2013 is fast approaching and I need to start thinking about my goals for the new year. I did really well on this past year’s goals, so this year I think I’m going to push it a little bit farther.

I don’t do new years resolutions, I’ve never had much success with them in the past. Generally, they entail some kind of aspiration that never comes to fruition, and they quickly fall by the wayside in the face of freezing cold January.

Instead, I set goals. I’m a big fan of setting goals, since mine typically involve some kind of achievement that I need to work towards for many months. I try my hardest to follow the SMART principle when setting goals: SMART goals are goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. So, when going through my goal setting, I try and make sure that the goal in question follows all of those criteria. Here are a few that I’ve come up with, that I think cover all areas of my life:

Pay Off My Student Loans

Last year I set the goal of paying off $7,500 in debt principle. I blew that goal out of the water in a few months, so I’m stretching my debt repayment goal a lot further this year. In the new year I’ll have a little under $12,000 owing on my student loans, and I plan on eliminating that before the end of 2013.

Get Married Without Incurring Major Debt

I’m getting married this summer and I’m super excited about it. It’s going to be a family affair and shouldn’t be incredibly expensive. I plan on getting married without incurring any debt, but, that said, if there’s something I really want, and I need to put it on my line of credit for a month or two, I’m not going to fuss about it too much. The point is to get married without getting into a ton of debt.

Run 500km

Last year my goal was to run 350km.With my 10k training in the spring, I completed that goal with relative ease. This year, with my half marathon training, running 500km should be doable. Hopefully without injury!

Earn $4,000 in Side Hustle Income

This year I earned $2,500 in side hustle income. I plan on doing a post about that later, but this year I want to stretch that and make even more. I’m planning mostly on making this money through the blog and staff writing, but I’ll also be selling some of our stuff through websites like musicmagpie.com.

Earn a Raise

With all of these goals going on, it would be easy to forget about my job, but since that’s my main source of income, I’d better not forget about it! This year I want to be kick ass enough at my job that I earn a raise. Whether that means acquiring new skills, putting extra time in, taking on new projects, I don’t care, I want to be awesome at my full time job, so making it a goal will keep me on task.

I’m also hesitant to give myself an overall income target like some people do, because money isn’t all that important in the grand scheme of things, and I don’t want to bust my ass to hit an arbitrary target. So, “earn a raise” is a better goal for me.

I want to take a moment to point out that each of these goals is going to require a stretch in effort for me. They’re also specific in that there will be a specific date in the year where I can point to that goal and say “achieved!”. To me, having a measurable goal like that is better than having a goal like “exercise four times a week” because some weeks that’ll be true, but other weeks it won’t, so how will I know if I’ve achieved it or not? That’s what SMART goals are to me, something that’ll be hard, but that I can point to and say “achieved.”

So that’s five goals to achieve in 12 months. That’s two more than 2012 but I seemed to do pretty well with them in 2012 so hopefully adding two more will be just what I need.

Those are my goals with 2013, what’re yours? I want to know!