Setting Goals For 2022
The year 2021 is coming to an end. Like many people, I like to reflect back at the past year to appreciate what I have achieved both professionally and personally. I usually look back at the goals I set the year before to see how far I’ve gotten. This year has been challenging in many ways, so it came as a surprise to see that I had reached many of my goals.
This year I took things to the next level when I joined my first goal-setting workshop organized by Jonathan Weaver. Jonathan is an amazing entrepreneur and friend that I look up to in many ways, so I was very excited to dive into the process. Before the workshop, Jonathan asked us to write down our five-year goals as well as short-term goals which would help us reach our five-year goals. We were a group of six who met up and shared our achievements and new goals. It was a great experience as everyone was comfortable enough to be vulnerable in front of each other and open up about their learnings, successes and failures. It created a great dialog about how we can better accomplish our goals and hold each other accountable.
Delivering my Keynote in Oslo, Norway. photo by Ard Jongsma
I believe setting goals is one of the most powerful tools to gain clarity about what you want, how to get there and to keep motivation high. Sometimes our daily routine can keep us in a vice grip; we forget to slow down and be mindful if what we are doing now is contributing to our long-term goals, or if what we are working towards is still our dream. I have learned that if we do not take time to pause every once in a while to reflect, we can discover too late that we have lost passion for what we are doing and that we might need to follow a different path.
Until I was twenty years old, I had one goal to become a professional horse rider, and it was not until I had a serious car accident that I stopped and checked in with myself to see if this was still my dream. It wasn’t. Even though it was very hard to admit to myself that what I had worked so hard for my whole youth wasn’t my dream anymore, I eventually found the courage to leave it behind and forge a new path, with new goals and dreams.
Challenging myself in bigger surf was one of my 2021 goals. Photo by Vincent Kardasik
Setting goals can also help you realize that all your hard work has paid off and that you are exactly where you want to be. Two of my biggest goals this year was to spend more time with family and deliver a keynote talk. With Covid making traveling more difficult I managed/prioritized visiting family in Denmark four times this year and I had a visit in Portugal. I also gave my first big Keynote talk, a goal I've been working dedicated towards since the beginning of the year - I wrote it on my fridge, I spent hours practicing every week, I worked with a coach, I connected with other speakers and much more. Last month I reached my goal when I gave my keynote at EHiN in Oslo, a great feeling and motivation for next year's goals, which involves a lot more talks.
Family time. My mum, dad, brother, niece and nephew.
I encourage you to grab a pen and paper and reflect a bit over the past year and write down your goals for 2022. Look at them every once in a while to check in with yourself, share it with a friend and keep each other accountable.
I hope this article can help motivate you to find out what makes you happy, set goals and follow your dreams. I would love to hear from you - let me know how you reflect upon the past year and whether you set goals for the new year? I will definitely keep up my new goal setting routine in the future.
