2024 was full of ups and downs, and things were quite “off” for the entire month of December which meant that I was focusing my energy on many things, none of which were home, project, or blog related. Typically, I have my word for the new year plus a long list of goals in hand way before January starts, and I am always ready to roll as soon as the clock strikes midnight on December 31. Most of the time by this point in January I’ve already gotten a week ahead on the blog, I’ve already cleaned out multiple rooms in the house, I’ve finished our One Second a Day Video for the previous year, and I’ve tackled several projects, but here I am on January 16 typing this, and I’ve done hardly any of these things. As a matter of fact, I’m literally coming up with these goals for the year right now as I go, aside from a couple that I had already written down, so I guess you can say that I’m stepping into January quietly this year.
That is not at all how I usually do things, but you know what? It’s actually been a breath of fresh air to not put so much pressure on myself. It’s also been a good thing because January has not been off to the best start, so even if I’d wanted to, I wouldn’t have had a lot of time or energy to focus on being productive anyway. It’s just the season of life we’re in right now, and I’m proud of myself for giving myself the grace to step away from my Type A personality for just a bit. We’ve had a lot going on behind the scenes over here and also yikes to all of the other things going on in the world. 2025 is off to quite a dramatic start.
With regard to goal-setting, it was drilled into our heads in all of my marketing and management classes in college that all goals should be SMART – specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. (And I think they have revamped this little acronym a bit since 2004, so a couple of the words are different now.) In the past, I have always treated my goals as such, but after a couple of “off” years, I decided this year that I would lower my expectations a bit and take some of the pressure off of myself. How I am going to do that? By setting fewer goals this year, and by making my goals SMART minus the S… and some minus the T… so I guess you could say that my goals are going to be just MAR this year? Haha.
So, while I’ll be setting goals as I always do, they won’t be as specific this year as in the past, and I’m also not going to hold myself to a strict timetable for some of them. And if I do decide to be specific for some of the tasks, I’ll be lowering the bar significantly. For example, I’d love to read 30 books this year, but I’m not sure that’s realistic, so I’m going to lower that quantity significantly.
Now that I have my disclaimer up, let’s get to my word for the year. Gosh, I really had trouble with this for 2025. Typically, I feel like a word is placed on my heart weeks or even months in advance of a new year, but in 2024, while I had several that came to mind, nothing sounded exactly right.
I ended up narrowing my word down to two just this past week (told you I was behind!), and I finally ended up settling on one just a couple of days ago:
PRESENT
Yes, it’s not that original nor is it that exciting, but after feeling completely overwhelmed, constantly behind, and scrambling (AKA my brain was somewhere else when it needed to be present) for much of 2024, I thought this was exactly what I needed.
That said, you’ll see that a lot of my goals for 2025 are going to reflect this word. I want to allow myself to just “be” rather than constantly looking forward trying to get ahead or looking back and stressing about the things that I cannot change. I also want to get better about not multi-tasking constantly. I’ve always prided myself on the fact that I can do so many things at once and do them well, but that can lead to burnout in the long run, and I definitely experienced a lot of that last year. Hence the reason I took an unplanned blog break at the beginning of the year.
I also think sometimes, “Maybe when <fill in the blank> is done, I’ll finally be able to relax.” Or, “Maybe when I accomplish <fill in the blank> I’ll be happier.” But that’s not how we’re supposed to live. Being in the present and accepting the way things are in the present ultimately leads to a more peaceful life. In the words of Dave Matthews, “The future is no place to place your better days.”
And the past is certainly not the place to stay either.
Okay, I’m starting to feel like Yoda with all of the sage advice, so let’s get to the goals! ;o)
Go on as many dates with B as possible
Get together with my girlfriends as much as possible
Get together with family as much as possible
Spend more time just “being” with the kids
Personal/Health/Wellness/Fitness/Beauty
Be present (move on from the past, don’t jump ahead, and accept what is in front of me)
Embrace the phrase “it is what it is” for situations that are disappointing/not
ideal
Pack less into my daily schedule/to-do lists
Have more downtime and stop feeling the need to be productive nonstop
Do quiet time daily (gratitude, prayer, affirmations, meditation, devotional,
Bible verse)
Revamp my prayer journal to simplify since I was writing the same things over
and over
Start reading the Bible from start to finish again and do The Bible in a
Year with Fr. Mike
Memorize some Bible verses (ideally one per month, but I'm not holding myself to that)
Start a new daily devotional with the kids
Continue seeing my therapist regularly for my anxiety
Get “unstuck” after feeling stuck for a couple of years
Pursue new avenues for dizziness/tension (upper cervical chiro,
vestibular migraines)
Get my braces off (hopefully)
Get a massage… or two… or three
Drink lots of water, eat lots of protein and whole foods, and limit sugar
Work out 3-5 times per week most weeks (cardio, strength, stretching)
Possibly join a gym again
Serve at our school and church
Read 15 books (fiction, non-fiction, self-development)
Family/School/Fun
Jacob get braces
Olivia get braces
Go to as many concerts as possible
Have fun
Spend more time exploring our city and doing new things here
Teach the kids some more new life skills
Get outside more
Go to the beach and maybe take another trip as well
Home/Organization/Planning
Clean out the whole house
Clean out the storage closet
Work on some house projects (lighting, laundry room, office shelving,
rugs, etc.)
Rearrange some things in my office to make room for more books
List all items to sell
Organize items listed for sale and have a dedicated space for them
Update album artwork in iTunes
Use the One Second Everyday app to record our entire year
Tackle a few things from my Master To-Do List (it’s currently 143 lines
long)
Blog/Social Media
Share fewer daily to-do lists on Instagram so there is less pressure to complete them
Stop sharing all
workouts in Instagram stories because y’all are prob bored with that lol
Allow the blog
to go without a new post if I simply don’t have the time to finish said post
Get up from the
computer more throughout the day
Continue doing
monthly gratitude recap posts
Create some evergreen
content (recipes, organization, crafts, holidays)
Do more fun “get
to know me” posts (Top 10 lists, throwback posts, etc.)
Work on
year-end blog post (Ode to 2025) all year-long so I don’t get too far behind
And those are
my goals for 2025!
If you want to see my goals from prior years check out the posts below!
Happy Monday, y’all!
"If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
I think those sound like great goals. I really relaxed our standards and the expectations I put on myself a couple of years ago and it made a huge difference in how I felt. I too focus more on the now and found that a lot of my anxiety died down with it. I hope 2025 is a good year for you!
ReplyDeleteI love this approach and your word to be present. This is so healthy! I read this weekend that experts say " just one lazy a day a week has both mental and physical benefits. Allowing yourself some time to relax is just as important as being productive." Have a good Monday!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good plan for the year!
ReplyDeleteYou have had a lot going on, it sounds like not putting too much pressure on yourself is for the best!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fab word for the year!
Good luck with your goals, I love what you are planning to do. I think I need to embrace the phrase “it is what it is!
love all your goals. It has been a struggle so far to get into the swing of things but it will get better as the year goes on
ReplyDeleteI think the way you set goals this year will take some pressure off of you to "do it all." Last year was a tough one, and hopefully 2025 will have healing and joy for you and your family. Hugs.
ReplyDelete