My 2020 Goals Revealed

Sharing my theme, motto, and goals for the year.

silhouette of man touching woman against sunset sky

In a previous post, I talked about goal setting and even provided a free goal setting template. For those of you who used this worksheet, I hope you found it helpful!

A couple days ago, I put my 2020 goals to paper and wanted to share with you through a video.

 

What are your goals for the year? And remember, if you haven’t set any goal(s) yet: it’s never too late to start!

Fish On,

Misti

2020 Goal Setting: A Free Template to Map Out Your New Year

How I map out my year, and a free 2020 goals template for you!

close up of text

At the end of every year, I make time to sit and reflect on the past year, and prioritize what I want to accomplish in the upcoming year. Maybe it’s the Type-A planner in me, but mapping out the new year is one of my favorite things to do!

Since I was about 9 years old (I’m not kidding!), I have always went through a similar process to set my goals for the new year. I know many people who want to make plans and focus on their goals, but simply don’t know where to even begin.

For those who are thinking, “Yes, this is so me!” I have included the goal setting worksheet that I use for my goal setting each year at the end of this blog post.

How do I do it?

To set my goals, I like to take a holistic approach and look at many facets of my life. For the past couple of years, I have broken out my goals into the following areas:

  • Theme for the Year: The main over-arching sentiment I want to accomplish that year.
  • Church & Faith: How do I want to grow my relationship with God?
  • Family & Friends: Ways to connect more deeply with my spouse, child, and extended family/friends.
  • Health: What can I do to be a healthier version of myself?
  • Home: Ways I can enhance my home life, typically through major house projects
  • Travel: Where do I want to travel, and who do I want to visit?
  • Work: What do I want to accomplish in my career?
  • Miscellaneous: What other goals to I have for my life?

Then What do I do?

After I think about my goals, I type them up on my worksheet. Then, I print it out and hang it up somewhere that I can see on a daily basis. I usually hang up this worksheet in my office. I think it is very important to display your goals somewhere that you can track on a regular basis. And it is always so satisfying when you are able to check one off the list!

“It is very important to display your goals somewhere that you can track on a regular basis.”

Get Your Goal Setting Worksheet

To download my goal setting worksheet template, click here. Feel free to modify in a way that meets your personal goals and needs!

Happy New Year!

I hope you find this post about goal setting to be helpful for you! No matter what your goals are for 2020, I wish you a blessed year ahead in which we all learn to let go more, laugh a little harder, and love a little stronger.

Fish On,

Misti

Download Your Goal Setting Worksheet Here!

 

5 Takeaways from My First Half Marathon Experience

Finish Line

On my 31st birthday, I was reflecting on my life while sitting in our motor home at a racetrack. How had this past year gone? What did I still want to accomplish? Who did I want to be? And during this time I decided: I was going to run a half marathon. Why? Because if other people could do it, so could I.

Growing up, I was NOT a runner. My sport was marching band and I played softball my freshman year of high school because I liked managing the stats. But I wanted to remove that limiting belief in my head that running was something I couldn’t do. It has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Here are 5 key takeaways with from my experience training and running my first Half Marathon

