Episode 8: 202More Goals: Setting Your Sights Higher in the New Year

Embark on a transformative journey with me, Jus Mellie, as I unveil a unique and effective mantra for personal achievement: 'elevate and illuminate.' This episode is your invitation to break the mold of traditional yearly resolutions by adopting a fresh, quarterly approach to goals in finance, career, health, and personal development. Reflect with me on the importance of self-knowledge—Myers-Briggs style—as we pinpoint the areas in your life ready for a level-up or a spotlight. Plus, I'll underline the non-negotiable cornerstone of all goal-setting: your health. Trust me, starting with that annual physical can dramatically fuel your ambitions for the year ahead.

In our second chapter, we'll navigate the practicalities of setting SMART goals and I'll walk you through reverse budgeting—a game-changing strategy to take charge of your finances. We'll talk about leveraging feedback at work, polishing that resume, and even consider side hustles as a means to not just dream big, but earn big. Throughout, I'll be weaving in inspiring stories and actionable tips to keep you motivated and on-track. Remember to join the conversation and share your victories using #elevateandilluminate2024, because this journey is not just about personal milestones—it's about a community lifting each other up into our collective light.

Transcript

Goal Setting for Achieving Personal Growth

Speaker 1 0:00

Welcome to Perfectly Chaotic with Just Melly, the show that brings you the chaos of being an adult, but the calm of it being perfectly okay. If you're a woman, man, hell, a human, you're in the right place. Just can't wait to share the tips and tricks she's acquired over the course of two decades of learning, adulting, parenting, traveling and working in corporate America. Stick around to learn how to turn something chaotic into something beautiful.

Speaker 2 0:35

Welcome and happy new year. Happy 2020 more, as I am calling it. This episode of Perfectly Chaotic is going to talk about goal setting, you know, visions, how you're going to map out your 2024 year and how you're going to actually complete those goals. So we're going to go over what I like to call elevate and illuminate. So welcome back, you know I've taken a break from, you know, doing the podcast for a little bit. The end of the year is my favorite time of year, so I sort of kind of just relax and think about what I want to do for the year. I have my birthday celebration and look at the past year and what I've accomplished and I have a lot to be grateful for. So we're going to take this episode and we're going to turn aspirations into reality. We're going to dive into the transformative concept of elevate and illuminate and how quarterly goal setting can revolutionize your life. For me. I started quarterly goal setting a few years back and it definitely changed how I viewed goals versus having these large, lofty goals. Breaking it down by specific areas and specific quarters has allowed me to actually complete these goals.

Speaker 2 2:05

I like to start today's episode off with a quote, and the author of the quote is unknown, but it's cherished yesterday, dream tomorrow and live like crazy today. So it's all about, you know, living in today's moment but also dreaming about tomorrow. That's what we're going to focus on. So first, let's unpack, elevate and illuminate. We want to have a understanding of what that means. So elevate and illuminate really means it's about lifting yourself to new heights and shining a light on your potential. A lot of you know YouTubers or content creators will say you know, glowing up but at my stage of life is not a glow up, it's essentially illuminating what I have accomplished and elevating it for the next chapters of my life. I don't know if you've recently seen on social media you know, someone either folding paper in half or having these really long pieces of thin paper and showing, like, where you are in life. So if you're in your 40s, you know they're ripping off half of the paper and showing how much life you technically have left, based off of science and research and life expectancy, and obviously that's half of what was there previously. So it makes you wonder from a visual perspective, you know, what am I going to do with this time that I have left? So that's one of the ways that we're talking about shining the light on your potential.

Speaker 2 3:46

So about these concepts and how we're going to apply them, you know it goes in a variety of area. It's about boosting your career and enhancing personal relationships or personal self growth. So some of the things that you look at when you're breaking it down by quarters I have it broken down by finance, career, health and personal and professional development as well and I take those goals and I make sure that they're quarterly packed and then that way I can ensure that I'm actually meeting those. So each quarter I have a focus on what it is that I want to accomplish and I'm focusing specifically on that thing that I want to accomplish. So take a second and ask yourself to reflect on the areas in your life that you feel you need elevation or illumination. That could be, you know, possibly a your career, as I was talking to a class that I was teaching recently.

