2020 New Year’s Goals + My Word for the Year

I’ve been choosing a word to be my theme for the year since 2016 and I have really done well incorporating said words and their purposes into my everyday life throughout the years.  In 2016 my word was LESS, in 2017 it was GROW, in 2018 it was JOY, and in 2019 it was DONE (although looking back it probably should have been ANXIETY.  Haha.).  After all of the focus on getting things DONE and after our many hardships and losses in 2019, I knew this year’s word needed to be something deep and meaningful.  Something life-giving.  

During all of our challenging times last year – especially on my most anxious days and also right after my Nana died – there was a single word that kept popping in my head over and over during my prayer and quiet time.  I’m pretty sure God planted the seed for that word directly in my heart, so it was a no-brainer to choose it as my word for 2020.  That’s why for 2020 I have chosen the word CONNECT. 

Since quitting my corporate job and becoming a stay-at-home mom/blogger two years ago I’ve felt a bit isolated, and while I adore my alone time and I love working for myself, it’s also made me realize just how much I need and crave human interaction… and not just surface-level hellos and goodbyes… the deep, meaningful stuff, too.  2019 taught me that we all have expiration dates and our time here is limited, so it’s important to soak each other up while we can.  So in 2020 I want to connect with others…

- Connect with God and make my bond with Him stronger than ever.

- Connect with myself and live my healthiest life… I will get to know my anxiety, its triggers, and its manifestations so I can manage it to the best of my ability.

- Connect with Brian on a deeper level… a lot of our time together is spent on autopilot during this particular season of life and I don’t want us to lose each other in the busyness like so many other couples do.

- Connect with Jacob and Olivia and really soak up their littleness and all of their little idiosyncrasies before it’s too late… they change every single day and they’re going to be grown up so soon.

- Connect with Maui and start spending more time with her outdoors… more walks around the neighborhood!  We do plenty of snuggling with her, but we rarely make the time to actually play with her and let her get exercise.

- Connect with my parents and try to spend more quality time with them in different ways other than our typical church and dinners together.

- Connect with my brothers and check in with them more than I already do.

- Connect with my grandmother and treasure my time with her since she’s officially my last living grandparent. 

- Connect with extended family members on Brian’s and my sides of the family.  We’re so lucky to have most of our extended family here in town and I want to take full advantage of that.

- Connect with my girlfriends even more and foster those relationships because they’re so important. 

- Connect with my old coworkers and try to keep in touch with them even more than I already do.

- Connect with parents and faculty at the kids’ school and our church because there are so many lovely people there who I would love to get to know better.

- Connect with parents of Jacob’s and Olivia’s baseball and ballet friends and form new relationships.

- Connect with my blogger friends and be even more supportive and encouraging of them and their businesses… we’re all in this together, ladies!

- Connect with you, my readers, and chat with y’all more on Instagram stories. 

- Connect with brands and try to start some new partnerships.

- Connect with strangers on the street and fill someone’s bucket everyday just because…

I’m so excited about this year’s word and all that it could bring!

Now for the goals… and you’ll notice that they’re heavy on people and health-oriented stuff this year and light on the house and blog to-do’s!

Personal

Put myself out there to connect with others.  Join a bible study, join a book club, volunteer more, chat up random strangers.  (Joining a bible study has been on my 2020 Goals List for months and I actually ended up joining one late last year so… CHECK!  Haha.)

Worry less, be positive, complain less.  This one has been on my list pretty much every year, but until just a couple of months ago, I never really knew how to achieve it.  I feel like time with my devotional and meditating daily have really given me the tools to succeed.  I feel like I’m learning to relinquish control and trust God more every step of the way, and man, is that a great feeling!  Sure, there will be struggles, but I really feel like I can do better on this once and for all. 

Live in the present.  This is one of the simplest ways to stop the worrying.  I’m constantly so hyper-focused on trying to predict and control the future that I often miss out on the now because I’m in a frenzy worrying about things that haven’t even happened yet.  Again, devotional time and meditation really help with this.

Be kind.  One thing I’ve really learned this past year is that you never, ever know what someone is going through behind the scenes.  It’s always so important to be kind, even when someone is not kind to you.

