3 New Years Buckets

Hello all!

First things first; HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! One of the best things that I like about new years is that it feels like a fresh start. Partially because the office that I work as closes for a week or so which gives everyone in our office some time to rest and come back rejuvenated, but mostly because of the mental image of “Having the whole year ahead of you.” It’s a great feeling, knowing you have so much time ahead fo your to accomplish goals for this year. Like everything else, however, it takes planning.

I know many people like to talk about “New Years Resolutions”, but if I’m completely honest, I don’t make “resolutions.” What I do instead is make a list of goals. This is a list of up to ten things that I want to get done throughout the year. I don’t like to have too long of a list otherwise I will get discouraged if I don’t get things done in a specific time frame. If my list is too short (like two or three things), then I don’t think it’s worth it and won’t take it seriously. I try to put my goals for the year into three general buckets; Mental, Physical, and Career. I have found in the past that sometimes there will be goals that I have that will be in both buckets, but that’s OK.

1) Mental Bucket – The mental stuff has to do with education and honing my mental focus and balance. I try to make my mental balance a priority in my life.

I have a few goals in this bucket this year including reading five books, going to 24 webinars (that’s one every couple of weeks) and meditating for 300 days straight. I’ve already started on the meditation bit, and I’ve tried to be a better reader, and thus reading is apart of my focus.

2) Physical Bucket – I try to keep myself in good physical shape, and usually end up in General physical shape. That being said I still work at it and Last year I set myself a goal of being able to run in a 5KM race which I was able to do.

In early December during the Santa Claus Parade, we saw a race go the same route that the parade would go through after. I quipped that It could be fun to do that and my sister essentially looked at me and said: “you’re doing it then.” So I have THAT on my to-do list for 2018. If you’re wondering yes I will probably be writing about that when it happens.

3) Career Bucket – I’m a reasonably restless person when it comes to my career. I love what I do, don’t get me wrong, but I always like to find new ways to improve my career and improve my ability to do my job. Whether this is through education or conferences, I’ve tried to make it a priority to improve my skill set.

This is where my goals cross over a bit. I would consider the webinars which I previously mentioned as being “Mental Bucket” things also to be career goals. The webinars that I said on my Mental Bucket list will (hopefully) help me advance my career. When this crossover happens, they tend to go in both buckets.

For me, having these buckets and having my yearly goals, in general, is excellent for me because I like having things to do. I’m very task oriented so when I have things to do I’m a much happier person.

What are your buckets for 2018? What would you like to get done this year? 

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