Monthly Goals
12 Simple and effective monthly goals and how to achieve them
I like to reverse engineer goals and break them down into daily activities.
Meaning, whatever your monthly goals are, what are the activities and habits that will help me achieve that goal.
What Monthly Goals should I set?
Monthly goals can be set around any area of your life that you want to improve. It's good to set goals around health and fitness, financial, and relationships. below you'll find a great list of goals and how to achieve them.
I want to improve my health and fitness
The daily activities to accomplish this could be;
Move your body everyday- how? it doesn’t really matter. Find something you enjoy. If you don’t know what type of movement you enjoy, do all of it. You’ll find out pretty quick.
Focus on nutrition-eat real foods. You don’t have to worry about counting macros and calories. If it came from nature or god, it’s good. If it came from a factory, it’s not. For example and apple vs an apple pie.
Get outside-daily walks. Even if you have 5 minutes, more time outside has only upside.
I want to improve my money
Increase active income-start a side hustle. There’s no reason to have just one income stream today and it’s the most riskiest position you can be in.
Decrease expenses-we regularly audit our expenses and every time we find ways to save at least a few hundred dollars. Once my wife found away to save us $1300/mo. That was a pretty productive Sunday.
I want to improve my relationships
Do something for your spouse
Spend time with your kids
Self Development Goals
Practice self-development
Work on your side business or create one
Practice gratitude
Do something that brings you joy
How to achieve your monthly goals
Health and Fitness Goals
Move More
We were made to move. Motion is lotion. Motion releases E-motion. Moving more should always be including in monthly goals. One of the best things you can do to better yourself is move your body.
If you’re not sure how to move, it really is entirely up to you. The point of exercise is to exercise, not to necessarily do a particular kind. A few ideas for you are weightlifting, yoga, running, biking, swimming, walking. Etc. They all work. You should pick the exercise you can do consistently and will enjoy the most.
Feel free to get creative, even turning on your favorite music and dancing completely counts as exercise. Taking walks outside is a great when and it checks off multiple goals on this list. Try not to go more than 2 days without a workout.
Even if you just have a few minutes per day, just do something that gets your blood flowing. You can stretch, dance, etc. Whatever floats your boat will work just fine. Just move.
Focus on Nutrition
Don’t get carried away with macros and micro nutrition yet, just focus on eating healthier. This means eating real-whole foods, cutting processed foods, reducing sugar and alcohol.
This will make a huge impact on your overall health and is attainable. Getting started with healthy nutrition is high on the priority of monthly goals.
When you fall off the plan and binge on ice cream, don't beat yourself up. If you needed to cheat on your diet, that's totally fine. Go all out and have that fudge sunday, throw in some beer while your at it. But get back on the plan tomorrow. It's not about adhering to the plan 100%. We're humans, not robots. It's about getting back on track when you fall off and not judging yourself.
Get Outside
Getting outside is one of the healthiest things you can do. We all know that vitamin D that the sun provides is required for many biological functions.
The sun also increases serotonin. That’s right, it actually makes you happier. Every time I go for a walk outside I experience this. Here’s something you may not have known, fresh air is actually good for your immune system. It’s anti-viral (hello pandemic).
During the Spanish flu 100 years ago hospitals put people in beds outside to let them be exposed to fresh air. Just being outside or even opening a window will make you healthier. And it’s totally free.
To really take advantage of this, you can practice deep breathing outside to enhance this. It's very relaxing too.
Money Goals
Increase income
There are so many ways to make extra money these days. Whether it’s $100 or $1000, making extra money this month is a fantastic goal to improve your life and should definitely be included in monthly goals.
Some ways my wife and I have made extra money include; flipping furniture, selling things on ebay and amazon, drop shipping, and our favorite, our wedding photography business.
Save some money
The same amount saved is worth more than the same amount earned. If you made an extra $100, it would be taxed, but if you saved $100, it’s worth more value since it’s not taxed. Cancel subscriptions you don’t need. Pay off a debt that's costing you money each month.
Buy stock
Watching and studying stocks can become addicting. It’s good to educate yourself with how the market works. Especially right now. One of the best ways to do this is to buy stock each month. Just one share is fine to learn with. When you get more comfortable you can buy more. Yahoo finance is a great free tool. You can download the app and start watching your favorite companies and stocks. You can checkout Yahoo finance here
Relationship Goals
Do something for someone else
This is one of my favorites. Very few things are more fulfilling than doing things for others. I try to do things for my wife every day. No alternate agenda here.
This is simply to make her happy. And it works! I like to do the dishes and clean the kitchen for her. Sometimes I’ll make her coffee. These don’t have to be earth shattering things. Keep it simple, just do something for your spouse or loved one for no other reason than to make them happy.
This is a very simple key to a long-lasting relationship.
Spend Time with your Kids
This is one thing everyone says that’s important. But how often are we making time just to play with our kids or talk to them?
This is one of the most important things in life and I don’t think many people do it. Make time every day to spend time with your kids. Sometimes I’ll start conversations with my daughter just for the sake of having a conversation.
This is a habit I created as soon as she could talk and one that I will continue forever. If your child is fortunate to have both parents, they both should be making this a priority.
Self Development Goals
This can include listening to a podcast, watching a video, or reading blogs and books. It can be whatever topic related to self-development you’d like. It can related to business, relationships, or fitness. I listen to podcasts and read blogs. I like to write about self development. It not only gives me a creative outlet, it forces me to constantly be learning about self development.
Work on your side business. If you don’t have one, consider starting one
Side hustles are a great way to be productive and make extra money. It’s a fantastic reason to work on a passion project that may even make you money. My wife and I do wedding photography as a side hustle. You can make videos, write. use any skills you have.
Most of us have some spare time we could put to use. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with watching TV. I make time each week to enjoy my favorite shows with my wife. But the key is balance. Don't let mindlessly watching TV take up too much time.
Practice Gratitude
Having a gratitude practice is a surefire way to improve your life. It will decrease stress, create happy feelings, and just make your days better.
It doesn’t need to take a lot of time. I find a 10-20 minute daily gratitude practice really helps decrease stress and just raises my vibration into a better place. I’m more patient, kinder, relaxed, motivated, and fulfilled all at the same time.
There are several ways to practice gratitude. You can journal and write. I find taking gratitude walks and sometimes meditation works very well. If you're worried about not doing it "right", you're overthinking it. Just create gratitude.
Do things that brings you joy
It’s important to make intentional time to do things you enjoy doing. It could be reading, watching TV, dancing to your favorite music. You name it. It doesn’t matter what it is. It only matters that it’s something that brings joy.
Having monthly goals absolutely will improve your life and overall well-being. If you're already doing these things, try taking them a step further.
Don't think you have to tackle all of these at once. You could start with one and add another goal each month. You got this!