  1. Anything is Possible (and Don’t Mind the Haters): Get it in your head that you can do it. When I first signed up for the half marathon, I wasn’t sure HOW I would do it, but I kept telling myself that I COULD and that made a world of difference. When I told some people that I signed up for a half marathon, the response I received was “WHAT?!…you know you have to actually train for that, right?” While that type of feedback was hurtful, I used it as fuel to accomplish my goal.
  2. Make a Plan and Stick to It: I think most things in life are easier when you focus on one thing at a time versus the entire road in front of you. There are many running plans out there and you can take it one step at a time. When I signed up for the half marathon, it came with a free subscription to Run Coach. This program had a mobile app and I would receive daily and weekly emails that outlined my workouts. I didn’t follow them completely, but it was very helpful to have some guidance.
  3. If You Fall Off Track, Keep Going: I signed up for this half marathon on my birthday (May 19th) and had the best intentions of training all summer. But then life gets in the way. We decided to sell our house and move to my husband’s hometown. And if you’ve never moved before (with a small child!) let me tell you: it is all encompassing. We moved at the end of July and then it took about a good month to unpack and get settled. It was close to Labor Day (~7 weeks before the half marathon) when I started to get serious about training. I seriously debated dropping out, but then I told myself, “Why don’t I just see how far behind I am?” And then when I did my first long run, I was on track and that gave me the confidence to continue. It was at that time that I purchased a subscription to the Peloton app and that truly was pivotal to my success.
  4. Carve Out Time for You (and Don’t Make Excuses): Making the time to train for a half marathon takes planning and coordination. My suggestion is that you have to get creative and do what works for you. Some people like to wake up early to train, but that isn’t me. I have a four-year-old son, and I never know what time he will wake up. I would much rather workout prior to picking him up from daycare or run after dinner. I am fortunate to have a treadmill in my home office, and sometimes I would have my son watch a show while I ran next to him. He was content and I was able to check off my workout for the day. Other times, my husband would take our son to the playground or to visit family while I completed a long run. Making myself and my goal a priority was something I was not used to doing, but I am so glad I did.
  5. Make a Goal (and a Stretch Goal): I initially signed up for the half marathon because there was a walking option. When I worked at Cleveland Clinic I almost always walked during my lunch break with friends so I thought, “Well, I can surely walk 13.1 miles.” My initial goal to complete the half marathon was 2:59 – so anything under 3 hours. In my mind, completing the half marathon under 3 hours seemed like a huge accomplishment. Then I was chatting with a work friend who was training for the NYC Marathon and he said, “I think you should have a stretch goal, too.” That was so motivating to me, and something that I hadn’t even thought about. I decided that my stretch goal would be 2:45 – so shaving my time by a little over 1 minute per mile. During the half marathon, I kept checking the time on my Fitbit, and I was determined to hit my stretch goal and I did it! I completed the half marathon with a time of 2:43:12.

Running Has Changed My Life

During one of the first Peloton runs I completed, my favorite instructor Robin Arzon said “One run will change your day. Many runs will change your life.” That sounded good to me. Since my dad died 2+ years ago, I have been working through my grief and I found it difficult to find joy in exercise. Training for this half marathon gave me a goal to achieve, a reason to run, and has truly transformed me into a happier and healthier version of myself.

What is something that you want to do that you never thought you could accomplish? My bet is that you can do it. And I am rooting for you and your big dreams.

Fish On, 

Misti

Last 90 Days Challenge

My experience with the #Last90Days Challenge.

person wearing grey nike sneakers

Today, I am joining hundreds of thousands of people in the #Last90Days Challenge. And my husband is doing the challenge with me!

What is it?

October 1st marks the last 90 days of the year and the holiday season is imminent. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are some of my favorite milestones of the year and are usually marked with social gatherings, food, and drinks. And since there are so many events to attend, cookies to bake, and presents to buy, it can be SO EASY to put your fitness goals on the back burner, get off track, and to end the year in a fun but unhealthy way.

Rachel Hollis created the Last 90 Day Challenge in order to help people START their New Year on the right foot rather than on the wrong foot. She identified that the last three months of the year tend to be the most stressful of the entire year, and when we typically make the worst decisions regarding our health, and if you don’t have a plan, you’ll resort to negative behavior.

What Do I Have to Do? 

The concept of the Last 90 Day Challenge is really simple:

EVERY MONDAY morning you get an email from The Hollis Co with the week’s theme. Each theme will focus on a different topic from persistence to the power of habits. They also include all kinds of resources and FREE content that will help you with the challenge.

