Personal Goals: 26 Goals To Improve Your Life

We can reach a point in our life where we are sitting back wondering what it is you want, how we can better ourselves or make major improvements to ourselves and our circumstances. Maybe you have achieved what you set out to achieve and you are ready to make new personal goals.

Setting personal goals is a great way to help you decide what you want in your life and a way for you to become the best version of yourself and experience growth and development.  It can keep us motivated, focused and driven.

Wellbeing personal goals

1. Practice self care at least once a week

Do you ever feel like you are always on the go? Juggling family, work, hobbies and social life can leave us feeling overwhelmed sometimes. Not only do we have to juggle this, life can also add its own unexpected events and scenarios that we have to deal with.

To manage our complex lives as best as we can, we must remember to take care of ourselves, to avoid and manage stress, depression and our overall happiness.

We cannot look after anybody else if we do not look after ourselves. I think the saying, ‘ you can’t pour from an empty cup’ applies here.

Practicing self-care has many benefits such as boosting self-esteem and mental and physical health.

2. Take time to do the things you love

Doing the things that you love doing is truly amazing for your well-being, I mean who doesn’t want to participate in things that we love? It can relieve stress, bring you joy and happiness and help you be mindful.

Commit to doing the things we love at least once a week. This can be your favourite hobby or just reading your favourite book or watching your favourite T.V show.

3. Look after your mental health

It should be everyone’s personal goal to look after their mental health. When we do this we enjoy life more and we are able to overcome adversity as well as staying healthy.

You can take care of your mental health by:

• Seeking support from specialists and medical professionals
• Meditating and journaling
• Setting boundaries
• Doing things that bring you joy
• Practice self-care

4. Get enough sleep

If you have poor sleep hygiene, then this goal should be on your list of personal goals!  Getting enough sleep and good quality sleep is so important for your health and well-being. When we are well rested, we are more motivated, able to concentrate more and energized.

5. Travel more

Setting a personal goal to travel more can certainly give you something to look forward to as well as provide you with an opportunity to embrace culture and diversity and create amazing memories.  This also doesn’t have to be abroad; it can be different parts of your country that you may have wanted to visit.

Career & work goals

6. Finish work on time

If you find you are often working over your hours and work is cutting into your personal time you may want to make it a personal goal to set boundaries to finish work on time. There are always times when we work over our hours but doing this frequently can cause burnout and stress. Remember that you are easily replaced to your employee but your health and wellbeing isn’t.

7. Improve on your weaknesses at work

Public speaking used to be one of my weaknesses; I didn’t like it; I always felt nervous and felt I was generally rubbish at it. I wanted to get better at it so I always sought opportunities at work where I could practice in order to get better; I delivered presentations ect, and volunteered to do workshops.

Working on our weaknesses at work can be beneficial for confidence and self-esteem as well as progressing in your career, and your managers will probably be impressed too!

8. Network

Maybe you want to change career, start your own business or progress in your current role; networking is always beneficial as it enables you to meet the people that can help and support you on your journey.

9. Start your own business

If you dream of being self-employed, starting your own business or even if you wish to boost your earnings with a side hustle make it a personal goal to start that business!

We can get so put off by making the initial move we can talk ourselves out of it.

Be brave and take that leap of faith, remember nothing amazing ever really happens when we don’t leave our comfort zone.

10. Increase your knowledge

Knowledge is power! You should make it a personal goal to gain more knowledge, maybe this will be in your current career, or you want to learn more about an area you are interested in. When you acquire knowledge, the world is your oyster.

Personal development personal goals

11. Learn to say ‘no’ and not feel guilty about it

We can be such people pleasers that we find ourselves doing things that we don’t want to do because we find it hard to tell people ‘no’

Make learning to say no when you don’t want or can’t commit to doing something one of your personal goals. it may take courage and practice, and you may even be awful about it, but once you continue to do this it will get a lot easier.

BetterUp provides some great tips for how you can begin to say no!

