You are constantly growing and changing throughout your life which is why it’s so important to push yourself out of your comfort zone and develop healthy and achievable personal growth goals.
Why Is Setting Personal Growth Goals Important?
Imagine you’re on a cross country road trip, do you have a map or are you driving without directions? Most of us use a map. Life is the same way, if you want to reach a certain destination you will need a map to guide you. Setting goals is that map.
Without a clear path and direction in life, you won’t know where you are going and you will end up somewhere random, and possibly somewhere you didn’t want to be. Setting personal growth goals gives your life direction and purpose! It’s easy to get lost in the day-to-day of life, but having clear goals allows you to focus your energy on what truly matters to you.
Personal growth goals also keep you accountable. You will have a clear image in mind of what you need to be doing. Setting goals doesn’t have to be boring or hard though. If you set achievable and fun goals you will be much more likely to stay on track and fulfill them.
That being said, here are 19 attainable personal growth goals you can set that will provide amazing long term benefits to your life!
This post is all about how to attain your personal growth goals.
19 Attainable Personal Growth Goals
1. Start Practicing Daily Gratitude
Expressing gratitude is one of the quickest ways to reframe your mindset and start truly appreciating your life. Pick up a journal and try writing down 10 things you are grateful for in your life. They don’t need to be big, grandiose things either. In fact, the more micro you go, the better!
2. Try 30 Days Of Self Reflection Journaling
Self-reflection is incredibly important when you are working on self improvement. Journaling can be extremely beneficial in learning about yourself, and keeping yourself on track. You can start by using journal prompts, or you can just write whatever comes to you. There is no wrong way to start journaling.
3. Read 1 New Book A Month
Reading is a great way to increase your vocabulary, strengthen your brain and increase your ability to comprehend information. You don’t just need to read nonfiction to get these benefits either. Pick up a fiction novel and commit to reading a few pages every day. And if you discover reading is absolutely not for you, try giving audiobooks a go.
4. Create And Stick To A Budget
Being financially literate is one of the most important skills you can ever learn. Start by looking through your spending to understand exactly where your money is going every month. Figure out how to cut out the non essentials and find a budget plan you can stick to each month.
5. Train For A 5K
Having an exercise goal you work towards can push you harder than just going to the gym for a leisurely workout. Training towards an achievable goal will give you a tangible thing you can work towards. By having a set goal you will be able to easily see your progress which will keep you motivated. 5K is an arbitrary number, pick something that works for you and will push you just enough while still being realistic.
6. Figure Out Your Ideal Productivity Routine
Figuring out how you work best will exponentially aid in your productivity. By understanding how you work best, you can work faster and have more free time for yourself at the end of the day. Try out some different techniques like time blocking, the Pomodoro technique, or the eat the frog technique.
7. Practice Self Compassion
More often than not we are out own worst critics. Life is already stressful enough without you putting extra pressure on yourself. Instead of being hard on yourself try practicing self compassion. Speak to yourself the same way you would speak to someone you love. Be kind and patient and you will begin to rebuild love and trust within yourself. This is a personal growth goal we all truly need to have!
8. Commit To Stepping Out Of Your Comfort Zone Once A Month
Growth happens outside of your comfort zone. Try adding one new thing that scares you every month in order to push yourself to live an exciting life you are proud of! Join a workout class, ask for a raise, cook with an ingredient that intimidates you, go skydiving, the world is your oyster!
9. Develop A Self Care Routine
Taking the time to care for yourself is extremely important for your personal growth journey. In our busy world, we often think about everyone else before ourselves, but you have to remember to ‘put your oxygen mask on first before helping others’. Try to carve out some time every week to do something you enjoy for yourself whether it be a bath, a facial, or just some quiet time reading a good book.
10. Learn To Say No
If you are a recovering people pleaser like me you might find it difficult to say no to people even when you are overwhelmed. This can especially be an issue at work. Learning to say no sounds simple enough, but can honestly be a huge challenge when you’re not used to it. Start small, practice saying no to people you are comfortable around. It will be easier the more you do it, especially when you realize that more often than not most people are pretty respectful of others’ boundaries.
11. Try Out A New Hobby
Hobbies are a great pastime and can be tons of fun. Try out a few different things to see if anything sticks. There’s no shame if you try something and decide it’s not for you, but you never know when you’re going to fall in love with an activity you wouldn’t think you’d like to begin with. Plus you never know, maybe you can turn it into a side hustle one day if that’s something you’re interested in!
12. Break A Bad Habit
Bad habits, we all have them. A misconception about habits is that you can just break them, when in fact a habit cant be broken, it needs to be replaced with something new. James Clear’s book Atomic Habits is by far one of the best books on the subject. Habits make up our whole lives so understanding habits early on should be a personal growth goal at the top of literally everyones list!
13. Take A Course
Right now it is easier than ever before to learn new skills and take online courses. You can learn literally anything online, and it would be a shame not to take advantage of that opportunity. Start a course on cooking, sewing, investing, starting your own blog, or literally anything else! If you don’t want to commit to buying a course, start on Youtube. You can find information about anything on YouTube and the best part is, it’s absolutely free.
14. Try To Reach 10K Steps A Day
This is quite a challenge, and there might be days that you don’t succeed. But having a goal to get as close to 10k steps a day as you can is enough to get you up and moving more than you typically would. Walking is such a fun pastime as well. Listen to an audiobook, or spend time with your own thoughts, either way walking is so beneficial and an easy addition to make for huge mental and physical health benefits.
15. Go Through Your Social Media Follower List
The information you consume on a daily basis creates your thoughts and forms who you are as a person. That is why it’s so important to go through your social media once in a while and clear out all of the people, channels, subscriptions, followers, etc that you no longer want in your life. When working on your personal development journey make sure to surround yourself with people and information that will move you towards your goals.
16. Wake Up 30 Minutes Earlier
Try setting your alarm a few minutes early (at least a few times a week, it doesn’t need to be every day). This will give you time to yourself in the morning before the busyness of the day takes over. Use this time to make a healthy breakfast, have some quiet time to meditate or read, or squeeze in a quick workout. Either way, it’s a great way to start out your day on the right foot and make you feel productive right off the bat.
Understanding the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset can really set you apart in a good way. Learning about what a growth mindset is and working on reframing your mindset in a more positive way will have lifelong benefits. The second you learn about it and start applying it to your life, you will not be able to go back (and thats a good thing)!
18. Learn A Healthy Method For Balancing Stress
Stress is horrible for not only your mental health, your physical health also gets affected by increased stress levels. If you experience stress often you should absolutely set a personal goal for yourself to learn an effective way of managing it. Read up on different techniques of stress management and try them out. There is no one size fits all when it comes to stress management so it might take you a while to figure out what truly works for you. Also don’t be afraid to seek professional help if you feel like you need it!
19. Put Limits On Social Media
Social media is becoming increasingly addicting, so now more than ever it’s important to take a look at how and how often you use it. There are a number of ways to limit your social media use. You can set limits on your iPhone, or delete apps altogether if necessary. A great middle ground is an app called ‘One Sec’ which allows you to take a pause before opening an app, or set up alternative apps. Try cutting back on social media and you might just be shocked how much more free time you have in your day!
