of focusing on a lot of smaller goals instead of just one. In Episode 27: Wrapping Up the Year & Revisiting Our Goals, we reviewed our 19 for 2019 goals.
We’ve been thinking about our 2020 lists for the last few weeks and getting inspiration from other people’s ideas – so we hope this also helps you think about what you want from the next year.
You can include anything you want on your list: a mix of one-offs, big milestones, or ongoing goals, or a themed list. We’ve seen people coming up with 20 books they want to read, 20 little things they want to do every day, or 20 things they want to let go of.
One of our listeners, Kathleen, sent us a message after our 19 for 2019 recap episode, saying:
Just saw a very interesting take on 19 for 2019… more of a look back on the highs of the year vs a to do list. For those of us who maybe didn’t hit all their goals cough like me.
Could be…
19 high points in the year
19 great meals
19 songs that meant something
19 etc…
That sort of themed list could be fun to do at the beginning of the year too.
Listeners Gaby and Andy sent us their 19 for 2019 lists and the progress they’d made. It made us so very happy to see them achieving goals like moving apartments, celebrating important moments with loved ones, journaling and meditating almost every day, and generating income creatively, resourcefully, passionately. and enjoyably. Andy has been recovering from a serious injury, and it meant a lot to us to see that 19 for 2019 had played a part in helping him heal.
Thanks to those who sent in thoughts on 19 for 2019, and to other listeners, we’d still love to hear yours and how they went! You can DM us on Instagram or Facebook or email us at podcast[at]semitogether.com.
Melia’s 20 for 2020 Goals
Theme: Clear out and tune in
- Fewer distractions from making my highest contribution (essentialism)
- Doing the right thing at the right place at the right time
- Connecting with loved ones with full attention
Melia broke her 20 goals into 9 categories and used an emoji for each one: Mindset, money, family, body, home, career, education, beauty, and world
Mindset
Intention: Train my brain toward thoughts that serve me and others
1. 💭Write a personal mission statement
2. 💭Learn CBT techniques to practice in daily life
Money
Intention: More freedom + opportunity, less stress + worry
3.💲Know status + inflow and outflow of money at work & home
4. 💲Do something every day toward improving financial well-being
Family
Intention: Connect and enrich relationships with my loved ones
5. 👨👩👧👦Create a “love tank” marble jar for each family member, including myself, and fill each one daily
6. 👨👩👧👦Manage kids’ screen time, sugar, sass + structure
Body
Intention: Be healthier – less stressed & in pain, more fit & joyful
7. 💪Learn & practice techniques for TMJ therapy, including stress reduction
8. 💪Dance and sing every day
9. 💪Learn to project my speaking & singing voice
Home
Intention: Have a more peaceful, organized, joyful home environment
10. 🏠Clean out the garage
11. 🏠Hang the pictures + wall decor
12. 🏠Keep building the emergency kit
Career
Intention: Move closer to my goal of being a full-time creator of personal development content (podcasts, publications products, programs)
13. 🖊️Leave the house by 7:30 each day
14. 🖊️Launch a personal development product
15. 🖊️Study the craft of writing + storytelling
Education
Intention: Continue to learn, grow, push outside of my comfort zone with deliberate practice
16. 🏃♀️Learn to take neater & more organized notes
17. 🏃♀️Learn to take better pictures
Beauty
Intention: Feel more pulled together & beautiful – more secure and confident
18. 💋Learn how to do my hair + makeup
19. 💋Buy a long, straight necklace
World
Intention: Be an engaged and active citizen
20. 🌎Stay current on what’s happening in the world, enough to inform conversation + action
Gill’s 20 for 2020 Goals
Home
Intention: Make future Gill & Brian happy at home
1. Restart and keep a budget
2. Do 1 decluttering project a month
3. Reach retirement + investing goals
Creativity & Learning
Intention: Make creativity and learning part of every day
4. Find a new tutor & restart weekly Spanish lessons
5. Take an Indian cooking class
6. Plan 4 virtual book club meetings
7. Launch 2 Semi-Together products
8. Plan Corpen launch events
9. Launch 5 Tipsy Per Tutti products
10. Make an end-of-year video with the 1 Second Everyday app
Relationships
Intention: Strengthen relationships with family and friends
11. Plan 6 Barcelona monthly friends hangouts
12. Go on the 8 Dates from the John and Julie Gottman book with Brian
13. Plan trips to see our families
Health & Self-Care
Intention: Prioritize health and wellness
14. Go to the gym 2x a week
15. Go on a hike or local adventure 1x a month
16. Get a CSA basket on a regular schedule
17. Make 2 appointments – medical and dental
18. Buy new bras
Giving Back
Intention: Support people and organizations working to create a better world
19. Support 2 organizations I care about
20. Donate to 2020 presidential and down-ballot candidates
Steal This Tip
For this episode’s Steal This Tip, we’ve pulled together a roundup of five tips to help you stay on track with your goals. Some we shared in Episode 7: Tighten Up & Lighten Up, and some are new.
Tip 1: Make your goals achievable
Stretch goals can be inspiring, but they can also be discouraging. Try to set the bar where you can actually reach it, so you’ll feel good about the progress you’ve made and motivated to keep going.
Tip 2: Change goals if you want.
They’re not set in stone! Tweak them, swap them for something else, or abandon them if they’re not serving you. Priorities will shift or circumstances will change, and that’s ok. It’s liberating to remember that you’re the boss of your list, and it’s just there to serve you.
Tip 3: Aim to get 10 done in the first half of the year.
We learned this from procrastinating till the end of the year on some of our goals. If you work well with deadlines, try focusing on half of your list for January to June, then the other half from July to December.
Tip 4: Visible is memorable.
Write down or print out your goals, and put them somewhere where you’ll see them every day.
Tip 5: Track your progress.
Regularly check in on your goals and draw stars or use stickers when you’ve made any bit of progress. If you’re not sure whether to give yourself credit, count it! It’ll help motivate you.
Get It Together / Got It Together
We each share something that’s going well for us at the moment, and something else that we’d like to work on.
Melia Get It Together: Not ordering replacement contact lenses until she was nearly out (and traveling)
Melia Got It Together: Successfully mapping out schedule for our California visit
Gill’s Get It Together: Losing my Kindle and falling apart
Gill’s Got It Together: Changing the plan during travel
Get In Touch
Let us know what your 20 for 2020 goals are and strategies that are helping you stay on track. Email us at podcast[at]semitogether.com, or send us a voice memo. You can also leave a comment on Facebook or Instagram.
You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/semitogether and getting all kinds of fun extras. If you haven’t already, please subscribe, rate, and review this podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. If the podcast has brought joy to your life, why not share it with someone else? And sign up for our e-newsletter.
Resources
- Essentialism by Greg McKeown
- 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
- Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
- The 5 Love Languages by Dr. Gary Chapman
- KIDZ BOP
- Hilary Rushford’s Dean Street Society
- I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi
- Broke Millennial Takes on Investing by Erin Lowry
- ThirdLove bras
- Dare to Lead by Brené Brown
- Brené Brown on marble jars & The Anatomy of Trust
- A parrot (not a pigeon, but close) riding a bicycle