By Leo Babauta

More than a week into 2007, I’m a bit late in posting this, but please forgive me. I actually set my top goals for 2007 in December, and have already gotten off to a good start on working towards them.

I decided to set goals that are challenging but achievable, something that will make me feel good about myself after I complete them. What I have here are some good goals, and I think I can accomplish them.

How I will accomplish them

It’s all good and well to write out your goals, but you have to do something to keep your focus on them, keep you motivated, and ensure that you are on track the whole year long. How will I do that? Weekly goal meetings with my wife.

My wife and I have decided to be “goal buddies” this year, and to that end, we are meeting once a week to set our goals and review what we’ve done. For example, at the beginning of January, we took our goals for the year and decided what we would try to accomplish in January for each goal. We tried to make it something easily accomplishable in one month. Then, each week in January, we set weekly goals that help us toward the monthly goals. Each day, we look at our weekly goals and see what we can do that day.

So all year long, we have a mechanism to track our progress, review our accomplishments and failures, and set mini goals that help us toward the year’s overall goals. It’s working great so far and I hope to report good progress as the year goes on. It keeps us motivated and it’s so much better than just writing down some resolutions and forgetting about them after a few weeks.

So without further ado, here are my goals for the year.

Top Goals for 2007

• Triathlon: Train at least 2x a week each for bike, swim, run, and complete an Olympic triathlon by July 2007. Write a column once every two weeks about the experience.
• Strength training: Train 3x a week, gaining slight mass and definition (while losing fat through triathlon training). Take a picture in December, then every 3-4 months.
• Yard work: Get it back in shape in December 2006, then cut once a week for 1-2 hours to keep in shape. Should have a nicely maintained yard.
• Payoff credit card, car: Set payment plan, make regular payments. Celebrate when done!
• Save: Set aside $___ emergency fund (open online account for this, then transfer money), then $___ per pay period for Liberty Fund (and track different categories within Liberty Fund). (Note: amounts have been removed because they’re private.)
• Meditate: At least twice a week, meditate for 20-30 minutes.
• Positive Parenting: Become a calmer, more positive parent. Stop yelling and spanking. Teach them with love. Will practice daily, with wife to help me.
• Simplify: Reduce my needs. Reduce clutter. Reduce complications in life. Simplify workday. Simplify the house. Create times of peace (meditation, running, reading, quiet times with wife, kids).
• Take Action: Do things to help raise awareness and improve global warming, poverty and Guam’s political status.

Addendum from 2014

This is a note from Leo in 2014: I’m looking back on these goals with a smile.

Here’s how I did with these, for anyone curious:

• Triathlon: I did train and completed a sprint triathlon, but didn’t complete an Olympic triathlon.
• Strength training: I wasn’t as consistent as I’d hoped, but I did do it fairly regularly and these days I’m much more regular about strength training than I was in 2007.
• Yard work: I did make progress here, but never got as consistent with mowing my (very large) lawn. I later moved to a house with a much smaller lawn.
• Pay off car & credit card: Accomplished! This was amazing, btw.
• Save: I did a great job saving! My finances are much better these days.
• Meditate: I wasn’t as consistent with this as I liked, but I did meditate and learned a lot. I still do, though not always regularly.
• Positive Parenting: It took me awhile, but I no longer spank my kids and don’t yell as a rule. I’m much happier as a parent these days because of it.
• Simplify: I’ve greatly reduced clutter and my needs. This took awhile, but was rewarding.
• Take action: I actually did several projects over the next couple of years to help with these things.