Speaker 2 4:52

Sometimes we find ourselves feeling stuck in our career, and I know that I feel stuck at the time where I'm at a job and, you know, for months at a time, I'm not feeling any type of pleasure or happiness when going to work. You know there's weeks that we know we have a ton of work to do and it's going to be a little bit more difficult, but that's something that's project based. We also have times where we think about you know whether or not that's based off of where we're working or us, and determining what work needs to be done for that. So that's career. How do you get out of that Well one? You determine whether it's the company or if it's the actual career. So you have to ask yourself do I feel valued where I'm working or do I still continue to like my career?

Speaker 2 5:44

If you are working a job because that was a job that was offered and, like most of us, you have bills to pay and you're looking at, you know, getting a job and making sure that you can support your family, then I think one of the other things that's really great is determining whether or not your career is right for you. So having the or taking the Myers-Briggs is is something that you could possibly do, and taking the Myers-Briggs it'll tell you, based off of your personality, what career you're doing well in. For me, from the beginning, it was always, you know, human resources. So I'm glad that you know I've been able to utilize and do something that works with my personality but also something that I enjoy doing. The other aspect, you know, is even financial.

Speaker 2 6:28

So, depending on what quarter you're doing it in, you can do career first. Well, I always recommend that you do health first. Health is really important and if you're not in a healthy space or if you don't feel really great and you feel like you don't have energy, etc. Then definitely focus on that health portion first. And that means, like some of the examples of that would be getting your annual physical from your doctor, so getting full blood work done. Determining you know how well you're doing or if there are any ailments that are upcoming you know. Making sure you're doing your vision appointments, your dental appointments. A lot of people don't realize how closely you know having issues with any type of you know, gum disease or anything else like that can trigger concerns with rest of your body or your heart.

Speaker 2 7:22

The second part is determining whether you wanna do career or finance slash budgets first. So if you know for a fact that financially you want to grow, then maybe looking at your career and how you can get an increase, it might be changing opportunities. You know, if you stay with your employer for a while, you're looking at a 2% to maybe a 5% increase year over year, versus if you go work somewhere else, you can get between a 10% to a 20% increase, you know, just by changing employers. So looking at that, and then also, maybe you had to take up a side hustle or you might have to, you know, do a work, a second job or something along those lines. So depending on where you are and what your goals are, you determine whether the second quarter is career or finance and you can switch it. So that's a little bit on how you are going to have the art of setting your quarterly goal. So think about you know what your long-term goal and essentially you know you're gonna think about how you're going to reflect on those areas in your lives that you need elevation or illumination. So one of the arts of quarterly goal setting is essentially looking at how you're mapping it out.

Speaker 2 8:51

I think a lot of times when we set resolutions or we set goals for ourselves, we have an issue with it because they seem very lofty and very long. So it's like, how am I gonna accomplish this in this amount of time? And I've been able to actually, you know, buy the first quarter, complete my goals because they're health related. So it's a lot easier For that to be done when you have a health-related goal. You can check off that you've gone and you've had your Full physical. You can check off that you've had your you know Mammogram or your colonoscopy. You've gone to the dentist. You've gone, has your eyes checked, that you've done any follow-up work that they've suggested. You have a whole three months to get that completed.

Speaker 2 9:45

But why quarterly goals? They're long enough to make significant progress, but short enough to keep you focused and motivated. You can also include in that, you know, creating a new health routine for yourself. So, whether that's waking up and creating, you know, small little Tasks for yourself. So ensuring that, you know, let's say, that skin care and taking care of your skin is one of your goals. So making sure that you're completing your morning and evening, your morning and evening routine on a daily basis, let's say that Exercising and implementing that into your daily schedule is a goal. Well, you can start yourself off with, you know, a five minute exercise or a ten minute exercise.

