Your Goals: Online!

Challenge 12: Goals 2.0

Everyone has goals. Whether it's things you want to get done around the house or just habits you want to break, you don't have to wait until New Years to make your resolutions, and now you don't have to do it alone! There are plenty of online communities to help you keep track of and achieve your goals!

43 Things is a website that allows users to create goal lists online. If you click on any of your goals, you can see lists of people who also have the same goal and "How I did it" stories from people who have achieved this goal. People who are currently working on a goal can post entries showing their progress (or lack thereof) and ask advice from other members if they get stuck on their goals. When you have completed a goal, users tell how long it took to complete and whether they thought it was worth completing or not. By browsing through other people's lists with the same goals, you can estimate how easy or difficult a goal will be, and decide if you really want to attempt it! To take a goal off your list, just mark it "I give up!" You can always go back to it later.

Noomii is a similar goal website, but is set up more for people who already have a friend to partner with. Called "life coaching", the site has you pair with a partner to keep you focused and to help you see solutions you might not have noticed. Noomii has you rate your life in categories such as "career", "health", "money" and "fun", and describe what life would be like if you rated each category a 10. After you decide what you are unhappy about in your life, you invite a friend through the site and get to achieving those goals!

If you are interested in money management and are comfortable check this Lifehacker post to see five personal finance websites that often include features to help you see where your money is going a budget for future goals. (So far, none of these sites work with my bank, but your mileage may vary.)

Your Challenge: Explore the goal websites above. Can you see the use for sites like these, or would you rather deal with your goals privately? Can you think of a time when you might show one of these sites to a patron?

Bonus Link:

If one of your goals is to learn Spanish, French, or German, check out Busuu. This site has the regular language learning vocabulary lessons and such, but also allows you to chat with other people in the community who are native speakers of the language you are learning! In return, someone who hopes to learn English may chat with you for practice!