My Goals for 2018

Happy Saturday, friends. :)

January is almost over and all month I've been thinking that I'd like to hop on here and share my goals for this year. I'm not sure if it will be fun for anyone else to read them, haha, but it helps me to write them out again and really make sure they're still sticking a month after setting them.

In past years, I've shared my name for the year or my monthly goals on this blog. It feels good to be back! In December, I used Christmas money to purchase a really great tool called Powersheets (I'll link to them here). Powersheets are an intentional goal planner. It's less of a calendar and more of a process that helps you really think about your life and what matters most to you. From there, it helps you break down those big life goals into tiny daily, weekly, and monthly goals.

I heard a quote once that said, "How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives" (Annie Dilliard). It really is the little stuff in each day that adds up to make our lives. It has also helped me to think about what will matter to me at the end of my life... what will I want to look back on?

By the way, this isn't sponsored by Powersheets or anything like that, I just love this tool and think goal setting is fun! :)

So without further ado, here are my 2018 goals. :) They are really general but below each goal, I've shared a couple of the practical measurable things I'll do throughout the year to make those goals happen.

1. Cultivate my relationship with my husband and best friend, Luke. 
1. How? 
1. Through monthly date nights 
2. Being generous with my words
3. Encouraging Luke to take set aside time for himself each week
4. By praying for him (and us) 
5. Celebrating 6 years of marriage in November!
2. Cultivate my relationship with my girls through presence and parenting led by love, not fear.
1. How?
1. By using the Moment App to spend less time on my phone and more time face to face with them. 
2. Through daily prayer for them
3. Spending quality time with them individually and together
4. By celebrating birthdays!! :) The introvert/nervous nellie in me tends to avoid birthday parties but I want to be led by love not fear in this area.
5. By creating a special place in our house to learn and create together 
3. Cultivate deep, strong roots in my faith and a deeper love for the Church 
1. How? 
1. Using my Write the Word Journal for prayer and Bible reading
2. Joining a women's bible study and staying connected/committed to it
3. Memorizing scripture with my girls
4. Cultivate our peace filled home, to be a place of rest and joy.
1. How? 
1. Inviting people into our home
2. Weekly home improvements - really small, free, or super cheap! :)
3. Regular declutter of spaces, drawers, closets, etc.
4. Daily 15-minute cleaning sprees where I set the timer for 15 minutes and see what I can get done (This works so well in our house!)
5. Cultivate a healthy mind and body.
1. How? 
1. Holy Yoga 5x a week (I love this so much more than I could have guessed!)
2. Starting the day with water
3. Learning to be a good listener to my body
4. Starting the week with a planning time with Luke (then filling in calendar)
5. Scheduling regular haircuts, doctor appointments, dentist appointments, etc.
6. Cultivate a vision for our finances, to be generous and faithful!
1. How?
1. Sitting down weekly to review bills, budget, and tithing (on my own)
2. 1-2x a month check in with Luke on our finances (I handle most finance stuff because I really enjoy it! I just want to make sure we're on the same page and making progress toward our goals) :)
3. Together, write out a vision plan for our finances this year (includes giving, saving goals, paying down debt, large purchases (second car), etc.)
4. Figure out what it means to be generous when it doesn't feel like you have a lot of "extra"
7. Cultivate my style/closet so that it feels peace-filled, easy, and "like me"
1. How?
1. Cleaning out my style Pinterest board to clothes that I'd really wear in real life :)
2. Updating it with new pins and getting a good feel for the style I like.
3. Cleaning out my closet
4. Making a plan - what should be added to make my clothes work better for me? Think, what can be purchased at a thrift store (plain gray tees)? What needs to be bought elsewhere (jeans)?
8.  So this final goal... I'm almost a month into my 2018 goals and I feel like something is missing in the area of friendship or loving other people. Maybe... cultivate my love for other people... cultivate friendships? Something about friendship. :) I'll think on it and update soon!

So there you go! :) I hope reading this didn't feel overwhelming. If it did, remember that your goals don't need to look like anyone else's goals and we all think and plan differently. You've gotta do what works for you. :) The Powersheets took me through hours of prep work so by the time that was all done, my goals really become clear on their own. It becomes easy to let go of the things you "should do" so that you can invest in what really matters to you. 

Finally, after creating my yearly goals and listing some of those "how?" ideas under each (what you see above), I turned them into monthly, weekly, and daily goals. Powersheets provides a neat worksheet to keep them all organized. :) I update my tending list daily to keep track of my progress. 

Okay! I'm at a new pretty Starbucks and ready to work on my goals for February! I'll be back soon with my January goals progress and my new goals for February. 

Happy weekend, sweet people.

Thanks for reading!

Love,

Bonnie

P.S. My husband started a really cool project this month and I'm so proud of him. He loves to write and has such a unique style. Right now, my favorites are his poems and photography. He often casually shows me pictures he's taken and they take my breath away! Haha but anyway, go check out his blog where he shares short stories, reviews, and other creative writing! :) Just click here.