Donate blood.  Can you believe I’ve never done this before?!  For a long time, I didn’t meet the minimum weight requirement, but over the last few years I’ve put on some muscle (and getting older) weight and I can now donate!  I think this would be a great/weird way to connect with strangers I’ll never meet.  How awesome it will be to know that my blood could save a life!

Get out of my routine more while the kids are at school.  This will be a difficult one for me since I tend to stay in my little cocoon (home office) all day while the kids aren’t home, but I’ve found that sometimes being at home alone all day seems to make me more anxious.  I’ve noticed recently that on the days when I’m mixing it up and doing different things or interacting with people my anxiety seems to stay in check.  So in 2020 I fully intend to spend more time getting lost in the library, walking at the park or around our neighborhood, wandering around Hobby Lobby, having coffee or lunching with friends, and working from Panera or Starbucks instead of my desk… simple stuff like that that gets me out of the monotony of daily life and makes me happy.  :o)

Stop rushing and slow the eff down.  Pardon my language, but I recently became annoyed with myself when I realized that a lot of the time I rush for no reason at all.  Even when I know I have ample time to get where I need to be or to get the things done on my list, I still fast-walk everywhere and rush around like a crazy person.  Do you know why I do that?  So I can complete tasks faster than expected to make room for other tasks that weren’t on the list so I can “get ahead.”  Why oh why do I do that??  There was a line in my devotional recently that said that “rushing and anxiety go hand-in-hand and God does not want us to be anxious so we need not rush.”  BOOM.  Mic drop, Lindsay’s slowing down.

Put the phone down.  I’m actually really good at this at home already, but I want to leave my phone behind even more in 2020, especially in public.  I’m so guilty of scrolling in waiting rooms and check-out lines while I wait, and I want to do less of that and more interacting with the people around me.  And when the kids are around, I don’t even want my phone to be in their sight unless I’m taking pictures.  I want to set a good example for them and let them know that they are my primary focus always.  I don’t want them to ever feel like they are taking a back seat to a phone.

Stop caring so much about what other people think.  I’m a natural-born people pleaser (hello, Enneagram 6!) and it’s exhausting, so this year I’m going to focus hard on not caring so much about what other people think.  Of course, I’m not going to do a complete 180 and not care about other people at all… that’s not what I mean.  Instead, I want to stop worrying about the things that aren’t important.  I constantly worry that people won’t like me/don’t like me/don’t care what I have to say and I feel like I hold my real self back sometimes because of that.  (Stupid anxiety!!)  I also HATE talking about my blog to the real people in my life because I’m worried they’ll judge me/dislike me/won’t understand (because most people don’t).  But I saw a quote recently that said something like, “It’s not really your business what other people think about you,” and my goodness that’s so true!  Just let your light shine without caring what other people think!

Choose joy every single day.  Because it really can be that simple.  I’m guilty of forgetting this, but my Momma and Daddy gave a bracelet to me for Christmas with this phrase on it.  I’m hoping it reminds me to do this.    

Health

Meditate every day.  I took up meditating at the end of 2019 and I can’t even tell you how wonderful it has been for me and my anxiety!  I’ve learned that it is pertinent to my mental health and I want to try to do it in some form every single day.  I’ll probably do a blog post about it eventually, too.

Quiet time with God every day.  This has done wonders for my anxiety, too… maybe even more so than the meditating.  However, when life gets busy, unfortunately, I start to let this slide, and it needs to be a priority.  I also want to go to confession.  I’ve always had anxiety about it so I haven’t been in years.  Time to get to it.

Continue seeing a therapist.  I haven’t talked about it much, but I started seeing someone for my anxiety a couple of months ago, and she has been amazing.  I’m kicking myself for not doing it years ago.  If I had, my anxiety probably wouldn’t have gotten so out of control this past year.

Drink 64 oz. of water every day.  I recently purchased a 30 oz.Yeti rambler and I’ve found it so much easier to accomplish this goal every day now that I only have to refill my cup once.  Having the right tools to set yourself up for success is SO important, y’all.

Work out at least twice per week.  I have found that working up a sweat is another thing that is vital for curbing my anxiety, so this will be a priority this year… even during the busy weeks.  If I can’t make it to the gym, I will find a way to get outside and get moving or at the very least get on my stair stepper at home.

Eat less sugar and more veggies.  My therapist said that a bad diet can contribute tremendously to anxiety, so I want to continue watching my sugar intake as I have in previous years, and I want to continue sneaking in more veggies… especially leafy green ones.