EVERY WEEKDAY morning at 8AM central you can join Rachel and Dave for their daily live stream on either their Instagram or Facebook page, or you can also download the Start Today Morning Show podcast. Each day’s live stream starts with a little humor and ends with a little fire. Each day they’ll be unpacking the limiting beliefs and best practices that held them up or helped push forward along their own journey. They will also add all sorts of other things into their programming so we can add the most value to you. *This is Optional*

EVERY DAY you need to do your Five to Thrive! Five to Thrive is the baseline of the Last 90 Day Challenge. While everyone taking part in the challenge is at different places and stages, everyone commits to doing these five things every day:

  1. Wake Up Earlier: Get up an hour earlier than you normally do and use the time for yourself.
    • For me, I am getting up at 6:30am to journal and write my blog.
  2. Move Your Body: Workout at least 30 minutes a day.
    • Since I am currently training for a half marathon, I am glad to have this accountability carved into my day.
  3. Hydrate: Drink half your body weight in ounces of water each day.
    • I am a naturally thirsty person, and I love to drink water. I think this will be an easy one for me to accomplish.
  4. Eliminate 1 Food: Give up one food category you know you shouldn’t be eating.
    • For me, I am giving up pop. In 2017 I gave up pop for 3 months, but when my dad died, I started drinking Diet Coke again. Honestly, I don’t even like the taste and it makes me feel disgusting. This is something I need to remove from my diet in order to live my best life.
  5. Gratitude: Write down 10 things that you are grateful for each day.
    • I have one of Hollis’s Start Today journals and I plan to write in this first thing every morning. I have been writing in a gratitude journal on and off for years and honestly, it truly helps make me a more positive person and has helped me shift my mindset to identify all the blessings in my life.

How Do I Sign Up? 

If you want to participate in the Last 90 Day Challenge as well, you can site up on The Hollis Co website here.

Join Me!

If you are doing the Last 90 Day Challenge too, I would love to hear from you! I am committed to living the best version of my life and I am excited to see what I will accomplish during the last 3 months of this decade.

Fish On,

Misti

 

My 2019 Goals Revealed

Sharing my theme, motto, and goals for the year.

silhouette of man touching woman against sunset sky

In a previous post, I talked about goal setting and even provided a free goal setting template. For those of you who used this worksheet, I hope you found it helpful!

A couple weeks ago, I put my 2019 goals to paper and wanted to share with you through a video.

 

What are your goals for the year? And remember, if you haven’t set any goal yet: it’s never too late to start!

Fish On,

Misti

2019 Goal Setting: A Free Template to Map Out Your New Year

A look back on my 2018 goals, and a New Year’s Resolutions template for you!

close up of text

At the end of every year, I make time to sit and reflect on the past year, and prioritize what I want to accomplish in the upcoming year. Maybe it’s the Type-A planner in me, but mapping out the new year is one of my favorite things to do!

Since I was about 9 years old (I’m not kidding!), I have always went through a similar process to set my goals for the new year. I know many people who want to make plans and focus on their goals, but simply don’t know where to even begin.

For those who are thinking, “Yes, this is so me!” I have included the goal setting worksheet that I use for my goal setting each year at the end of this blog post.

How do I do it?

To set my goals, I like to take a holistic approach and look at many facets of my life. For the past couple of years, I have broken out my goals into the following areas:

  • Theme for the Year: The main over-arching sentiment I want to accomplish that year.
  • Church & Faith: How do I want to grow my relationship with God?
  • Family & Friends: Ways to connect more deeply with my spouse, child, and extended family/friends.
  • Health: What can I do to be a healthier version of myself?
  • Home: Ways I can enhance my home life, typically through major house projects
  • Travel: Where do I want to travel, and who do I want to visit?
  • Work: What do I want to accomplish in my career?
  • Miscellaneous: What other goals to I have for my life?

Then What do I do?

After I think about my goals, I type them up on my worksheet. Then, I print it out and hang it up somewhere that I can see on a daily basis. I usually hang up this worksheet in my office. I think it is very important to display your goals somewhere that you can track on a regular basis. And it is always so satisfying when you are able to check one off the list!

“It is very important to display your goals somewhere that you can track on a regular basis.”

Get Your Goal Setting Worksheet

To download my goal setting worksheet template, click here. Feel free to modify in a way that meets your personal goals and needs!

Happy New Year!

I hope you find this post about goal setting to be helpful for you! No matter what your goals are for 2019, I wish you a blessed year ahead in which we all learn to let go more, laugh a little harder, and love a little stronger.

Fish On,

Misti

Download Your Goal Setting Worksheet Here!