New Year and January Goals

So we all know my stance on New Year's Resolutions. I hate them.  The thing is, it's a new year, and I've got a somewhat new out look on life. Yes, I'm still me, but I can work with that. I've decided to set some goals for the year.  When people say things like "I will loose weight"; "I will eat better, sleep more, love more," they forget to plan.  Sure, I can say I will loose weight, but you have to plan. To use my favorite word, the idea is too nebulous. So this year, or month or anything, when I say I will... I'm going to make a plan to accomplish it.  At my last job, they were big on goals. My manager taught me this acronym to help me reach the goals.  It kind of stuck.  It's SMART. Literally.  Specific Manageable Attainable Relevant Timely
Specific  So your ultimate goal needs to be specific. For example, I want to go to Israel again this November. I need to save around $3,000 to go. Now, in the mean while, I have to realize this isn't going to happen over night. So I need to move to the next step.  Manageable How am I going to manage this?  So in a goal it has to be broken down into manageable chunks. Unless I have a rich uncle who dies and leaves me his fortune, I'm not going to meet this goal over night.  I know that I need to save so much every month to accomplish said goal. I went through my budget and figured everything out to save the amount each month that I need.  Attainable Now once you've gotten your goal and seen if you can manage it, you have to ask yourself can I actually attain this goal. And how will you attain it? How will you actually meet your goal?  This kind of dove tails with manageable. Don't set the bar so high you can't meet it. I could say I'm not going to spend any money on beauty products, eating out, or coffee, but then I would get so overwhelmed, I wouldn't do any of it.  However, if I set a realistic goal and leave room for other spending I'll be all right.  Relevant So, does the goal fit with your life? Does it match with long term and short term plans you've made? Israel does match with the plans I've made for this year. And since I don't want to plan too far in the future, I figure this fits in with my yearly goal.  Timely When will you accomplish your goal? If it's something like I will get published, you can say I will have submitted so many proposals by this date. I kind of have my deadline built into mine. I have to have the money saved up by November. But some goals don't have that luxury. Like getting published or loosing weight. Those you have to mark down on the calendar I will have this amount accomplished by this day.   So that being said, here are my January and New Year's goals.  Save for Israel. Create and keep a budget. I want to get to 130 by November. Submit one freelancing proposal a month--failed Continue to update the blog regularly.  Write 100 words a month. Small goals. I know, but like I said. I want them to be attainable for me. I believe in small goals.  
Happy New Year  and  As Always,