Complete Immunotherapy.  My last allergy test showed that my allergy shots are working and I’m hoping that this might be the year that I am able to stop getting allergy shots and possibly eliminate the need for some of my allergy/asthma medications.

Family

Do more fun/different stuff with/for Brian.  So much of the time now we’re on autopilot in all of our busyness and I want to get back to the fun, carefree us.  I want to read The Five Love Languages together (finally) and try new things for date nights.  I want to do other fun stuff at home together after the kids go to bed besides our typical TV time that we do every night (ie: random conversations and Scrabble… we used to play all the time) and I’d love to try to sneak away together for another overnight trip.  Those are so few and far between nowadays.

Do more special little things for the kids.  I’m often so busy that I don’t make as much time as I’d like for doing little things for them… lunchbox notes, baking cookies, etc.  Time to get back to this!  It’ll be a great way to CONNECT.  ;o)

Waste more time with Brian and the kids.  If we’re not doing an organized activity like playing a game, reading, watching TV, or going somewhere, I often use the time to work on a project or I retreat to my office to work.  This year I just want to spend more time hanging around with everyone just doing nothing... that’s where the magic happens! 

Cook healthier/more adventurous dishes for my people.  I typically stick to chicken and sausage and the occasional ground beef, but I’d like to start experimenting more with steak and pork and other meats.  I’d also like to try some new veggies and find some new ways to prepare our tried and true favorites.  We have two very picky eaters and I want to find some new (healthy) things that they like.  I’d like to try some Whole 30 recipes as well.

Take a family trip to visit my brother and sister-in-law in Huntsville.  My bro and SIL moved to Huntsville last year to work for NASA and they bought their first home and are thriving there.  We haven’t had the chance to visit them yet since the kids have been in school, but I want to make a trip there this summer to see where they live and tour NASA and let them show us around their new city that they love so much.  We’ve never been!

GO TO DISNEY WORLD!  Eeeek!  Our trip is only a couple of months away!

Raise good, well-rounded human beings.  This year I want to give the kids more responsibility around the house (light chores, etc.), focus on kindness and giving back to others with them, work on money skills (save/spend/give), and work on being more spontaneous... AKA roll with the punches.  While routines are great, I don’t want our kids to live and die by them.  I want us to mix it up a little more this year and I want our kids to learn to enjoy being spontaneous sometimes.  I don’t have a spontaneous bone in my body, so this will be good for me as well.

Teach Jacob to ride a bike without training wheels!!  Once and for all.  Sheesh.  Might as well go ahead and teach Olivia, too, at this point!

Home

Clean out the whole house.  I did a massive clean-out in 2018 that took months, but I still like to do a sweep of the whole house once per year.  They are quick and painless nowadays since I did that big one a couple of years ago because we’ve done a really good job of maintaining.

Sell old stuff.  I sold a ton of old stuff last year, but I still have more to list.  I’d like to get the last of it listed this year.

Be intentional with the things I buy.  This has been on my list for a couple of years now and it’ll probably remain because it’s so important… this is the #1 way to keep the clutter at bay which also makes the annual house clean-outs much faster and easier.

Buy a new car for myself.  Funny to mention purchasing something when I just said I wanted to be intentional with the things that I buy, but I’ve officially been driving my current vehicle for almost 10 years, and I’m in need of an upgrade.  My SUV is so old that it doesn’t even have a screen on the dash – it’s just an old-school OG dashboard – and therefore, I don’t have a back-up camera, I don’t have the capability to directly connect my phone to the car to make phone calls or play my music or anything.  I do currently have an adaptor that allows me to do limited things, but it’s a bit convoluted so I’m ready for the real thing.  My vehicle is also in the small SUV category and I’d like to move to the mid-range category to have a little bit more space since we now have two kids and they’re getting bigger by the day.  I have my eye on the new Kia Telluride because it is GORGEOUS.  I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited about a vehicle in my life, and I’m hoping we can find one that fits in our budget.

Cut down my Master To-Do List by 10%.  Last year, I started with 472 tasks on this list and I cut it down by more than 50%, so just 236 lines remain.  However, a lot of the tasks that remain are more time intensive and/or more costly (think bigger home projects like painting the inside of the house and revamping our home security system), so the rate at which I cross them off will slow drastically this year as a lot of them will be dependent upon our budget and time.  Since I’m focusing more on people this year and less on to-dos, my goal is only to cross off 10% of the items, a drastic difference from last year.

