7 Ways To Set Goals For 2021 While Still Treating Yourself Gently

1. Set small, achievable goals for yourself. It’s important to keep yourself motivated — and a good way to do that is to mix in small goals with your bigger goals. That way, you will feel like you’re being productive early in the year, even when you haven’t managed to accomplish your biggest life goals yet. There’s nothing nicer than crossing items off of a checklist. Besides, you deserve to celebrate all of your successes, even the smallest ones.

2. Focus on the goals that are actually within your control. Instead of making getting a boyfriend your resolution, make your resolution about putting yourself out there more, signing up for dating apps, and starting the conversation a certain amount of times. Pick goals that are within your control. You can’t decide whether or not you’re going to meet your soulmate this year — but you can decide whether or not you’re going to keep yourself open to love.

3. Value your personal goals as much as your love and career goals. Even if this isn’t the year when you land your dream job or get engaged, it can still be a good year. Instead of placing all of your focus on your relationships and career, you should pay attention to the other important aspects of your life, too. Breaking bad habits. Coming out of your shell. Learning to love yourself. All of those things are important, even though they might not seem as impressive on paper.

4. Dream big — but keep your expectations realistic. It’s important to push yourself, to step outside of your comfort zone, to try to achieve your wildest dreams. However, you don’t want to be too hard on yourself if you’re unable to reach the biggest goals on your list. Even if you take tiny steps closer to achieving those big goals, you should be proud. That’s still something. That’s still important.

5. Only list down goals you personally feel passionately about. It doesn’t matter if your parents really want you to get married soon or if your friends really want you to spend more time with them. All that matters is what you want. Write down the things that matter the most to you, because when you really care about your goals, you’re more likely to reach them. You’re less likely to give up when you’re halfway there.

6. Break your goals into smaller, more manageable pieces. When you’re coming up with your list of resolutions, instead of writing a blanket statement about how you want to get a novel published, break the goal into pieces. Writing a novel. Editing a novel. Writing a query. Sending out queries. That way, you’re crossing off a bunch of goals on the way to your main one.

7. Have fun with it! You don’t want every single goal on your list to scare you. You want some of them to feel fun and exciting. Maybe you want to ride in a hot air balloon or visit your friend in another state (once the pandemic is done). You don’t have to put anything too crazy on your list. You can add the fun stuff, too!