My Goals for 2021

I found that categorising my goals into categories last year (finances/wealth, health/fitness etc), helped to keep me focused on those areas throughout the year. I have found that having approximately 3 goals per area was managable and allowed me to keep on track and on top of everything. I’ll be continuing with that theme in 2021, but I also want to have a bit more focus on a smaller number of areas and more specific things.

In late 2020, I started thinking about goals and what I want to achieve by the end of 2021. It’s a whole new year filled with opportunities and areas to grow.

Below, I’ve written out some of my initial goals for 2021. I may add or remove some as time goes on, but I am really excited about these areas and keen to see how much I can accomplish.

Finances/Wealth

Grow Self Wealth Portfolio to $100,000
My overall plan is to retire at 40 years old. Using some rough calculations using this calculator, I will need approximately $750,000 invested by that time (14 years). Going from my starting amount (~$70,000), I will need to reach a portfolio value of $100,000 by the end of 2021 to keep on track. Given my portfolio grew by $30,860 in 2020, I’m confident that I will be able to reach this (with a lot of effort). This means I’ll need to invest roughly $2,500 per month — not impossible but it will sure be a challenge!

However, some of my portfolio includes my house deposit savings (~$16,000), which I may be taking out at the end of 2021, which will largely reduce my total value. I’ll need to work extra hard on earning extra income and/or spending less.

Grow Net Worth to $200,000
While this number isn’t really important, I love tracking it and I get more motivated to grow it as it gets higher and higher. My net worth is currently sitting around $94,500, and in 2020, my net worth grew by $68,800! I was really amazed at how much it grew in just one year. Therefore, if I can manage another minimum growth of $70,000, I should be able to reach $180,000. Ideally I’d love to hit $200,000, but my minimum goal will be $180,000 by the end of 2021.

Spend a Maximum of $30,000
In 2021, I would like to simulate early retirement spending. My plan when I retire is to spend about $30,000-$40,000 per year but of course this wouldn’t include rent (as my house would be already paid off). While that is the ideal situation for the future, in 2021 I would like to aim for a maximum of $30,000 spending, including rent (which last year was ~$11,000). It will be a challenge, but I will be able to spend $2,500 per month, but taking away rent, I can still spend $1,600 per month — which is actually a huge amount! My average spending per month in 2020 was $3,600, so I’ve got a lot of work to do.

Grow House Deposit to $40,000
When buying a house in the future, I would like to have a 20% deposit. My current house deposit is sitting at around $16,500. There is quite some growth required for this, but I’m confident that I will reach it by the end of 2021 or when required.

Health/Fitness

Increase Strength Across the Major Powerlifting Movements, reassessed every 3 months:
I have included an overhead press in the list of movements rather than the traditional 3. Current one rep maxes for each movement, and goals below:

• Squat (reach 110kg — currently at 95kg)
• Bench Press (reach 95kg — currently at 82.5kg)
• Deadlift (reach 160kg — currently at 140kg)
• Overhead Press (reach 70kg — currently at 57.5kg)

These are pretty significant increases considering I’ve been training for years now, however, I’ve never focused on strength before, so I think my goal weights are doable within a year. I may end up reaching them and then increasing them throughout, but I’m keen to see if I can reach those numbers.

Increase Lean Muscle Mass
In 2021, my focus is mainly on building strength. I would also like to increase my lean muscle mass throughout the year. I will be measuring my lean muscle mass using my new withings body+ scales at home. I don’t currently have access to them at the moment, so I will update this when I get home. I will be tracking the gross lean muscle mass in kg, rather than lean muscle mass %.

Nathan Challenges Life

Grow YouTube Channel to 1,000 Subscribers and Reach 4,000 Watch Hours (monetisation criteria)
After starting in 2020, I currently have 265 subscribers and 394 watch hours. Still a long way to go, but I’m happy with how I’ve been able to grow this from scratch and figuring it out as I go. I’ve improved a lot over the past year, and my video quality has vastly improved.

Publish 100 Videos on my YouTube Channel
I currently have 58 videos published on my YouTube channel. By the end of 2021, I want to have at least 100 videos. My videos are primarily on 30-day challenges, but I have been exploring YouTube Shorts more recently, and I would like to try some different ideas out.

Write 50 Blog Posts
In 2021, I would like to start writing blog posts for my website on anything to do with goals, personal finance, health and fitness, 30-day challenges, and anything else related to personal development and growth. Recently, I’ve discovered a website called Medium — I’ll be using that and my website to publish blog posts/articles. I would like to write at least 1 blog post per week. These blogs will include my articles about 30-day challenges.

Personal Development

Create my own Personal Training Business and Gain 5 Regular Clients
Now that I am a qualified personal trainer (PT), in 2021 I would like to set up a mobile PT business for clients around my suburbs. This will require a name and website registration, social media profiles, advertising, and most importantly gaining clients and successfuly training them. I’ve set the goal of getting 5 regular clients. At this stage, any more than 5 clients would probably require hiring another PT — I may get to that, but my main goal is to get it established and running.

Read 30 Books
Every year, I set a reading goal, and over the past 4 years, I’ve increased this number by 5 books each time. Last year I read 25, I will be aiming to read 30 over 2021. I am interested in exploring speed reading further — which will most likely help to get through a few books (especially the ones I’ve been meaning to read). This will include audiobooks.

Experiences (new category, may add extras):

I have been thinking about the things I want to do and try. So for 2021, I’m going to keep a list of things to do throughout the year to make sure I get them done. See below for my current list of things. I will be adding extra items to this lists as the year goes on, but I’m liking how it looks at the start:

• Test drive a Tesla
• Get my motorbike licence
• Attenda jiu jitsu class
• Organise a cycle-touring holiday/trip
• Attend a CrossFit class
• Break a guinness world record

So those are my goals for 2021. I’m incredibly excited to see how I progress each month.

If you need any help writing and setting goals, I’m more than happy to help out!

Nathan