Each year, I’ve set goals and have made some progress towards them, but never enough to really gloat or pat myself on the back. Instead, my meager accomplishments seemed watered down in comparison to others. So this year, instead of setting annual goals which seem to peter out as the year progresses, I’m setting quarterly goals and writing them big and bad on the wall!
Well, maybe not directly on the wall, but large enough to be visible in a few places – like my home office.
First quarter goals: January through March
- Pay off $3,000 in consumer credit card debt. This equates to $1,000 additional a month in payments. Difficult, but not impossible using the extra income from side jobs to accomplish this.
- Save an additional $600 the first quarter on top of my automatic savings amounts. I’m going to use Jeff Rose’s idea of the 52-Week Money Challenge – but in reverse. I can’t take credit for the reverse idea since I saw a comment on an MSN article about how as the year progresses, it might be harder to save more near the holidays. I also think that it’s easy to forget about annual goals as the year progresses, so starting off with saving a dollar a week, then two, is easy. However, come July or August it might be harder to “find” that $28 or $30 to deposit each week. Starting in reverse might sound harder to begin with, but then it gets easier as the weeks progress!
- Shred three days a week. I started Jillian Michael’s 30-Day Shred the first week of December and have averaged four days a week. If I can keep up The Shred at least three days a week through March, I’ll have my six-pack back!
- Publish my Ebook….finally. It’s finished, but now I’m having some formatting issues converting it to an ePub file. I should have that resolved by mid-January when I officially launch the book.

Since I’m working on a quarterly system, that’s it for my goals for 2014. Come mid-March, I’ll have a new list that will span through June and so forth until I finally reach the end of 2014. These goals seem more palatable and attainable. They also don’t seem as daunting or nebulous, meaning they’re very clear and precise which is what I need.
Do you set annual goals? Or do you add/remove goals as the year progresses?
7 Comments
I like that all of your goals are specific and measurable.
I set mini-goals, but I hate when people adjust their goals based on their progress (unless they are ahead of schedule and want to aim higher). If you don’t aim high, you’ll never achieve anything.
@Daniel – You made a good point, it’s often too easy to adjust goals as you go, especially down-grading them! Hopefully my shorter increment goals will keep me focused.
Good luck on accomplishing all your goals for the first quarter of this year. It’s very specific and I know you will be able to do it.
May you have a prosperous and happy 2014. Good luck! 🙂
Awesome job finishing writing an e-book! I had a goal to write one last year and totally bombed on that one. I only wrote one paragraph. But at least I managed to keep up with my blogging which I decided was a higher priority. Happy new year!
Good luck. I’m a huge fan of setting smaller goals rather than one big goal that is supposed to stretch through the year. The problem with those big goals is that they’re often too big, so we lose interest, not to mention that you’ll end up with some different goals that come up throughout the year that deserve equal commitment.
It’s great to see quantifiable goals. I too handle goals that way, as they tend to make a person more accountable while also providing a specific target to shoot for. Best of luck with them, especially eliminating that pesky consumer debt!
I like the quarterly goals idea. Much more realizable. Bravo for doing Jillian Michaels shred. I have a dvd of hers and it’s brutal.