Goal Setting: Moving and a Ten-Year Plan

I recently decided to move, and was chatting with a friend at work who had just made a major move and be-lined it to the West Coast. The subject of discussion was of course, MONEY. How much money do you spend to get what you want NOW vs. downsizing a bit to get more of what you want LATER?! While I dithered, he suggested I make a ten-year plan, and then evaluate my current spending plan in light of those goals (the financial part of those goals being the most relevant).

That made sense to me, so I sat down and wrote out what I thought that plan would be. Long-story short, what I discovered was that while I have goals that are specific and measurable, my long term financial goals are malleable. And that’s okay–from what I read about goal-making and even project-planning, the purpose of making goals/plans is not for you to follow a stone-engraved set of commandments about how your future must look, it is to help you make intentional decisions about your future or your project.

In a nutshell, what I decided was this:

1. Financial goals: (Short Term) Pay off consumer debt in less than 2 years
   • (Long Term > 5 yrs) Save for a down-payment on a house and/or starting capital for my own business
2. Health
   • Fitness: (Long Term) 20 full push-ups; 5 miles in 25 minutes (biking); 1-2 pull-ups; have a variety of exercises I can go to in different moods or levels or energy, so I don’t get bored, stuck, or exhausted
   • Diet/Nutrition: (Long Term) Have figured out a eating plan that actually works for me and actively practicing it
   • Health: (Long and Short Term) No diabetes, no high blood pressure or other cardiac issues
   • Weight Loss/Maintenance: (Long Term) Be at a health BMI for me.
3. Stress Management (I have to be intentional about this or it gets away from me very easily! Especially since I enjoy doing, or at least creating, all the things)
   • My health and well-being comes before the completion of my projects or my job performance
   • Everyday pursuit of joy and pleasure
   • I rest when I need to
   • Everyday practice of prayer and meditation
   • Gratitude practice
4. Creativity
   • Finish my novel series (eek!)
   • Work on board games
   • Explore the idea of starting my own business around rest, joy, and SPACE
   • Creating my ideal space (much, much more on that later)
5. Community
   • Establish/maintain a group of friends that mutually nourishes each other and helps each other grow
   • Be invested in a Church community
6. Spirituality (There’s a bit of overlap in this category, since Spirituality isn’t really something that exists by itself, it is an added dimension in every day life. But it is important to be intentional about it, so I am breaking it out in it’s own category)
   • Daily practice of prayer (for me, this means the Daily Office and listening prayer/ “practice of presence”)
   • Gratitude and meditation
   • Learning/study! From theologians new and old
   • Kindness/Compassion practice
   • Whole-heartedness practice (a collection of things I am still learning about)

As you can see from that list above, I have fleshed out some of these ideas more than others. That’s okay! If you don’t know what you’re aiming at yet, you have to explore for a while and try new things before you figure out what your goal should be. But setting preliminary goals can help you be intentional about the whole process.

While I worked through this exercise, I was reminded of some of my own patterns with goal-setting. It is my default mode to overdo it or be too harsh with myself in setting initial goals, or with immediately trying to level up and make my goals harder and harder until it’s an absolute nightmare. Why, you ask? Weeelll, I think it has something to do with me being an accomplishment addict, but I can tell you that when I am intentional about kindness/compassion practices, it helps a lot. Also, it helps when I tell my non-lunatic friends and family members about my lunatic goals and they call me out.

That reminder helped me remember that I can change my goals if they aren’t working, or I learn that something isn’t what I want. I can also try something out before committing to it. I can even try it for a year or more. Again, my personal goals are not the inviolable commandments and I will not be burned by dragon fire if I change my mind.

The decision I came to was basically that I needed to invest in my dreams for the future, and in this case, that meant spending more on living space now. Part of my long-term goals around starting my own business and other forms of creativity mean having a living space I truly enjoy and that can be a canvas for creativity. Spending more is not throwing money down the drain, it’s an investment in my future and figuring out what I want that future to look like.

I’m curious to know what you learned about yourself or your family while making long-term plans. Did something come up that you didn’t expect? Did you have trouble with a category that you thought would be easier? (For instance, I thought I would have more specific goals for “Creativity” than I ended up having, especially since I just finished the first draft of my board game!) Leave your thoughts below!