BellaOnline Forums Beauty and Self Life Coaching What are your Five Year Goals?

Reminder - the next step once you have your five year goals sorted out is to start thinking shorter term - what should you work on in the next year, to reach those long term goals!

BellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!

My five year goals are:-

To be earning 500-1000 dollars online per month on top of my full time work salary and saving this money for my retirement (I'm 45 now so need to be thinking about that one). I also want to be saving into an ISA regularly.

To have my apartment sorted out - at the moment there are still boxes everywhere from when I moved out last winter to have damp works done. I have so much sorting out to do that it could easily take 5 years! The garden also needs regular maintenance and has been sadly neglected.

To lose weight so that I am within my BMI, maintaining this weight loss and able to walk regularly.

To have my e-books back online with matching content, and to write further e-books and maybe a textbook on Mozart.

To write up all the tatting patterns I haven't yet shared and post them on The Tatter's Paradise web site.

To learn to speak French and Italian to a reasonable standard.

Those are all awesome long term goals Gillian! They seem quite doable too!

I took a look back at my goals and I am making progress! I do seem to have a publisher interested in one of my novels!

Oh congratulations Lisa on the possible publisher! And congratulations on reaching No. 7 at Amazon reviewers too.

Thanks Gillian, we'll see how it works out. I am worried that they are a medium sized publisher and won't really market the book at all, but I'll cross that hurdle when I get to it.

The Amazon thing is a mixed bag - I really don't like their new ranking system. I think it's very unfair even though I am at #7 on the new one and #39 on the old system. I am much more proud of the #39 that I worked hard for. The new system has me leap from #9 to #7 with no work at all which doesn't seem right.

Sounds like every one is moving along with their goals. I've found that self-publishing (and this column) and all of my social networking and free-lancing etc has been very satisfying. Those were my last long term goals. At some point I'd like to make some new ones that have nothing to do with writing as that has been my focus for the last 15 years or so.

It definitely is good to have goals in different areas so that you can stretch all your horizons! I like to write, but I am also trying to draw even though I'm not very good at it. I figure the only way I can get better is to at least try What other areas would you like to create new goals in?

I'm actually thinking about doing more with social networking. I'm joining social networks like water these days LOL--a new Ning every other day. LOL.

And I'm learning about RSS feeds etc. I find it all very interesting. But I should probably keep it as a fun hobby....but one that is productive and that I'm serious about.

OK I'm going to reset my goals for 2009! Make sure you've worked on your priorities before then taking on the five year goal part!

* BellaOnline Growth
Yes definitely, this is still a long term goal for me. I want this site to grow so all editors can grow, learn and benefit.

* Wedding & Courtships book
I still have not finished the Native Americans books. The problem is I adore Native American cultures and want to keep researching it. I don't want it to "end". I have to just stick a fork in it and call it done.

* Romance Novels
I have eight of them pretty much done at this point and have all of them out looking for homes. Now to see if a publisher bites.

* Son in College
He is now halfway through his sophomore year and doing well. So far, so good!

* House Cleanliness
I have been making huge efforts to get rid of stuff, to organize remaining stuff. It's still messy but it is getting there. I will keep at it.

* Travel
We were very low key in 2008. I want to slowly ramp up in 2008 to travel occasionally.

* Artistic Stuff
I am very pleased that I've been playing piano, playing the guitar, drawing, and doing my sword class. I want to do yoga more. That will get worked into my routine. I have been journaling daily which I enjoy a lot!

* Weight 125
I hover around 130 which really isn't bad at all. I need to exercise more to get down to 125. At this point it's not really about eating, it's about being active. I am really bad about being active because I work all day long. I will again focus on scheduling in even short activities. Short action is better than zero action.

What are your long term goals?

Hi Lisa:

I see that some of your one year goals are subsets of your five year goals. I just read about that technique in Manage Your Life with Outlook for Dummies by Greg Harvey. I'm still learning! LOL

My long range goals are

1)Learning a Second Language. I didn't pay any attention during my Spanish classes (like five years of it!!!) in college and high school. This time I think I might learn Italian.

2)Continuing raising and pouring lots of time and attention into my two children who are 8 and 10 years old.

3)Figuring out what to do regarding my masters degree. Either working on getting it OR continuing on my journalist's path were the undergraduate degree is okay. One way or the other I'd like to put this issue to bed as I've been thinking about it for about 15 years.

I have other goals that will be achieved via the natural consequences of actions ie if I write for 4 hours a day (goal for 2009) I'm GOING to produce the short stories I want to send out this year and the romance novels I want to complete in 2009.

Also I want to learn more about web 2.0 which I will as I join and participate in more social networking groups and do more reading, etc.

Good Luck in 2009 everyone!!!