Here’s Your 2022 Goal-Setting Cheat Sheet

“Fail to plan, plan to fail”

It’s this time of the year again. Your dreams seem more achievable than ever, you marvel at all the wonderful things you will finally accomplish next year. Whether 2021 was a good and productive year for you or not doesn’t matter — this is an opportunity to start fresh and do even better.

Planning and reflecting on my resolutions is my favorite part of the year. I am motivated and ready to work my a*s off, determined to start about 10 new positive habits, write a book, make $10K per month, launch two companies, and win an Academy Award along the way. I mean, why not?

Watching King Richard reminded me that you can achieve pretty much anything if you make a — realistic — plan and work hard enough to follow it. That’s what we are going to do today: make a realistic plan for you to follow in 2022 and get closer to your dream life.

Look back at 2021

It can be uncomfortable to look back at the past year and realize that you didn’t live up to your expectations. Sometimes, you get this feeling because you’re being excessively hard on yourself. Other times it’s just the truth: another year passed by without you taking action towards your goals. Either way, that’s okay. Forgive yourself. You did the best you could with the tools you had at the time. Use this experience to show up in 2022 better equipped than ever.

If beating yourself up won’t serve you, taking a realistic look at what went well and what didn’t in 2021 will help you readjust. Get your head out of the sand and answer these few questions:

What have you accomplished in 2021?
What goals did you have on your to-do list that are yet to be crossed off?
Which positive/negative habits have you developed in 2021?
How did you feel, healthwise? Workwise? Creativitywise?

Free-write 2–3 pages in your notebook.

Assess where you are now

Assessing where you are today will help you figure out the “start” of your 2022 plan. For example, if you want to launch a marketing agency, where are you at today? What are your marketing skills? If you have none, it’s likely you will need to study for a while before starting out, so start by making a list of the skills you need to develop. Again, be realistic — setting goals you can’t reach won’t serve you.

Assess all areas of your life: health, relationships, finances, work, play, and spirituality. Here are some questions you can ask yourself:

Health

How do you feel? (inspired, burnt-out, tired, energetic)
What habits do you have in place? (positive and negative)

Relationships

How do you feel about your marriage/romantic relationship?
Are you spending enough time with your friends and family?
Do you have a close circle of friends to rely on?

Finances

How much do you earn per month/year and what are your income streams?
How do you feel about money?
Are you feeling financially secure?
Do you earn as much as you would like to? Is it enough for you?
Are there any recurring charges draining your bank account?

Work

Are you doing work you love?
How are your personal life/professional life boundaries?
Can you easily reach a state of flow?
Do you have the skills that you need to advance your career in 2022?

Play

Do you have hobbies?
Do you feel like you have enough time to play?
What fun things do you do in your free time?

You can add a Spirituality, Side Hustle, Kids, or any other category that applies.

Looking at the life assessment you just did, it might be tempting to undergo a complete transformation and attempt to upgrade every single area of your life. In my experience, this is the best way to fail at achieving anything at all.

Focus on 3 or 4 things that will have the biggest impact on your life, and reassess mid-year. If you feel like you gained momentum and are ready to tackle new goals, then go ahead. If not, that’s fine too.

Where do you want to go?

What is your end goal, ultimately? How does your dream life look like?

Take a moment to write down your vision. It’s essential to know where you want to be in order to set smaller goals that will help get you there. There are several options to do so: you can write a letter to yourself in five or ten years, make a vision board, list your future achievements… whatever inspires you.

Here’s an example:

Within 5 years, I want to get rid of my anxiety and feel healthy and happy. I want to have enough money to never worry about the bills again. I want my game business to make a solid six figures a year and expand internationally. I want to have a thriving TV writing career and run my own show. I want to own an apartment in the city center with high ceilings and lots of light. I want to spend quality time with my friends and family on a regular basis.

You can write your “I want” list like this, or choose any other option that suits you.

What steps can you take in 2022?

It’s difficult to figure out your whole life plan and every single step you need to take in order to get where you want to be. Life is fluid, and so are our goals and dreams. There is no one path to success, and you can’t predict the opportunities that will — or will not — come your way.

What you can do, however, is identify tangible steps you can take to get closer to your vision and turn them into S.M.A.R.T goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound).

These goals must be challenging yet realistic. For example, if your ultimate goal is to win an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay but you never actually wrote a feature-length screenplay, then the first few steps you can take in 2022 are:

Take screenwriting classes
Write your first feature

Turned into S.M.A.R.T goals, you have:

January — July: Get a screenwriting certificate and master the rules of the craft
August — December: Write and polish my feature-length screenplay

You can go even further by identifying habits that can help you reach your goals, such as “Write every weekday from 8 am to 10 am” or “Read one book about storytelling per month.”

Conclusion

Fast-forward one year. It’s December 2022, and you’re looking back at the past year to plan for the one ahead. You have changed and progressed tremendously, and you can be proud of the work you have accomplished.

This could be you if you keep these 3 things in mind:

FOCUS. Set no more than 4 goals, write them on a piece of paper, hang them where you will see them every day.
WORK. The bigger your dreams are, the harder you have to work for them. Keep yourself motivated by celebrating small wins and keeping your eyes on the prize — while enjoying the journey.
TRACK. Find a way to measure your progress and each day, ask yourself: “What have I done today to get closer to my goals?”

Good luck!