How to Crush Your Goals This Year

If we are being honest here…I LOVE New Year’s Resolutions. I look forward to the fresh start every year and am a sucker for making a list and buying a new planner. There’s something about a blank slate and the excitement of implementing changes and trying to hit all your goals that gets me revved up – you know, “new year, new me” and all that jazz 🙂

One of my blogger friends, Bonnie, created a #momblogchallenge this year and the first month’s topic is on goals for the year and self care…what a great opportunity for me to take a step back and evaluate what I want 2019 to look like! (You can read more about the challenge here… be sure to check out the other participants and their amazing posts as well!).

This year I didn’t sit down and make a long list of all of my resolutions. I’ve learned over the years and through goal setting at my job that the more goals you have, the less likely you are to hit all of them. It’s just too many things to focus on all at once and your time and attention is divided and rather than doing one or two things REALLY well, you basically end up doing lots of things half-assed.

When I stop and think about what I want to accomplish this year and who I want to be, two words keep popping into my mind: INTENTIONAL. I decided to use this word to create one main goal for the year, with some sub actions to help achieve it!

“Be INTENTIONAL with my time in order to try to achieve more balance”

My schedule is typically filled to the brim. I work full time outside of the home in a corporate environment that doesn’t really have a flexible schedule day to day, so the major bulk of my day is spent there. I also want to spend every minute at home with Luke until he goes to bed, and then the remaining time with Blake and to decompress. That means if I want to work out I need to try to and schedule it in the morning before everyone else is up. However, sleep is also a priority to me, so I don’t want to cut back too many hours at night or in the morning and compromise my health. All that to say…when I do have free time or am working on any of these activities, it is vital for me to be intentional about my time. I find myself multitasking way too often (checking emails while home with Luke, scrolling through Instagram while watching TV on the couch with Blake, etc) and then I end up feeling frustrated because nothing got my undivided attention.

Here are the things I am going to try to focus on in order to become more intentional:

• Being 100% present when I’m with Luke – I am going to make an effort this year to put my phone in my purse as soon as I get home and not to get it out until after Luke has gone to bed. I don’t even want to be tempted by work emails, texts, etc. All of that can wait until later in the night.
• Plan out my mornings and wake up early to accomplish what I’ve planned – Since early mornings are my best bet for crushing any goals, I need to be intentional about that time. Way too often I wake up early but lay in bed thinking I might go back to sleep or start scrolling through Instagram and completely waste my mornings. I want to decide what I want to do that morning (get a workout in, work on the blog, read my book, etc) and then wake up and make it happen!
• Stop shopping unless it’s something I need or REALLY want – I am the queen of buying something because it’s a great deal. I recently have been craving a more minimalist lifestyle and went through my entire house getting rid of everything I didn’t absolute love or that we didn’t truly need. It feels so good to have less STUFF everywhere, and I am going to focus on not bringing anything into the house unless it’s adding to our happiness – starting with a “No Shopping January” that I’m actually excited about completing!
• Spend dedicated time each week on my marriage – Blake and I used to go on date nights all the time before we had Luke. It’s a little harder to do now, but I still want to make one on one time with him a priority. We might have to do more at home, but each week I want to make sure that when we are spending time together, it’s quality time and not just silently sitting side by side on the couch. We typically talk about our days while making and eating dinner, so I want to take it one step farther and take one night a week where we do something after – whether it’s a game night, a workout, or even just talking about/making future plans!
• Take some time for self care – Self care comes in all forms, and I’m beginning to realize that for me it’s carving out time doing things that fill my cup. Sometimes that’s just having 10 minutes in the morning to sip my coffee and read a book or carving out time for a barre class. I feel guilty when I do things on the weekend that take me away from my family, but I am getting better about understanding that taking those 30 minutes to an hour re-energize me and set me up for a much happier day overall. I’m working on shedding the mom guilt (any tips for how to do this are welcome…this is something I struggle with ALL THE TIME!) and by finding simple things throughout the day that are good for me helps me to not run into a major burnout.
• 

What are some of your goals for the year? Drop me a comment below – I’d love to hear!

xoxo,

Lauren