A new year can be exciting and overwhelming. I always want to accomplish many things, but find that I wind up putting too much on my plate. This year I sat and created goals for different areas of my life, but one thing I also wanted to focus on is slowing down. I don’t want to get so consumed with the busyness of life that I miss out on the blessings that I already have.
I’m not saying don’t create goals or aim high, but ensure that whatever you choose to focus on doesn’t take you away from the important things in life.
My 2016 Goals
Spiritual:
Continue early AM devotionals-I currently follow She Reads Truth and Good Morning Girls. This is the first thing I do in the morning regardless of what’s on my to-do.
Pray with my husband-I feel it’s important that as a couple we pray together over our marriage, our children and our home. We’ve done this in the past, but have fallen off track when life gets in the way.
Family bible study-Again, this is something we did together with the kids and they loved it. Somewhere along the way we stopped and we’re picking it back up again.
Marriage:
Date night out once per month-We did this the last couple of months and it has been incredible. I can’t believe we failed to do this for our marriage for so many years. One date night per year was not cutting it and I’m glad we figured it out.
Date night in once per week-This is also something we agreed to do for our marriage. We schedule a date night at home and watch a movie or TV show together.
Motherhood:
One on one time with each child-Even it it’s a simple movie night or a trip to the library, I want to make sure that each of my kids gets individual attention.
Two outings per month for homeschool-We found a few local family venues that reserve specific days for homeschooling families, so we’ll be checking those out starting this month.
Home:
Finish the master bedroom-We need to paint and put up wall decor to finish the space. This is scheduled to be completed this month (yay!).
Meal Plan-I fell of the meal planning bandwagon last year and it costs us a LOT of money. I decided to try once a month meal planning and grocery shopping. So far it’s going great, but it’s still too early to know if it was worth it.
Finances:
Pay off debt-Our goal is to pay off some old medical bills and miscellaneous balances we still have to take care off. I’m super excited to get it all paid off!
Weekly financial meetings-A bit aggressive, but since we have some big financial goals this year I feel it’s necessary to stay on track.
Save for a new to us car-I explained the details in my last post here.
Business:
Create videos-I’ve said this before, but I truly need to buckle down on this. I know video is a great way to connect with you all, so I need to stop over thinking it and just do it.
Quality over quantity-I want to focus on quality content instead of posting just for the sake of it. I know there’s a lot of information on the web and I don’t want to add to the noise.
What are your 2016 goals? I know my list seems long, but truly this is much simpler than previous years. This year I want to slow down and be there for my family, so many of these goals are meant to free up my time or geared towards making our home life simpler.
My biggest goal is to have a baby (in March) and transition to life as a Mom of 2! 🙂 We’re also hoping to rebuild our savings accounts after them for budgeted expenses. And I’m hoping to continue growing my blog and income this year, as well. Big plans always, but by focusing on personal, financial and professional (ie blog), I found it much easier to plan this year so I don’t get overwhelmed. Good luck to you with your goals in this new year!
I would absolutely watch if you (or, let’s say when you 😉 ) do videos! I watch a lot of YouTube (or at least pay attention to while doing other things!) and would love to see what kind of content you would create! Videos is something that I have been trying to do for the past year and I’ve done…erm, maybe five, ha. My worries about the videos not being good enough have certainly held me back. But it’s all worry in my head, that doesn’t really mean anything to anyone who would be interested in me rambling on about whatever, ha! You can’t force people to view or read or whatever-they-do with your content, you just have to put it out there and share it and hope for the best with what you have (and, in your case, your content is ace!).
I do like, though, that you *appear* to have a lot of goals, but they all fit in well with your desire to slow down and enjoy – more family time and more reflection time, versus being going-going-going. It can be easy to mix those two up in the hopes for something better, but it’s much easier when everything is in alignment with your overall wants and needs!
Aww, thanks Jessica! you’re not alone on the “is my video good enough” department. I also hate editing videos since it takes me forever to do so. My husband started his own YouTube channel recently, so he’s pretty good at editing videos which made me rethink things. I just want to share house stuff, how we homeschool, maybe some recipes etc. Hopefully nothing that will bore everyone to death…lol Thanks so much for your support, it truly means a lot! 🙂