Monthly goals are a fantastic tool in your goal-setting arsenal.
They are short enough to inspire action.
Yet, they are long enough to achieve meaningful results and many other benefits.
We will cover many monthly goal ideas and examples to trigger you to set some for yourself. And you will also learn how to set monthly goals that inspire you to take action.
So let’s dive in!
Powerful ways of using monthly goals
Short-term goals have many benefits. But what makes monthly goals unique and powerful is that you can use them in a variety of ways:
- Explore what you like: committing to change scares most people — but doing a 30-day challenge to try something new? That feels more exciting. Try out a new hobby, start a course, or develop a skill for 30 days and after that period, decide whether you want to continue or not.
- Kick-start a new habit: changing habits may feel scary too. And just like exploring new stuff, you can use a 30-day challenge to kick-start a new routine.
- Support bigger goals: break up your quarterly goals into smaller monthly pieces. Doing so reduces procrastination and increases your chance of success.
With these ideas in mind, let’s check out some monthly goal ideas.
Monthly goal examples
Below you will find many monthly goal ideas to inspire you and set some of your own. Feel free to copy them but don’t forget to make them more specific and relevant to you.
Personal development goals
- Read a non-fiction book
- Start a journaling practice
- Discover your strengths
- Invest in yourself
- Find your purpose
- Explore a new passion
- Try something you have never done before
- Overcome your biggest fear
- Practice active listening
- Learn something new
- Meet a new person
- Learn to play an instrument
Focus and productivity goals
- Create a morning routine checklist
- Get 8 hours of sleep every day
- Try out the Pomodoro technique
- Prepare your days the night before
- Experiment with a productivity journal
- Make a plan before you get into every meeting
- Clean your workspace
Career and business goals
- Proactively pick up a new project
- Go to a networking event
- Start a side-hustle
- Test a business idea
- Build a personal website
- Practice public speaking
- Improve your work-life balance
- Become a mentor to someone
- Learn a high-income skill
- Write a book
Health and fitness goals
- Start an exercise routine
- Eat vegetarian for a month
- Cook some new healthy recipes
- Start a meditation practice
- Stretch every day
- Perfect your form
Financial goals
- Learn to invest
- Donate to a charity
- Live below your means
- Save 5% of your income
- Start an emergency fund
- Set up a budget and live by it
Fun goals
- Take a massage
- Spend a day in nature
- Learn to play chess
- Learn a new language
- Take a spontaneous trip
- Learn about cryptocurrencies
How to set empowering monthly goals?
You can set monthly goals for different purposes like we already discussed. And the main idea of monthly goals is that they motivate you into action.
You will learn exactly how to do that in this goal-setting guide.
But there are a couple of essential elements to highlight for setting great monthly goals:
- Specific: specific goals increase the likelihood of you taking action. There is a big difference between a goal like “I will walk more” and “I will walk 1 mile every morning straight after waking up”.
- Relevant: goals inspire action if they are meaningful to you.
- Realistic goals: monthly goals should be practical. If not, it will cause internal resistance, increasing the chance of procrastination.
- Process goals: short-term goals should mainly focus on action, not outcomes.
In addition, writing down your goals increases your chance of achieving them by 44%. Do you want a more structured approach to help you plan your monthly goals?
Then take a look at the best goal organizers.
Follow these steps and you will set inspiring monthly goals that will turn you into an action-taking machine.
Closing thoughts
There are many benefits of goal-setting. But what makes monthly goals stand out from the rest is their usage to:
- Explore new skills and interests
- Break up your bigger goals
- Kick-start new habits
Once you set monthly goals, you can break them even further into weekly goals.
If you want a handy tool to help you through the process, make sure to check out my Goals on Track review. It’s the best personal goal-setting tools on the market.
Do you want to learn about goal-setting and achievement strategies that challenge the status quo? Then view the best books about setting and achieving your goals.
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