The countdown begins as everyone is ready to jump into not only the new year but into the new decade. It has been a tradition for many  of all ages to set personal goals for their upcoming year. Rather it’s changing a diet or picking up a new hobby. Many follow through with it and some tend to drop it part-way through the year. 

Setting goals for yourself is a great way to start the beginning of a new year. Not only do you have a mindset goal, but you push yourself to complete that goal.

 “ My goal for 2020 is to be more mindful of others and help when needed,” said Kortney Atherton (11).

“A goal I have set for myself is to learn to paint in hopes [that] it will distract my mind from other distractions or help calm me,” said McKenna Peck (10).

Many set goals to help them break a bad habit that has consumed them, such as electronics. By putting your mind into jogging, painting, or even reading it will help take it away from those distractions and throughout the year, you can see how setting this goal helped improve your mental or physical health. 

“My goal for last year was to save more money to buy everyone nice Christmas gifts at the end of the year,” Kourtney Atherton (11)  said.

“ When Christmas time came around, I wasn’t scrounging for money,” said Atherton.  “And I was able to buy everyone nice gifts for the holiday and it made me feel really good that I completed that goal.”

In the beginning of the year when you set a goal, it can be difficult to keep up it. However, if you stick through that goal and reflect back over the year of how that goal helped you improve as an individual. 

“My goal for 2019 was to read more.  I kept up with it until March, then I slowly forgot,” said Peck.  “When I reflected over my year, I was disappointed in myself that I didn’t follow through with that goal, but this year is going to change.”

Many people tend to let go of their goal halfway through the year because everyone gets caught up in different activities. Therefore when you reflect over your year, you tend to get discouraged and disappointed in yourself cause you know you could have completed it. 

However there is still hope! 2020 means clear vision. I encourage you to have a clear vision of what you would like to see yourself improve in this upcoming year and hopefully be able to reflect on it at the end.