I'm a big goal setter. I attribute much of my career success to setting goals and tracking my progress towards them. I've set goals for how much money I want to make, how often I want to be in touch with friends, what new skills I want to develop or what experiences I want to have. 

My goal-setting process is pretty elaborate, I must admit. Each quarter, I set 10 "areas of focus" for the quarter — for example, producing the Advice To My Younger Me podcast, connecting with friends and family, and spending time on self-care. At the beginning of each week, I write down what I intend to do to make a bit of progress on each of my areas of "focus". At the end of the week, I write down what I accomplished in each of those areas. It keeps me moving forward on things that are important to me, but not necessarily urgent. The process has served me well for many years.

But I recently read about an alternative approach, which might be just as effective as my process, and a whole lot simpler. It involves selecting a "theme" word for the year and applying that concept to the various aspects of your life — from work to relationships to home life. Your theme word might be "organized", "balanced" or "upgrade".

Let's say you picked the word "supportive" as your theme word. As you plan your day or week, you might ask, "How can I be more supportive of my co-workers this week?" or "What can I do to be more supportive of my spouse today?" or "How can I be supportive of the homeless in my community this month?"

My word for the year is "routines". Why that word? It doesn't sound very aspirational, does it?

It seems like there is a lot of stuff on my to-do list that I never get around to — exercise being a prime example. I hope that by creating some exercise routines — I do Pilates on Mondays and Wednesdays, I take a walk with my sister-in-law on Thursday mornings, and I take a long walk with my dog in nature on Saturday — I'll actually do the exercise I've been meaning to do. I'm going to develop routines as well for getting together with friends and writing my book. 

What's your theme for the year?

Please share it with me at holtz@tomyyounger.me.