There’s something about that week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve that makes me pause to reflect on the past year and dream about the year ahead. This year was no different but my time of reflecting didn’t last long. It’s weird to say this, but 2018 didn’t bring any super special memories that I’m holding on to – there were no crazy curve-balls thrown (which I’m thanking my lucky stars for) and no huge moments that stand out. Sure, we had fun things that we did along the way – like the hubs and I taking a week-long trip to California, sans Ivy, but the trip was more a chance for us to relax and recharge. Ivy grew a lot in the past year. The milestones that toddlers hit between one and two are crazy – walking, talking (oh the talking!) and their little personalities growing bigger and better every day. Other than that, 2018 was just somewhat of a blur and I fully understand what people mean when they say “the days are long but the years are short” when you have young kids.
My end of the year reflection did bring up some thoughts on what I want to tackle in 2019. I need to have something liven up the year a bit so when I do my 2019 reflection I can say “hey, that was a great year with a ton of great things that happened”. I’m feeling that I’m losing a little of myself and need to find things that make my heart happy, outside of my daughter. ‘What were things I enjoyed doing before I had Ivy’ was a big question I asked myself and that’s where I started to focus when setting my goals.
This year, like many years before, I’ve got quite the list of goals I want to accomplish over the next 365 days (even less now that I’m writing this days into January). I like to break my goals up into categories when planning them – this year’s categories include: self-care, relationships, fitness/health, money and activities. I find that it’s easier to come up with and track goals when they’re split into areas that are important to me. It’ll also help in December of 2019 to figure out which areas I struggled in more than others (e.g. do I easily give up on my health and fitness goals but I did great with money and relationships?).
The self-care category is a big area of focus for me this year. During my reflection time, I’ve come to realize I’ve let a lot of my interests and hobbies go to the wayside since having Ivy more than 2 years ago. And while I totally love the time I spend with Ivy, my “mom” hat can’t be the only one I wear all year long. So 2019 is [hopefully] going to be the year I try on my old hats again. Some of the goals that fall within my self-care category:
- blogging more
- I’m committing myself to posting more regularly on Growing Haines and growing this little blog of mine
- crafting & designing/creating more
- A few months ago I purchased a Cricut machine and have had some major fun creating various projects, including an awesome Christmas gift for my mom, aunt and uncle that I’ll share in a different post. I’ve also had a love for graphic design and an obsession with paper so I’d really love to design some things and open an Etsy shop at some point, too. To help myself with this goal, I signed up for CreativeLive and Skillshare so that I can take some online courses/workshops and educate myself on some of the design things I don’t know
- reading more
- This is a goal that I have on my list every year. I’m committing to reading at minimum 10 books this year – it’s less than 1 book a month so I think that’s totally feasible. I recently started following Reese Witherspoon’s book club (Hello Sunshine for those of you who didn’t know she had a book club, like me) and am really interested in some of the books they read in 2018 and I’m sure the 2019 books will look just as great
- taking more photos and improving my photography skills
- I took two photography classes in 2018 to learn how to use my DSLR camera [that I’ve had for years] on manual mode. I really want to take some awesome pics that I can display/decorate the house with and maybe kick off my own 30-day challenge
- growing my faith
- I’ve set a goal to attend church at least 1-2x a month. I’d love to say I’ll go every Sunday, but sometimes life gets in the way. I went last weekend and I just felt soo great after. The message series they kicked off is one that felt like they’d been listening in my head and spoke right to me. I’m excited to hear what’s in store for the coming weeks.
My relationships category is pretty short and sweet: I need to get out more with the people I care about. I aiming for at least 1 date day/night a month with the mister and at least 1 day/night with my girlfriends. I’ve found that as I get older I’m becoming more introverted and prefer to comforts of home to going out. While that’s fine sometimes, I’ve come to realize I still need to get out of the house and enjoy some adult-time to better my marriage and my friendships.
Fitness and health – the obligatory/cliche goals almost everyone puts on their list in the new year [it’s true – have you ever stepped foot in a gym in January? It’s mayhem!]. Unfortunately, as cliche as it is, I have the “I’m want to lose X pounds” on my list. I’m hoping to achieve my goal weight by hitting a certain number of steps each day, working out at least 3x a week and drinking wayyyy more water than I currently do.
Money’s my last category and because I’m naturally a saver [usually to a fault], I’m actually creating a goal that might seem strange to some: I need to buy at least one thing for myself every month. For the past few years I’ve struggled with this. It started when my husband and I first got married and he was opening his business. I started watching what I spend because there was uncertainty with how long it would take for him to bring home a paycheck; but even with a steady paycheck not long after opening the doors, I struggled to spend money on myself. Later, once we got pregnant with Ivy, there were so many unknowns with how much a baby was going to cost [and moving into a new house] that I just continued my habit of saving rather than spending. This year I’m changing that – I figure I need to enjoy my earnings and treat myself every once in a while.
So there you have it – my goals for the coming year. It was a lengthy post, so I applaud you if you made it this far. I’m very excited for this coming year and am really looking forward to holding myself accountable. I’m hoping to do quarterly check-ins to see where I’m at and what I need to change/do differently to ensure 2019 is one I can look back on and be proud of.
Tell me, do you set goals at the start of the year? Do you find you usually accomplish them? What do you do to hold yourself accountable?