Get your 2023 goals template ready, because today we’re talking goal setting! (P.S. If you don’t have one… download my FREE 2023 goal-setting template here!)
Before you choose specific goals, you need to decide on your areas of focus. What is most important to you in 2023? Getting promoted? Saving for a home? Spending time on your side hustle? Take time to clear your workspace, visualize where you want to be at this time next year, and choose your priorities.
In this blog post, we’ll walk through the different types of goals you can set and my top tips for staying motivated throughout the year.
Types of Goals + Examples
The first step in achieving your New Year’s resolutions is setting them. Setting specific, tangible goals that you can track throughout the year will empower you to actually accomplish them and feel like you’re making progress along the way. Feel free to write down your favorite goals (or types of goals) in your 2023 goals template!
Here is a list of goals that you can use as inspiration (or even as your own goals for 2023!).
- Advance your skills – Research classes, certifications, or licenses that are interesting to you! This is a great way to further your skills at work OR in another area. Advancing my skills outside of work was my previous goal, and because of it, I became a certified real estate agent! Getting certified in something outside of my day job was a fun challenge and something I’m really proud of. I LOVE working on projects in my new home, and becoming a certified real estate professional has allowed me to expand my knowledge in an area I’m interested in.
- Examples of goals you can set in this area:
- “To become certified in Google Analytics to improve my analytical skills at work”
- “To take a creative writing class to develop my creativity and meet new people”
- Make a career change– If you’ve been craving a career change, the New Year is your time to shine! This goal could cover any type of change you want to make… changing career paths altogether, moving to a different team at your current company, changing industries… the list goes on! Don’t worry if your goals sound big and overwhelming, there’s ALWAYS a way to break them down into small, easy-to-accomplish tasks throughout the year.
- Examples of goals you can set in this area:
- “To transition from my current job into UX design, because I’ve always been passionate about it, even if it’s different from my current role”
- “To switch from my current team to the marketing analytics team to broaden my experience”
- Save money – Financial goals are a biggie (and one of the most important types of goals you can set each year). This year, set a financial goal that’s exciting so that you’ll stay motivated throughout the year.
- Examples of goals you can set in this area:
- “To save $20,000 for a down payment on my future home”
- “To save 10% of my salary for retirement” (Pssst. This one is actually pretty easy. You can simply update your automatic contributions each month through the financial institution you use for your retirement account. Don’t know how to set a retirement savings goal? Check out my tips.)
- Spend more time with those you love – Set personal goals the same way you set professional and financial goals. As career-minded, motivated women, it can be easy to get absorbed by work and professional ambitions… but the truth is that spending time with your community will help you feel refreshed and more productive.
- Examples of goals you can set in this area:
- “To plan one social event each week” (This can be as simple as coffee with a friend!)
- “To plan at least two trips to visit friends and family in 2023”
- Network – Networking is responsible for A LOT of career moves, and shouldn’t be overlooked during your goal setting. Besides helping you make connections and friends in your professional life, networking will help you achieve your other goals. By networking, you can more effectively join new teams, gain new skills, and change career paths.
- Examples of goals you can set in this area:
- “To send at least one connection request to someone in my desired industry on Linkedin every week”
- “To set up one coffee chat with someone I admire each month”
- Get promoted – If you’ve been working toward a promotion… put it on your goals list! Visualizing the promotion, and planning for it to happen, will help prioritize the small steps needed to ensure it happens (like sending your manager a quarterly progress report or raising your hand for new opportunities). Don’t forget, there’s more than one way to be promoted. You can look for opportunities outside of your current company or even look for promotions in other areas, like becoming the leader of an ERG (employee resource group) at your company.
- Examples of goals you can set in this area:
- “To be promoted to be a team manager in 2023”
- “To become the leader of the women in the workplace ERG at my company”
- Get accepted to grad school – Just like it’s important to prioritize small steps toward a promotion, it’s important to work toward getting accepted to grad school. Putting your dream school on your vision board and preparing your application throughout the year will help your goals come true.
- Examples of goals you can set in this area:
- “To be accepted to my dream graduate program”
- “To get accepted to at least one graduate program in my area of interest and receive a scholarship.”
4 Ways To Make Your 2023 Goals Stick
Now that you’ve set your 2023 goals, it’s time to put measures in place to help you achieve them. Here are my favorite tricks to help you stick to your goals and stay motivated.
- Make sure your goals are SMART. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. All of these elements are essential to setting goals you will actually accomplish over the course of a year. If your goals are specific and measurable, it will be easier to visualize the small steps you need to take to get there (nothing is worse than an overwhelming, ambiguous goal). Likewise, your goals need to be achievable and relevant to what you want. Ask yourself, “Can my goals realistically be achieved in 2023?”
- Create a vision board. This is one of my favorite ways to motivate myself toward my goals! Spend an afternoon making a vision board full of inspirational words, images, and phrases that represent your goals. You can make a physical board using magazine clips and printed photos, or you can make a digital version in Powerpoint or Canva. Looking at the vision board every day will remind you what you’re working towards.
- Use a planner to set small goals and reminders. One of the most helpful things you can do to accomplish your goals, especially big ones, is to break them down into much smaller tasks. For example, if my goal is to get a job in a new industry, one way I can accomplish my goal is by networking. To break “networking” down into small, easy tasks, I can add reminders to my calendar (or planner) to connect with people in that industry once a week on Linkedin. I can also add reminders to set up informational interviews with those connections once a month.
- Don’t overload yourself. Choose 1-3 big goals for the year and focus on those. Overloading (and overwhelming) yourself with an endless list of goals might prevent you from ever making progress. Remember, choosing one big goal doesn’t mean you won’t accomplish other things, it just means you’ll have one main focus among your other interests.
Plan Your Resolutions With My Free 2023 Goals Template
I’m SO excited to see everything you accomplish in 2023! If you’re looking for resources to kickstart your goals, download my FREE 2023 Goal Setting Guide. This easy-to-use template provides examples of goals for all areas of your life. Plus, it will help you write out what you want to accomplish this year.
Happy planning!