Speaker 2 10:33

I strongly, strongly, strongly recommend the YouTube channel grow with Joe. This allows someone to, if you are not active at all, to take baby steps in becoming more active. So her videos start at ten minutes. They're fun. She has different types of videos with playlists, like you know, missy or boy band or bad bunny, even afro beats, whatever your preference is. But she starts off small and then she builds up, you know, depending on what you want. So one, maybe the first two weeks. You're doing five minutes, then you step up and you're doing ten minutes, then you go to fifteen. That allows you to Create that goal so that maybe by the end of the quarter you're at thirty minutes of exercise. You know, five days a week. So creating these you know short-term goals definitely allows it to be more manageable, especially when you're creating the test.

Speaker 2 11:35

So I'm going to challenge you to write down one smart goal for the next quarter and Remember. The smart goal for you is really going to be based off of, you know, very Specific goals, something that's measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. So, for example, you're not going to put down that you know I'm going to go to the doctor. You're going to be very specific about it. I'm going to go to my primary care provider. So that is obviously your specific measurable. You know annually. So that's you know you're measurable something that's achievable I mean, obviously this goal isn't a huge one was relevant, you know for the betterment of my health. You know by the end of, by the end of February. So there you have a smart goal. So I'm going to challenge you to come up with your own smart goal so that you can hold yourself accountable for that. So it could be in either of the areas or what, whatever areas you have specific for you. That would be great.

Speaker 2 12:48

So the next thing is about navigating obstacles. So we are Addressing any challenges that we possibly can. So common obstacles for people are procrastination. How you overcome procrastination is depending on who you are as a person. So for me, I have ADHD. Right.

Speaker 2 13:15

I think as an individual, you have to know what your prime times of day are. Mine is 5 am To about 1 pm. That's my prime time. I get my most work done, I'm energetic, I'm focused. Right, figure out what your prime time is so you know the hardest task that you need to tackle or is during that time. So mapping that out, because that removes the procrastination. And then the other thing is Thinking about the strategies that you've used before. I Know that if I don't exercise first thing in the morning, that I'm not gonna do it later on. So I know that for a fact. I have to exercise first thing in the morning. So think about how you are set up mentally, the time of day that works best for you, and think about how you can truly Strategize your time to prevent procrastination and how you overcome any of these obstacles.

Speaker 2 14:15

So the other thing is empathy and encouragement. I think that we never allow ourselves enough grace. A lot of the things that we want to change in our lives did not happen overnight. It happened over time of making decisions to either not do something or to Put it to the side and focus on something else. But that took time. That took consistent days of not doing it or avoiding it for whatever reason. What we need to do is understand and give ourselves grace that one. Some things aren't gonna change quickly, but that consistency is what allows change.

Speaker 2 14:57

I'm a firm believer in that what we do day in and day out sets us up for success in our future. So allow yourself grace. Allow yourself to not feel like a failure if you don't exercise. You know that one day pick it up on the next day. You know you could have had a bad day and you weren't feeling great about it. Now do I encourage you to exercise? Definitely. I have never regretted when I didn't feel like exercising, exercising, but I did regret not exercising.

Speaker 2 15:28

So you have to think about that and then also think about you know the type of chemicals that it creates in your body, the level of energy that you have after and just the level of happiness that you have. So Setting ourselves up with empathy and encouragement and Think about people that are going to encourage you. If you don't have people in your circle that are consistently encouraging you to complete your goals, then Strangers is great, you know. Go to affirmation Videos on YouTube. Watch motivational videos on YouTube. You don't have to have people in your circle that are motivating you. Find that motivation within yourself. We'll talk about how we're addressing those people within our circle at another time, but just note that it's really important for you to have, you know, empathy and encouragement around you in order for you to have and be able to complete your goals. So next let's talk about goal setting together. So we're gonna practice A goal-setting exercise.

Speaker 2 16:37

So think about one area you want to improve this quarter. Which one is it? Is it the area of health? Or have you not been feeling great, you know, over the past few months, six months, a year, maybe more, and you've been afraid to address it? Definitely, take this quarter to focus on your health and go to your primary care doctor. If he referred you to a specialist, go to that specialist, but ensure that you get that done. Make it a goal right.