12. Let go of the things you can’t control

We can get so overwhelmed, stressed and worried about things that we cannot control that it can impact our life negatively. The need for control comes from a place of fear, we feel that if we can control it, then we will get a better outcome which isn’t always the case.

Accepting that we cannot always be in control allows us to focus on that which we can, thus improving our self-awareness, emotional well-being and overall happiness.

13. Cultivate more self love

Self-love can truly change your world, it can help you feel more confident have higher self-esteem, be more assertive as well as enable you to identify and take action on areas for growth.

When we love ourselves, our relationships with others improve and it can increase our happiness and joy.

14. Be more resilient

Having resilience means that when we face challenges and obstacles, we are able to overcome them. This is a great and essential skill to master because life is full of unwanted surprises, but with resilience, you will be able to get through it.

15. Count your blessings

No, literally count them! Focusing on all the good we have it helps us appreciate what we have and whom we have in our life, and when we are grateful for the good things, more good comes into our life. (it’s universal law). You should be thankful for everything you have especially when you are facing adversity.

Financial goals

16. Budget

Maybe finances are a squeeze right now, or you are saving up for something special such as a holiday, car or deposit on a house; budgeting will help you meet your financial goals and help you get a handle on your finances. It can help your become savvy with your money, meaning you have more to spend on treats for yourself and your family.

17. Save Money

Everyone’s budget is different but if you are able to save you should put some money away for a rainy day. Savings will give you peace of mind that if something goes wrong, then you will be able to deal with it, or even if you fancy doing something spontaneous will have the means to do it.

Money Helper explains how saving smaller amounts but regularly is more effective than saving large amounts every so often.

18. Learn about investing

If it’s one thing the wealthy do is invest their cash. You don’t have to be rich to invest and it is an excellent way for your money to work for you and you also don’t need to have a lot of money to do it. You can invest as much as you can afford.

Most people dream of the idea of investing but never end up doing it because they do not how it works, but there are so many resources out there that can help us understand the world of investing.

MoneySavingExpert explains how the most popular things to invest in are:

• Shares
• Bonds
• Property
• Funds
• Government bonds

19. Pay off your debts

Focusing on paying off your debts means more disposable income for you when you finish paying off. It also helps elevate stress which is beneficial for your mental health.

Family personal goals

20. Spend more time with family members

We lead busy hectic lives, managing our careers and hobbies and catering to our families. It can be rare occasions that we actually spend quality time with our families. Quality time with loved ones can improve happiness, improves our well-being and provides emotional support. Turn off your devices, save your box set for another day and spend some time together.

21. Resolve family conflicts

No one’s family is perfect, families can be messy, and they get on our last nerve at the best of times. Life is also short, and it’s important to get arguments and misunderstandings resolved quickly. It isn’t worth loosing loved ones over our pride and egos.

22. Do something new together

It is always fun and exciting to do something new and you should make it a personal goal to try new things with your family. This could also be beneficial to building better relationships with them and creating great memories that you can cherish forever.

Health

23. Meal prep

Ever finished a long day at work and all you want to do is come home, eat and relax, but instead, you have to come home and cook a meal? Meal prepping is an incredible life hack. It can save us so much time, reduce our stress levels, help keep us a lot more organized and, as an added bonus, you are more likely to eat healthier too!

24. Quit smoking

Okay, so I don’t think I need to tell you the dangers of smoking and what it does to your health, but not only will you begin to repair the damage done to your lungs and body when you quit, you will also save money and smell nicer.

25. Eat more plant-based foods

Plant-based foods are just that, foods that come from plant sources. Plant-based diets have become very popular over the years.  They include fruits, vegetables, beans, lentils, nuts and beans

26. Detox

Just like our minds our physical bodies need to recuperate and rejuvenate.

You can participate in any healthy detox by:

-Cutting out alcohol and caffeine

-Drinking only water

-Cutting out junk food

NHS provide some important information about detoxing and its myths to ensure it is done safely.

Now you have 26 personal goals you can make to improve your life, choose the ones that feel right for you and begin making changes and improvements to your life!