Make shorter, more manageable Daily To-Do Lists.  Last year since I was trying to get everything DONE I put way more on my plate each day than I probably should have… and I’m sure that didn’t help with my anxiety.  This year, I’m going to lighten my load and create more manageable lists that can all be completed before the kids get home from school or at least before dinner, which is what I had intended to do in the first place.  That way we have more time for the slow and good stuff and we can all connect after dinner without other things getting in the way.  Don’t forget to follow along with my list-making in my Instagram stories… I post them there daily, Monday – Friday!

Maintain.  After choosing the word “DONE” in 2019, I feel like I really got caught up on life stuff last year.  Our house is in order, most of it is finally furnished and decorated and organized the way that I want it (after 10 years), and more than half of my Master To Do List was accomplished last year.  This year, I’ll continue to whittle away at the Master To Do List (although at a much slower rate) and I just want to maintain everything else.  I’m hoping that opens the door for more slow, simple time with family.

Blog

Only blog 3-4 days per week… emphasis on 3.  Once I get past this catch-up mode that I’m currently in I ultimately would like to reduce my load to three days per week.

Continue preparing posts for Monday prior to the weekend and posting weekly recaps on Tuesday or Wednesday.  That way I don’t have to blog during the weekend at all.  Most of the year I’d like to follow this format – something seasonal/fun/evergreen on Monday, a weekend recap on Wednesday, and a Five on Friday post with favorite things on Friday.  During busier months, Mondays and Wednesdays will be for the seasonal/fun/evergreen content and I’ll post the weekly recaps on Tuesday or Thursday.

Discontinue What’s Up Wednesday posts.  I feel they no longer add value to the blog so I’m no longer doing them.

Discontinue bucket lists.  I always include our bucket list items in my monthly goals posts, so the bucket lists are starting to feel redundant.  No more bucket lists… instead these items will be in the “Family” section of my monthly goals posts.

Combine the two birthday posts I do for each child every year into one post.  I currently write a birthday interview and a birthday letter for each child and post them on separate days, but I’m going to start combining them to leave more room in my editorial calendar since I’m trying to blog fewer days per week.

Prepare posts at least 2-3 days ahead of their post date.  Preparing them the day before they go live stresses me out sometimes so I’d like to start blogging a few days ahead every day after I get myself out of this hole I’m currently in.  Ha!

Post more rich, evergreen content that y’all like to see.  It seems that my organization, home decoration, and recipe posts do the very best and y’all also apparently like seeing my bar cart and charcuterie boards, too, so more of this in 2020!

Focus on SEO and Pinterest to increase pageviews.  My goal is to increase overall pageviews for the year while writing less new content.

Hit at least 500,000 pageviews for the year.  Last year I hit 455,261 pageviews and this year I’d like that number to increase.  I’m only aiming for a modest increase since I’ll be reducing my content.

Start researching a move to Wordpress/blog revamp.  I keep saying I’m going to make the switch but I’m soooo terrified of losing all of my traffic if something goes wrong.  That’s why I just keep putting it off. 

Instagram – increase following to 10k.  This will happen this year!  I’m so close!

Instagram – talk to you guys more and share more behind-the-scenes of my organizing.  I feel like I stopped doing this late in 2019 so I want to get back into it.

Pinterest – increase following to 6.5k.  I’m currently sitting at 5.8k so I feel like this is doable.

Facebook – increase following to 400.  I’m hoping to post a little more frequently on there this year and hopefully that will attract some followers.

Tik Tok – start dabbling in it and see if I want to pursue it as a possible avenue for the blog.  Not sure if it’ll end up being the way I want to go, but I’d like to start using it more.

Find one or two people who would like to persue the essential oils business with me.  My gosh, I adore my oils, but I spent hardly any time sharing their goodness with all of you this past year.  I want to pick back up where I left off with my Instagram oils account and spread the love!  And I feel like having a partner or two may keep me accountable.

And those are my goals for 2020!  Cheers to more slow and less busy.  Hopefully, anyway.  ;o)

If you want to see my goals from prior years check out the posts below!

2016 Goals

2017 Goals

2018 Goals

2019 Goals

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