Speaker 2 17:07

Maybe it's your career, maybe you feel stuck at your job. Maybe you haven't been promoted. Maybe you haven't received a promotion. Maybe you feel like you don't have the skill set, that you need to do something else or to be promoted at your job. What is it that you're going to do to change that? Are you gonna have a conversation about your annual review and how you can increase? You know your performance evaluation. You know ask for feedback. If you feel like you're doing great at your job but you're not getting the recognition, then Make sure that you get your resume reviewed. Make sure that you know you're talking to someone. You know have an HR friend or someone. Review your resume. Make sure that, if you Don't know what you want to do, that you are going to take.

Speaker 2 17:56

The Myers-Briggs or the 16 personalities test is free and this is that same thing and it lets you know what career you would do well and make sure that you're doing that so you can see if you're in line with your thought process and maybe you're not in the career that you would do well and that could be something that's draining you too. If it's finances, it's finally doing that budget. Making sure that, if you're not, if you are not making it and struggling from paycheck to paycheck, do a reverse budget, and what a reverse budget is is get all your bills together, everything that you pay every month. One thing that I tell people that I encourage them to use is rocket money and rocket money. I've been using it for a few years and what it does is puts all of your spending habits into different categories and you can put the accounts that you have on there and it at the end of every month, it gets everything together for you and tells you everything that you've paid out, what you've gotten in and what you've paid out. That being said, look at everything that you spent on a regular month.

Speaker 2 19:04

So let's say that you started in January. It'll, at the end of January, even the transactions that you had prior to signing up for it. It'll get them all together and, at the end of January, get the total for you. You'll take that total, then you'll divide it by four and then you're going to divide that four by 40. That's going to tell you how much money you have to make per hour to be able just to sustain the lifestyle that you have right now.

Speaker 2 19:37

So let's say that amount is, you know, $26 an hour. That means that to live the way that you're living right now, you need to make at least $26,000 an hour. If you are making less than that hourly, then that means that you need another source of income. So you need another job, a side hustle, something along those lines. If you are at that and you're okay with that, then that's great. But most people are not. They want a little bit of cushion. Maybe they're not saving, maybe they're just paying all their bills, maybe going out to eat a little bit and they aren't saving, they're not taking vacation, none of that. So that means that you also can get another job or a side hustle just to give yourself some cushion in the event of an emergency.

Speaker 2 20:24

So let's say, you know you're at $25 an hour and you go and you get a second job right, and once again they could be an online customer service job. It can be a variety of things. The average job right now is especially if you're doing online is between, let's say, $13,000 and, let's say, $18,000 an hour, and these are just rough math figuring. So now you have $25,000 an hour. That's paying for everything that you have currently, and then now you're putting yourself in a position to have an additional, let's say, $13 an hour. Let's say you work part time, so 20 hours a week. Now you're giving yourself a cushion to also create an emergency fund, and you know a fund for you to do things like either pay off your debt, so that you're not feeling such a hard crunch, or a fund for you to maybe go on vacation, or you know what they call a sinking fund of things that you plan to do that you can start saving for. So, once again, that reverse budgeting helps as well.

Speaker 2 21:28

So if that's your goal for you know, like we went over health, career, finance you have a variety of ways to discuss all of these goals within yourself and then also ways to make those smart goals. So, to conclude our episode today one, it's really important to create these quarterly goals and not to overwhelm yourself with the goals. Two, it's important to look at the areas of your life that you want to elevate and illuminate, and it's going to make you feel a sense of pride and happiness, because happiness is your responsibility, not anyone else's. And then I also want to encourage you to share your goals on social media and hashtag them elevate and illuminate 2024. So I can see them and, you know, encourage you along the way, if you don't have anybody else to encourage you, hashtag those goals so I can see them Elevate and illuminate 2024. And I'll be happy to cheer you on. I will be your biggest cheerleader, because it's very important is how I got my goals accomplished, is how I'll continue to get my goals accomplished and just know that someone is rooting for you.

Speaker 2 22:48

So join me next time as I go into more detail about you know inspiring stories and practical tips to transform your life. As always, you know be perfect. At times it's definitely chaotic, but when it comes together, it comes together. So I'll leave you with a quote. We are each gifted in a unique and important way. It is our privilege and our adventure to discover our own special light. Have a great one.