Goals with Intention (GWI) – 2020

Making new year resolutions is clichéd. It’s known that 12th Jan is the fateful day[mfn]Reference[/mfn] when the majority of people drop on their new year resolutions and fall back into the normal (for them).

So last few years I’ve made a new year resolution list and some of them worked where I had the intention but some of them didn’t, they dropped out in the first half of the Jan month itself.

So this year, I didn’t make new year resolutions, because now I understand that this whole method is flawed. You’ll work only on those things where you actually have a real interest.

This year I’m working on Goals with intention (GWI)[mfn]Forbes Reference[/mfn]

Let me explain a little bit. Goals alone don’t work. Resolutions and Goals are similar, they fail, if your intention is flawed. You need to consciously define your intentions what do you really love to do and want to achieve. So if we put Intentions with Goals. Then they seem to work.

For example, If you are putting waking up at 5 am every day as your new year resolution but your work time doesn’t let you sleep till 10. Then the goal is flawed. You should think – why you want to wake up at that time? Maybe, to exercise? or to get some quiet time? Then you should probably not put this into the goal list and fail. Instead, you can just modify your current calendar to shift your exercise time in the middle of the day (at work maybe)? Your quiet time can be moved to right before your nighttime routine.

An example of a goal with intention is where you need to make a new window of time for something new entirely. Like Swimming or painting or journaling or writing and list goes on. However, the most important thing is to know what you really really love. You can discover but doing a little discovery on paper. Introspect yourself. Then to followup on your intention put it into a weekly review. Share your progress on a blog or maybe to a friend or a close group (maybe other people who also are working on similar lines). This way you actually can track what’s going on.

So for me, the formula is –

Goals with Intentions = Start with Intention + Set precise Goal + Measure + Improvise

Coming back to my list. Even though I’m improvising my system of resolution goal tracking in 2020. But first, let’s start with what I did with resolutions in 2019.

Report on resolutions of 2019:

1. Learn to Swim – I failed on this one (didn’t even start).
2. Write a book – I failed on this one too (didn’t even start).
3. Mixing running with cycling – I failed miserably on both the fronts, my intentions were missing on both these activities. I could argue with myself that I didn’t get enough time due to work. But that’s just a bad excuse to not keeping me healthy.
   1. Run – Only 50 runs covering 225.4 km
   2. Ride – Only 16 rides covering 193.8 km
4. Meditate every day – I improved on this one, I meditated more than 200 days in the entire year of 2019. I’m happy with the progress and continuing the trend in 2020.
5. Read 1 book every 45 days – I did better and read 12 books this year. That was due to one change in my habit. Instead of reading I switched to Listening to Audiobooks. So my commutes became my book consumption time. So It automatically made me read 12 books. 1 month.
6. Blog and podcast every week – I did fair in this area 1 Saturday-Pentacle every week but 1 podcast every month instead of 1 per week. Otherwise, I didn’t publish much of blogs last year except for a few long pieces. Including this one[mfn]Link to my article.[/mfn] on mental health.
7. Discover 50 vegan cafes this year – This was a failure as well, I just visited a couple of vegan eateries in Jan-Feb 2019. But I faced some issues while being vegan like vitamin B12 and D3 deficiency. So I stopped being a vegan in Apr 2019. But that’s not a full stop for me, it seems like a pause so that I can plan better and come back to veganism with more sustenance.
8. Do at least 5 creative collaborations – This was a success (as I put a lot of energy in creating podcasts in 2019). So I was able to collaborate with more than 15 people. I’m gonna continue this trend in 2020 as well.
9. Visit one place outside of my country – This was a failure. I found myself travelling with chances instead of intention. I need to work on this one.
10. Be amongst the circle of people I look up to and adore. This was not a super success but yes with all the collaborations that I did in 2020. I was able to surround myself with people I look up to. I also read a book[mfn]Law of success[/mfn] this year and the idea of Mastermind struck me from there. So I started spending more time with people whom I resonated with and had a similar creative path. I intend to continue with this in 2020.

So that’s the report of last year’s resolutions. Now coming to the Goals with Intention (GWI) for 2020.

Here are my Goals (with Intention) for this year – 2020:

1. Produce 52 YouTube videos – I want to create more videos this year, but this year I have a definite plan – 52 videos. I want to create Vlogs, Travelogues, How-Tos this year. But I’m gonna put them in my weekly Saturday Pentacle newsletters so that I’m tracking the progress each week.
2. Produce 24 Podcast episodes – I want to create 2 podcasts every month, so last year I created around 13 podcasts. So this year I’m going to double down on that because I have a good workflow now and can achieve it with proper tracking. But with interview series podcast, the guests’ schedule also comes to play, so sometimes it becomes very difficult for production but I feel if 3-4 advance episodes are always there, one can achieve 2 podcast episodes a month easily. So that’s what I’m aiming for. I’m going to put that as well in Saturday Pentacle’s so that I have a track of my progress.
3. 2 long travels – every 6 months I want to do one long travel (7-10 days). So that’s going to be one of my priorities this year. I have a couple of great travel spots in mind. I’ll share the journey in my vlogs, so subscribe into my YouTube channel.
4. Earing 20% of my yearly income from creative productions – I want to start monetizing the podcast and the writing. (and probably YouTube but not many expectations as I’m fairly new in videos).
5. Not breaking the “Being on Time” regime – I want to be on time for most of the meetings for work, family or friends. So last year I did improve on my time management but this year I want to be more consistent and on time wherever I commit for the time. That mean I can’t say YES to everything, so I’m starting to say NO to things too. If it’s not a HELL YES! It’s going to be a NO.
6. 5 hours of physical activity every week – Last year I skipped on the exercise routine pretty much. This year I’m going to track it properly and try to be consistent. Run, Cycle or Gym anything goes, but I need to put 5 hours a week that means 5 days a week I need to exercise.
7. Learn 6 new skills in this new year – Bi-Monthly I will be putting effort to learn a new skill (a language, colouring, a different genre of writing, swimming, trail running, learn fusion and colour grading for my videos – these are not definite but at least some rough plan). I’m probably gonna share it in my vlog or Saturday-Pentacle.
8. No junk/processed food at least 25 days a month – I’m not gonna gulp Burgers, Pizzas or processed foods at least 25 days a month. I’m gonna allow 5 cheat days a month when I can have such things. But freshly made things with whole foods and veggies including south Indian delicacies like Idli, Dosa, Appam etc goes for routine snacks. Usual Indian meals also go. But no processed food.
9. 24 books in 2020 – I’m gonna listen to 2 books each month and overall 24 books in the year of 2020. I’ll be tracking and sharing my progress on Saturday-Pentacle.
10. Include mindfulness and gratefulness practice at least 5 days a week – I’m going to improve on my mindfulness and gratefulness practice this year by being consistent in mindfulness practice and adding gratefulness moments in everyday life. At least 5 days a week is the goal. So it’s going to be an everyday practice. I’m gonna track it in my journal and share monthly stats in my Saturday-Pentacle.

So these are the personal goals this year where I’m including intention, measurement and improvision to make them a reality.

That’s about it for my Goals with Intention for 2020.

Until next time!

Thanks for reading.

– Himanshu

What are your goals? Please comment on this post or reply to me directly and let me know. I will love to hear from you.