My 2021 Goals & Habits

Now that my annual review is published and I’ve had time to consider what I can do differently this year — let’s jump into my 2021 Goals.

After reading The Almanack by Naval Ravikant in late 2021, I loved this take on earned success and wanted to use this structure for goals.

These fall into 5 Categories:

1. Health (fit body)
2. Calm Mind 
3. Relationships (house of love)
4. Business
5. Fun

Succeeding with your goals is a cause-and-effect relationship. By understanding and tracking the causes (behaviors) it will drive the effect (goals).

Health

As I mentioned in my review, I really let my health take a backseat in 2020 and I’d like it to become a bigger focus in 2021. I know when I make my health a priority, I show up better in every other area of my life. This makes it the first domino to achieve my other goals.

Before I get into my goals, a quick lesson I learned I want to share with you.

Life lesson: Question & research your health & medication 

Backstory: I was born without a thyroid gland. A body part that has big important functions that I’ll let you go to Google about if you’re curious. This “factory defect” has meant that I’ve been taking a thyroid replacement pill every day for my entire life. 

I get my blood levels checked every 6 months or so, but I didn’t have a doctor in Austin that I really could count on. My levels being wonky didn’t seem to concern them too much. At one point a doctor said, “If you’re not putting on weight it is fine”.

At the time I was working consistently, so I found that answer disheartening. If I’m working out consistently yet not seeing a change, could this be because I’m fighting a battle with myself? I showed my coach Jesse at Central Athlete my blood test TSH results. Then he gave me way better advice than I’d gotten from any doctor ever. 

He told me how important it was to take the medication on an empty stomach and at the same time every day (best in the morning or evening).

This was brand new information to me, which is insane (and silly) given I had been on the medication my whole life. Before learning this, I wasn’t consistent with the time I would take it, and routinely when I took it in the morning I would follow it up with coffee right afterward.

I started doing research and realized that the coffee was reducing my body’s absorption by up to 30%. 

This meant that my body was getting much less than it needed and I was setting myself back without realizing it.

So why am I telling you this? Mainly as a demonstration of how we should question everything about our health. These small habits in our lives that we may have been doing for years (33 in my case) should be checked on to ensure they are effective. Do your research on your health — it’s the best investment of time you can make.

Now back to goals for my health in 2021…

Fit Body

Outcome goal: 23% Body Fat

Action Plan:

• Drink only 1 day per week (52X)
• 3 strength workouts per/ week (156X)
• 3 Peloton 30-min cardio sessions per week (104X)
• Close activity rings on Apple Watch (312X)
• Get InBody scan every 2 weeks to track progress (104X)
• Do 30-Hour Fast at least once per month (16X)

Calm Mind

I don’t have a specific outcome goal for this but the overall goal is to feel less reactive and more calm than I did in 2020. Hopefully, life will be less hectic, but part of this means more time away from screens, being outside and with people I like.‍

Action Plan:

• 3 days per month away from my phone & laptop (36X)
• Start a hobby that gets me away from the screen
• Woodworking
• Piano
• Making stuff by hand
• Read at least 30 minutes every day (300X)
• Write at least 1000 words per day (300X)

Social & Relationships

I want to stay intentional with the relationships in my life and make sure I am staying connected to the people I want to. That means picking up the phone to call people (yes I’m going to be that weirdo) and sending notes to people I think about more intentionally.

Action Plan:

• Get married & start planning for
• Plan special date night 2X per month with Emily
• 4 Social Events / Dinners with friends (old or new) per month (48X)
• Spend time with my family in Ireland at least 2X in 2021 (visit or travel)
• Speak with family & 3 friends each week

Business

BestSelf

“It’s not how much money you make that counts, but how much money you keep.” – Robert Kiyosaki

I mentioned a little in my article on partnership how our focus for 2018 – 2019 was growing topline revenue rather than focusing on profitability. This is no longer the case, while of course, I want to increase revenue, I’m placing a bigger focus on increasing EBITA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes & Amortization). 

This means essentially increasing the amount of money we keep at the end of the year. 

OKRs for BestSelf:

LittleMight

Now that I’m full owner of BestSelf I am going to be using my BestSelf team and resources on LittleMight.

I’ll still be the one creating the content. But I’m terrible at handling the minutiae of all the other things involved in publishing. I have so many pieces of writing and videos I never published because it’s the rest of the stuff I hate.

With my team onboard, I can focus on what I enjoy which is the writing part. This will make me 100% more likely to publish on a consistent schedule.

Outcome Goals:

• Grow YouTube to 10,000 Subscribers
• LittleMight Emails to 8,000 active subscribers
• Grow Twitter to 10,000 followers

Action Plan:

• Publish 52 videos (1 per week)
• Publish 26 articles & 26 newsletters
• Create 4 high-quality tweet threads per month

Fun

I have no specific outcome goal on this. Seems like that would take the fun out of fun.

This area also has some things that fall under the “calm mind” actions, like getting a hobby that takes me away from the screen. I’m hopeful this might be woodworking or something that has me working with my hands.

Action Plan:

• Take 2 vacations (1 week each, completely off of work)
• Take 2 weekend trips with trusted friends
• Monthly game nights
• Learn a skill or something for fun that doesn’t need to have ROI (can you even imagine )
• Play Oculus with friends/fam
• Take a writing class or challenge 

I may set myself some challenges this year to get me outside my comfort zone. I will keep you updated on this through my newsletter (make sure you’re signed up if you want to know more or join me).

If you want to see my system for staying on track with these goals, I’ll be sharing a video next week on it (templates included).

Those are my goals!

Enjoyed this or have questions? Find me on Twitter @cathrynlavery