Although I already published my financial and blogging goals this month, I wanted to create a more personal list of goals centred around improving my health and happiness.

Frankly, health is more important than financial or blogging goals. What good are those without good health?

I also believe that goal-setting helps with holding yourself accountable, especially when you’re posting your goals publicly. It certainly helped with my financial goals for 2018.

As such, I created this list to hopefully improve my health and happiness. I targeted 5 main categories that I believe are crucial to achieving my h&h themed focus.

Gym: Work out 3 times per week.

I have this theory that your body needs a lifestyle and diet that is similar to what you grew up on. And I was a very active kid. In the same way that I obsess over this blog now, I obsessed over BMX biking and basketball as a kid. Then when I was about 17, I became obsessed with physical fitness and weight lifting. This went on until I was about 24, but I haven’t been consistent with it since. I mean, I was fairly consistent with exercise during my year off, and I even got into playing basketball again. It was in 2016 during the last competitive season of the NBA.

Anyways, I think my body has absolutely no choice but to exercise because of how active I was growing up. It’s as if I have a built in threshold that only allows me to reach a certain level of disgust with myself. Once that point is reached, I just don’t ever feel that well. Just like I have no choice but to be creative, I have no choice but to exercise. 

Diet: Build better habits.

I’ve been lucky to get away with a poor diet for a long, long time. However, it’s starting to catch up.

I can’t get away with eating whatever I want anymore. The same goes for trying to skip a meal. This happens to be a challenging problem, because I have a very hard time force-feeding myself breakfast in the morning.

Nevertheless, my goal is to build better habits. I want to start doing larger grocery shops instead of going too often, and I want to start planning better for lunches. In addition, I want to improve the quality of my diet. I am aiming to cut back on salt, sugar and processed meat. On the other hand, I want to add more vegetables, salad and nuts. And I need to eat less potatoe chips, chocolate chip cookies, and brownies. At the very least I need to choose dark chocolate over milk chocolate.

Professional: Focus on Happiness, not what anyone else thinks.

I alluded to the perfect career option for creative people in a recent post, so this is something that has been on my mind lately. 

In short, I prefer a job where I can help people while still maintaining a good work-life balance. I need free time to work on this blog because that’s what makes me happy. Why else would I have the urge to keep pumping out content for over 3 years now?

I realize that I need to start making decisions for myself and no-one else. I can’t worry about what anyone else thinks I should be doing.

Most importantly, the dividend income stream must continue moving forward. The goal is to earn at least $670 in dividend income in 2019. 

Move: Is this the year I elude the city?

I’ve been living in Toronto over 7 years now, but I’ve always known that I wouldn’t want to be here forever.

I’ve grown to enjoy being in the city, though. It’s great that I can walk or take transit everywhere. There’s also higher paying jobs, and there’s always something to do.

However, I’m not even taking advantage of living here anymore. I’m much more of a homebody. I need a less busy environment and a larger living space. Plus Toronto is too expensive. I’d also like to be able to have barbecues lol.

I am not 100% committed to this goal yet. I honestly thought I’d live in Toronto another 3-to-5 years for career reasons. But I’m beginning to think I could make moving work this year. 

Effort: Work harder at everything.

I’ve noticed a bad tendency of mine to take my foot off the gas once I get ahead of schedule. This is a flaw I am cognizant of and want to correct. 

In turn, my goal is to put more effort into everything I do. Absolutely everything.

The first two goals on this list are preparation for effort. I believe that the extra effort will come naturally if I eat healthier and exercise more.

Health and Happiness Final Thoughts

In addition to the 5 categories above, I am planning to read more this year. I need to add to the list of investment and money management books I’ve read.

The only reason I didn’t include it above is because I didn’t want to set a specific number of books. In truth, I’m a slow reader and I need to read more to improve at it. My vocabulary is subpar at best lol. But I also consume content in other forms like almost no-one you know. I basically live with YouTube in my ear. I find that I absorb information by listening easier for some things. Plus it’s faster.

In summary, I focussed on 5 categories to improve my health and happiness in 2019. I’ll be better off If I’m able to come even close to accomplishing the 3 posts worth of goals I’ve set for the year.