10 Areas of Life to Set Goals (a traveling artist’s list)
A little while back, I created life buckets to identify which areas of life to organize. I loved the clarity I got from them. So I’m using this post to take things a few steps further.
These are my core areas of life to set goals.
I hope they can inspire you or act as a guide in your own goal scheming.
Let’s get to it.
1. Passion Projects
I believe everyone should have a passion project.
But you don’t need to attach this to some grandiose vision (like making money or receiving praise).
It’s just a great way to boost self fulfillment and connect with your purpose and passions more.
For example, my passion projects tend to be creatively-driven.
My main goals in this life area include:
Releasing music
Creating more art projects
Finishing film projects
Grow my blog and socials
Having passion projects is fun stuff and an important point of personal pride.
I also find my flow state here. Because these things make me feel most alive and purposeful.
So I definitely recommend prioritizing this life area if you haven’t yet.
Hot Tip: Try reframing your goals as projects. Working on projects can feel more tangible than chipping away at a goal.
2. Workstuff
I’m actively turning my passions into a career.
But that doesn’t mean the career basket of life disappears. I’ll always need an answer to the humdrum question “so, what do you do?”.
I suppose the goal here (for me) is to make that question not as humdrum.
Too often, work and career goals become a means to an end.
So my workstuff goals involve finding passion-driven ways to add value to the market (while yes, making money in the process).
Some of these objectives include:
Having personal autonomy
Having more income control and sources
The ability to leverage more of my personal passions and skills
So how about you, what are your goals for the career area of your life?
3. Meconomics
I hereby formally dub this term: meconomics (me + economics).
Because let’s be real, personal financial health is an important aspect of life. So this is how I like to manage things.
I define meconomics as the creation, use and application of wealth in my personal life.
So some of my core goals in this life area include:
Investing
Better money management
Creating more cash flows
Managing those inflows against outflows and spending habits
Optimizing my buying and spending habits (such as balancing needs vs. wants)
Giving back
4. Camaraderie
Social life is important. So I prioritize camaraderie.
(even the introverted side of me needs it)
Camaraderie is just friendship and the people I spend the most time with. Often, these people are sources of laughter, inspiration and happiness.
Having a core group (or a few) is essential for life balance.
It’s part of the life-work balance framework. As human people, we’re naturally social. So we can’t enjoy life completely if we’re going at it alone.
So I always strive to prioritize my social life.
Even if it’s just one day a week, cultivating relationships and strengthening existing ones is an important life goal of mine.
5. The Mind
Mindset is a core pillar of this blog. It’s had an epic impact on my creativity and self belief.
So naturally, it’s a key life area I prioritize and set goals in.
For me, the mind includes how I think and what I believe about myself and capabilities.
I prioritize this part of my life through meditation, frequent self reflection and patience practices.
It’s easy to lose focus, get stressed out or angry in modern life.
Distractions, media and comparison traps abound!
So cultivating the skill of mindset development is a grounding technique – a way to settle back into the present moment.
Some of my mindset goals include:
Growth thinking development
Challenging my limiting beliefs
Maintaining my carefree lifestyle during moments of intense stress
Sticking to my meditation routine
Practicing more mindfulness and present moment awareness
Patience
6. The Brain
The mind is not the brain. But the brain is still important (obviously).
For me, the brain is an area of life that deals with knowledge and skill acquisition.
So I like to create various mini goals for skill-building and learning new things.
Keeping my mind and expertise sharp bolsters other areas of my life (such as work things and personal projects).
A few of my brain goals right now are:
Continue to grow as a musician (music production, singing, songwriting, etc.)
Get better at storytelling
Finally start and publish some of my filmmaking project ideas
Learn digital art and illustration
7. The Body
Physical fitness is an area of life I’ve more recently been prioritizing.
(probably due to all the digital goals I’ve been pursuing…)
I love the idea of becoming the best version of myself. And a key piece of this puzzle is the health of my body.
This includes things like food and social health, but fitness is a key aspect (for me).
My current goals for my body health include:
More flexibility and agility
Become better at yoga
Learn boxing or some form of martial arts
Prioritize non-glamour muscles
8. Food
Food was my first health pursuit.
Before working on my body, my brain and my health, I focused on my food.
I’ve found my ideal subsistence lifestyle is a mixture of vegetarianism and intermittent fasting (although I’m quite flexible, especially when traveling).
I believe we’re all unique in dietary needs and preferences, lifestyle, circumstances and culture can all play a big role.
So my first goal for this area of life was to find my ideal diet.
I do believe I’ve found it. But I know it’s not perfect.
So my next goals I’m working on now include:
Eat more veggies
Add more variety
Learn to cook with more spices and creativity (such as making my own sauces)
Learn to eat slower and with more patience
9. The Fam
Family is everything.
This life area probably could’ve been at the top of the list.
Family (along with my health, friends and passions) are a key source of gratitude for me.
So my main goal for this life area is to always make time in my busy life for the people that matter.
Hitting pause for one hour, once a week, to make a Skype call for catching up is easy enough. But these things tend to be pushed aside.
And I get it – life gets busy.
But my ongoing goal is to keep this as a priority.
10. The Mystical + Magical
I love playing in the mystical.
Maybe I just can’t bear the thought that I’ll never live like Harry Potter.
But I think reality offers enough wizardry and quandary to leave me wondering.
I mean, life is a quantum illusion and consciousness is a conundrum.
This is a more recent life area addition. But I’m having a freakin’ blast with it, because I’ve always been curious about the bigger questions.
But I’m not religious. So I always felt a bit underwhelmed with the answers I was finding (in traditional classroom texts).
Eventually, I stumbled onto my answer. I found this bucket by mixing esoteric spirituality and quantum science.
I like to approach this area like an explorer – with a curious and anthropological mind.
(and sometimes with a box of popcorn)
I’m constantly surprised with what I’m finding. It’s reshaped how I see reality, myself and the universe.
Some may call this spirituality, others could deem it a consciousness awakening.
I prefer to call it mysticism (because it sounds neat, sort of like I’m doing magic…).
Here are a few mystical goals I’m currently loving:
Learn how to better leverage the power of my mind
Learn more about reality and our perception of it as a quantum illusion
Try to decipher what consciousness is
Tap deeper into my intuition skills
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