*This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
After a difficult 2023, I feel like my mindset hasn’t been in the most positive space, especially these last six months since I started suffering from vertigo. There has been a lot of negativity swirling around in my brain, and we all know that leads to nothing good. Negative thinking is damaging, and not only for our mental wellbeing, but for our physical wellbeing.
For most of my adult life, my mind has typically tended to fixate on the bad things that are going on in my life, and I have always blamed my anxiety, my OCD, and the constant need to “fix” and “control” everything. I had pretty much just accepted “that’s just the way God wired me,” but after finishing the book Winning the War in Your Mind: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life by Craig Groeschel at the end of December, I realized that it is possible to change, and I really want to try to work on this in 2024.
(If you are stuck in your ways of negative thinking and can’t seem to find your way out, I highly recommend this book. I have read many books on this topic, and none of them have actually given me the tools to change my thinking quite like this book did. Groeschel’s tactics for changing your thinking are rooted in scripture, but also in science, and combining the two, he explains why we get in these ruts of negative thinking (our brain creates negative neural pathways) and then he lays out a step-by-step plan to teach you how to get out of these ruts (create new positive neural pathways) to rewire your brain. One of my friends recommended this book to me last summer, and I’m so grateful every day that he did because it has given me hope that I can change. Groeschel walks you through several exercises throughout the book to help you lay the foundation for your own personal journey, and there are blank spaces right there in the book for you to write your answers and take notes, so I do recommend buying your own copy. You’ll want your own copy anyway so you can highlight, highlight, highlight. I highlighted about a third of the book because there are so. many. incredible pieces of advice. The entire book is absolutely fascinating.)
GRATITUDE
Positivity would have been an action I would have had to choose blindly every single day, and I’m not sure that I would actually choose to make that choice every day, especially on the bad days. However, I’ve read time and time again, that practicing GRATITUDE has endless benefits – it increases your joy, it can reduce depression, anxiety, and stress, it can help bring down your blood pressure, it can strengthen your immune system, it can help you sleep better, it sets you up to have a more positive mindset, and so many other life-giving things. In other words, gratitude is a very powerful tool, and I’m hoping that being very intentional about practicing gratitude this year will help with my overall mindset and, therefore, increase my positivity, therefore increasing my overall peace and joy no matter what life brings my way this year.
With all that said, it’s time to break down my 2024 goals by category. Many of my goals are similar from year to year, but many are new, too. And you’ll also see many of the ways I’m going to work on my GRATITUDE journey sprinkled throughout my goals.
Relationships
Go on one date per month with B.
Get together with girlfriends at least once a month.
Try to finish tasks earlier in the day so I can spend more time with kids
after school.
Compliment someone or let someone know I’m grateful for them every day.
Personal/Health/Wellness/Fitness/Beauty
Meditate every day.
Read affirmations every day.
Read devotional every day.
Start a gratitude journal and write at least 3 things I’m grateful for
every day.
Start a prayer journal.
Read and meditate on the daily Bible verse in my Bible app every day.
Read the entire Bible cover to cover and complete The Bible Recap by
December 31.
Give things to God that are beyond my control and try let them go.
If I find myself falling in a funk, feel the feelings briefly, and then
try to let it go.
Continue seeing my therapist regularly for my anxiety.
Drink 64 oz. of water every day.
Work out at least 4-5 times per week most weeks.
Continue focusing on stretching this year.
Incorporate more strength training into my workout routine.
Continue maintaining a healthy diet that’s low in sugar and processed
foods.
Continue to serve/volunteer at the school.
Try to find other ways to serve, like my church and/or my community.
Read at least 15 books.
Family/School/Fun
Set up a hygiene routine for the kids for non-negotiable hygiene tasks.
Revamp the kids’ chore charts to include new tasks.
Teach the kids some more new life skills.
Continue fostering independence.
Read and finish The Body Book with Olivia.
Go to Disney World!
Go to the beach!
Go to an “away” Georgia game.
Get outside more.
Get the kids back on their bikes.
Use the One Second Everyday app to record our entire year.
Home/Organization/Planning
Clean out the whole house.
Clean out the storage closet from top to bottom (this will be a beast).
Part with some of the kids’ old baby toys I have been holding onto.
Update the laundry room.
Buy a new rug for the living room.
Buy new towels and rugs for the primary bathroom.
Pressure wash driveway, porches, curb.
Dedicate a space to items that are listed for sale and organize them.
Be intentional with the things I buy to keep clutter light.
Update all album artwork in iTunes (some of them are blank because of the
old Napster/Limewire Days. Lol.).
Back up all pictures and videos (I got behind on this in 2023 due to
Amazon changing their system).
Cut down my Master To-Do List by 5%.
(As of January 1, 2024, my Master To-Do List is 143 lines long, so I
need to do at least 7-8 items to accomplish this goal in 2024.)
Blog/Social Media
Start doing monthly gratitude recap posts.
Create at
least one Instagram Reel per month.
Create more
evergreen content (recipes, organization, crafts, holiday content).
Start doing
some throwback blog posts and write about things that happened pre-blog.
Work on
year-end blog post (Ode to 2024) all year-long.
Blog at least
one week ahead as much as possible.
And those are
my goals for 2024!
If you want to see my goals from prior years check out the posts below!
Happy Wednesday, y’all!
Gratitude is a great word for you. I think I had that word in 2021 to try to come out of the 2020 funk!
ReplyDeleteI love that you had a wink from God with your devotional today for your word. And I'm glad you posted that devotional book. I had started it a few years ago, and pulled it back out to work through again this year thanks to seeing it on your IG. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad!!
DeleteYour goals are so inspiring!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! <3
DeleteThanks for the book recommendation! I am going to add it to my list. I love how you blog 1 week ahead, I have actually been staying 2 weeks ahead and I LOVE it. It really helps me to stress out less about getting posts out!
ReplyDeleteCarrie
curlycraftymom.com
YES! It's so nice to be able to get ahead. I'm having trouble doing that, but I'm hoping to be ahead by the end of this month!
Delete