Student council camp had a speaker every year who talked to us about goal setting. Now, I went for six years so I just about had this talk memorized. However, it still reminded me year after year that goal setting really is important. The speaker always talked about the acronym SMART. She encouraged us to make “smart” goals.

I fully believe that these types of goals are important. I often set goals for what I want my semester GPA to be, things I want to get done each day, etc. Those are SMART goals. But I also fully believe in goals that often aren’t attainable or realistic. Kind of like a dream, but slightly more possible. This is why I love Pinterest.

Pinterest is a place to keep those goals that may not be attainable. They may not fall under all or any of the SMART categories, but they are things that make you happy to think about. My Pinterest is where I go if I need a quick ten minutes of stress relief. I have 13 boards (which is super minimal compared to intense pinners) where I keep a sort of list of things I would love to have in my life at some point.

The boards can be as simple as things I want to do to my hair someday or items I want to craft (some of which I have), all the way to crazy adventures I would love to go on and what I imagine my wedding will look like.

I also have boards that simply have inspirational, motivational, and joyful words on them. It’s sometimes nice to look at when I need some encouragement. I will often doodle these phrases out on paper or in my bullet journal. Another small stress relief trick I have.

The shot above is from my board for style. These are things I would love to see in my closet, but could live without. It helps me kind of lay out my personality in clothing. It ranges from beautiful dresses to quirky adventure shirts. These are definitely attainable, but maybe not realistic because I am a college student on a budget. I feel awesome whenever I can actually purchase something off of my board though. It’s the feeling of a goal achieved.

The next shot is from my board for my townhouse. I get my first off campus living arrangement next year, so this is where I pin what I am aiming to decorate it like. I have picked my color scheme and basic look. I pin all sorts of things that fall under them that I can combine when looking for the items over the summer. Definitely falls under a few of the SMART categories, but is more of a dream than a goal.

The last one I’m showing you is actually a secret board. This is my “Mindfulness” board. It is where I keep a lot of organizational items. All of my bullet journal and hand lettering pins are saved here, but also just things that bring me peace in a busy day. This is a great board because I have actually put these pins to paper. My bullet journal is great (I just designed a slightly new setup for April) and helps me set real goals and measure them.

It’s okay to have dreams. People are always telling students to set realistic goals. Set goals that will help you get ahead in life. Well sure, those are important. It’s also important to have a set of goals that aren’t realistic but that bring you joy to think about.