Each new year, I like to take some time to start the year with intention. There are many ways to do this from setting a word of the year, to setting foci or even SMART goals. I personally like to set goals to help me focus on making incremental changes throughout this upcoming year.

Below are my goals for 2023 and part of the reasoning behind each of them. I hope by writing about my goals, it will inspire you to set goals or intentions of your own for the year!

5 goals I want to reach by the end of 2023:

1) Grow our Online STEM Community –

It has been a wonderful journey growing alongside you all since 2019! The online STEM community is awesome and I hope to plan more collaborations with you all throughout 2023! As you need 1,000 followers on TikTok to go live, I am setting this a sub goal here so that I would be able to go live with you all and answer any questions you may have about being an early career civil engineer and a woman in STEM. As an additional sub-goal for this, I want to book at least 5 speaking engagements which will also help me to work on my public speaking skills! I have already completed one earlier this month as a speaker at ASCE’s Eastern Multiregional Leadership Conference.

2) Focus on Wedding Planning –

While 2022 was the year of the PE Exam for me, 2023 will be focused primarily on wedding planning. My partner and I got engaged in 2020 and we jointly made the decision we wanted to wait to have our wedding. Now that the vaccines had been rolled out and that he is done residency, we have started the planning process and welcome any advice you have about wedding planning.

3) Post Monthly blog posts and Sustainable Swap Social Media Posts

I have loved sharing with you all what I have learned along my journey and excited to continue this! I have a few ideas already for both of these topics, but I would love to hear from you if there is any topic you would like me to cover.

I have posted several blogs on my PE Exam experience and will continue to do so when I receive questions from you all! I even posted a few personal finance topics which I am happy to continue if folks find these interesting. Plus these ‘bookend’ posts of goals in January and a recap in December since 2019 have been also like a short diary in terms of being able to see my personal growth throughout the years.

4) Complete a Life Audit –

Throughout 2023, I would like to continue to organize and automate my wherever possible. In addition, I want to continue to build myself a better financial foundation by maxing out my retirement investments ($22,500 for 401k and $6,500 for Roth IRA in 2023). I did max them out in 2022 and hope to continue this each year! While I have already reached my goal of having 100k in investments, I want to continue this momentum so that I am prepared for retirement. Also as part of this life audit, I want to cut down on the stuff we no longer use or need. To prevent future clutter, I will also be implementing the ‘one-touch rule’. This means if I pick something up, I need to put it where it belongs (rather than what I often do is just move it out of the way which really just doesn’t help to declutter). This will also incorporate my value of learning to live a more sustainable life as when I decide that I no longer need something, I will need to learn how to properly recycle, dispose, or another outcome for each item. I am also working on setting a personal fitness goal to find an activity that I like to move my body more but am still figuring out I want to keep track of this.

5) Visit 5 New States –

I have the long-term goal is to visit all 50 states by 50, so 5 states this year is a good short-term goal. I have a few new state trips already planned for 2023 and my partner and I hope to plan a road trip to the Northeast US in either July or August 2023.


What are your goals or intentions for 2023? I would love to read them in the comments below!