Our 2022 Goals and Resources to Help You Create Your Own

Greetings

We are so glad you found your way to our little corner of the internet. One of our goals this year is to show more appreciation and gratitude for all the many wonderful things we have in our lives and if you didn’t already know it, you are one of those things! We are so overwhelmed by the way our community has come around us this year as we have transitioned back to life in America. Every single comment, message, like, word of encouragement, purchase, and share means so, so much to us. So thank you for being here.

If you would like an overview of what the year 2021 looked like for us and the BIG goals we have for 2022, then you should watch the video below. If you’re just here to chat about goal setting and get some resources to help make your own 2022 amazing then skip on down!

Join us on social to see how we do keeping up with our goals this year!

okay, lets talk goal setting

If you watched the video above, you will know that December of 2020 both Ben and I were feeling seriously stuck. We knew something needed to change, but we had no idea what that meant. So we dove into research and we didn’t put perimeters on anything. We looked at dozens of countries, thought about languages we were interested in learning, passions that really called to us, responsibilities that needed to be considered, weather we preferred, experiences we wanted to have and so much more. This process took a few weeks and felt really exhilarating. Because there were no real parameters we were able to really consider any sort of life we wanted - it was a fascinating exercise.

What we decided was:

We were open to going back to America (in order to be closer to family) BUT we didn’t want a traditional lifestyle.
We wanted to live minimally and placed a lot of value on having free time to do things we are passionate about.
We wanted to live in the mountains, by the lake, and ocean, and sometimes in the desert, meaning our dwelling HAD TO BE MOBILE.
We wanted to build our own home.
By March we had purchased a bus. By the end of April we had closed a business, sold 3 vehicles, and downsized our 5 bedroom 2.5 bath house into 4 suitcases. And on May 2nd we arrived back in America.

Believe me when I say,

You can change your whole life in a few months

If you want to accomplish big things, you have to learn how to reverse engineer your goals. But, what is reverse engineering? It is a process of breaking down your large end goal into bite sized action steps. I’ll give a little overview and then we will run through a few examples together.

STEPS:

Get really clear on what you end goal is, and I mean super clear. Get healthy, become financially stable, and travel more are NOT clear goals, they are general desires. Give yourself some time to really think about what you want and then create S.M.A.R.T. goals.
S: Specific
M: Measurable
A: Attainable
R: Relevant
T: Time-bound
So for example, if you want to travel more then your goal may be, “During the year 2022 (time-bound) I will take two, one week long trips (specific & attainable) to Hawaii and Austin.” See how different that is? You can immediately start making plans for this. You know how much time you need to take off work. You can look up flight prices and set price alerts. You can decide what time of year will work best and ask people if they would like to join well in advance. Budgeting will be easier, because you know its coming and behave accordingly. This is a goal you can accomplish.
Now that you have a S.M.A.R.T. goal (for the year), you can break down your monthly steps.
For example, lets say that we have determined each trip will cost $1,200 and you know you are going to take them in June and December, that means that you should save $240 a month Jan-May and $200 a month June-Dec. If money is something that keeps you from traveling normally, now you know how much more you’ll need to make it happen. So start a side hustle, deliver some pizzas or jump on Fiverr. If your anxious pet keeps you cooped up at home, set up some classes with a trainer to work on it and lock in a sitter NOW. This is the time to imagine and think through what obstacles might keep you from accomplishing your goal and be proactive about mitigating them early.
Now that you have your monthly goals in place, break them down into weekly goals.
$240 a month is $60 a week. So make that money somehow, or skip a night out on the town and set aside what you would have used. Go to your pet training class and make sure to practice at home - maybe leave them alone for increasingly longer intervals of time. You’re getting so much closer to that Hawaii trip! All that’s left to do is . . .
Nail your daily habits.
Let’s turn that $60 a week into $8.50 a day, if you can save that much a day, you’ll even have a little extra for your trip! And don’t forget to do some exercises with your pet both morning and night, you don’t want to be worrying about them when you are sipping a Mai Tai on the beach in a few short months.

These examples may seem silly to some, but this process can literally be used for ANY goal you have. I have used reverse engineering techniques to start multiple businesses, relocate nearly a dozen times, learn new hundreds of new skills, travel and so much more. I think what’s most effective about it is that there’s a built in reward system and none of it seems overwhelming because you break everything down into manageable chunks.