Every year, I get so excited for January 1st. I just love a fresh start. New year, new goals, new opportunities. Goal setting is something I’ve loved since I was a kid. It gets me all jazzed up. I’ve learned over the years that I will feel flustered & anxious if I don’t have a plan in place for how I spend my time. Before setting next year’s goals, I like to reflect back on the past year.

A LOOK BACK AT 2018

2018 was a year filled with so many emotions. The birth of our last baby Clara, the feeling of completeness for our family, drawing closer together as a couple, the overwhelm of three kids under 5, the satisfaction of finally designing and installing landscaping, the most memorable summer yet and a bountiful photography year. That doesn’t even cover it all, which you can see in its’ entirety in my year in review.

At times, it felt like a train that kept going whether I was ready or not, but more often than not felt exactly where I needed to be. I embraced a slower pace with very few extracurricular activities for all of us. We were prioritizing what mattered and it was amazing.

I loved my 2018 goals so much over the past year that I adopted them as my life themes. Each year, I plan to use these with specific goals in each “bucket.” By simplifying to these five areas, I can easily say yes or no to new opportunities when they come up. If it doesn’t fit under one of these, I simply say no. It helps take the guilt out of saying no.

WHERE DO I WANT TO BE WHEN I’M 80?

The exercise that helped me uncover our family goals was thinking about where I wanted to be when I was 80. What will I look back on and wish I did more of? What will I look back on and wish I had not prioritized? For me, TV, social media, time on my phone, complaining, staying up too late are all things that I’ll care very little about when I’m 80. Funny thing is though this is often how I spend my time when the kids are asleep. It really puts into perspective what you want out of each day.

This exercise came out of the new Cultivate What Matters planner. I’ve used PowerSheets in the past and loved them. During Christmas break, I worked through the new Cultivate What Matters planner (which I can’t recommend enough!) and created goals for this year.

2019 Goals

SIMPLIFY OUR FINANCES

• Contentment Challenge from Jan-Mar
• Map out a monthly budget and stick to it
• Pay off everything but the house
• Shop in person vs online

 

LOVE MY FAMILY WELL

• Spend time daily with each kid
• Monthly date night with Ryan
• Quarterly day date with each girl
• Enjoy our summer before our first starts kindergarten
• Limiting daily distractions to focus on the people that matter most

 

CULTIVATE FRIENDSHIPS

• Play volleyball every week
• Invite friends over monthly
• Respond daily to texts/calls from family & friends
• Plan quarterly get togethers with girlfriends
• Send a friend an encouraging note each month

 

STREAMLINE MY PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS

• Evaluate what worked & what didn’t in 2018
• Create monthly & yearly session goals
• Send out monthly (maybe bi-monthly) emails
• Chunk all tasks into weekly or monthly work blocks (blog post coming on this!)
• Strategize 1-2 months in advance

 

CREATE A CALMER MIND & BE MORE PRESENT

• Spend 1 hour or less on my phone daily
• Read 1 book per month (blog post coming on this!)
• Declutter/organize all rooms & closets (blog post coming on this!)
• Keep only what brings us joy & purpose
• Finish tasks before moving onto the next one

 

MAKE MY HEALTH A PRIORITY

• Workout 3x per week
• Stretch on Sunday’s
• Focus on consuming whole folds
• Zero sugar month

 

RECORD OUR FAMILY LEGACY

• Sort all digital photos (blog post coming on this!)
• Organize photos monthly (blog post coming on this!)
• Write in the girls’ journals bi-monthly
• Create 2017 & 2018 family album (blog post coming on this!)

 

NOURISH OUR OUTDOOR SPACE

• Build a playhouse (and part shed) for the girls
• Plant a garden
• Spring, summer & fall window boxes
• Landscaping back of the house
• Plant prairie

 

Each month, I’ll be sharing my monthly goals, how they tie into my yearly goals and how last month’s goals went. I can’t wait to share January’s goals with you next week! It’s never too late to set goals for the new year :).