A clean slate is a great feeling. The new year does that for us. Making goals for the new year and feeling refreshed for what is ahead. But as I reflect on last year, it’s made me think about how we approach goals and changes. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves with resolutions, and right when real life struggles hit- we give up.
Forging through the rough times is the most important battle. Making small changes and being kind to ourselves along the way. Most of us are moms to small children and that life can get hard, some days you are in plain survival mode. And that is okay. We can still remember what we are working towards, while being kind to ourselves as life throws different hurdles our way. We’re going to have hurdles, we just need to be able to bounce back and not let them get us down permanently.
2017 was not a bad year for us. Overall, we were challenged but made some amazing accomplishments. My husband led the charge in paying off our debt, and we were able to do it faster than we thought we could. His obsession with Dave Ramsey was a bit annoying at first :-), but it payed off and I feel grateful for him and his dedication. Because it sure wouldn’t have happened without it!
I worked on some really fun projects and excited about taking them further this year! I’ve spent more time with my babies this year and it’s been amazing taking them to new experiences and just trying to enjoy this time when they are so small.
Making goals and a vision plan last year was really good for me. It helped me to just sit down and reflect on what matters to me and what I should be focusing on. I don’t like to call them resolutions per say, because a lot of the goals I made last year I am still working on. Even though I made great progress in some, I’m adding another level to push myself even more this year. Then there are others that just need to be put right back on the list because I made no progress at all!
Changing Habits
One thing I talked about last year was changing habits. I’m proud because I definitely added some positive habits back in my life. For example, I’ve exercised pretty consistently this year. Every week isn’t always as much as I’d like, but I still get there at least twice- with most weeks being 3 or 4. Which is way more than I was doing before!
One thing I didn’t want to do was overwhelm myself. And that is what ended up happening! There were other goals that fell to the wayside, because it was so hard to work on creating so many new habits at once. Now that I’ve established some new habits, I can work on a couple other changes.
It’s okay to take it slow
Real change and real success takes time! There were many times this year when I wanted to give up exercising because the numbers on the scale weren’t moving fast enough. I took on a part time job in addition to blogging and taking care of my two kids. It nearly wore me down. It threw my routine out of wack even though I was grateful for the opportunity. It just didn’t seem possible to juggle it all and my house was starting to look like a tornado. That made me feel so bad about myself instead of focusing on all the good things.
It’s normal to feel failure or feel like your goals just aren’t coming into fruition. There was a moment at the beginning of this blog that I didn’t think anyone was going to come and read it. I still kept writing but stopped looking to see who had come to the blog. That is when I had my first viral post!
I also stopped obsessing about my weight and started focusing on my how much more stable my mood was and how much stronger I was becoming. And how much I enjoyed working out and the women I started seeing regularly.
Sometimes it’s not our goals that need to be changed. It’s our mindset to keep going even if it doesn’t seem like we may be getting anywhere. Because we are! Things don’t happen overnight- especially not the things that are really worth it.
Vision Plan
I still love a great visual so wanted to make a new vision plan for this year. Makes a great screensaver for your phone or computer!
*I made my vision board on PicMonkey using their collage feature. You could also make one on Canva, Adobe products or PowerPoint. On your phone you can use any of the pic collage apps.
Goals: Looking Back and Forward
These are the goals from last year and my reflections on how it went. Truly, I am not going to add more to this list. That was part of my problem last year- that it was too much at one time. So this year I’m going to focus on the goals that were neglected last year.
As a family- we are trying to buy a house this year! Wish us luck! That may help with my first declutter and organization goal- because it’s going to be mandatory if we are moving.
Simplify
- Organization– De-clutter and reorganize. We live in a condo and have to be creative at times with all this stuff!
- Ugh- did not do well on this. It was great at the beginning but I never got a great system developed. Now the house has even more toys from Christmas and I desperately need a new toy organization unit. Will be one of my first tasks of the year!
- Daily Routines– Find a balance for kids, home, blog, exercise and meal planning. All daily necessities! (I’m working on this and will share soon!)
- I did great at most of this. I still need a better cleaning schedule and I also started working part time from home so it threw me off for a while. But I did take my kids to lots of great classes, kept them on a pretty regular routine, exercised every week and wrote a blog post most weeks. I really really need a cleaning schedule I can stick to though!
Be Present
- Technology Free Times– during meals and outings with kids (except for pictures of course!)
- Ugh- back on the list for this year! Instagram and Facebook are such time suckers for me. I really need designated technology free time.
- Experiences over Things– Regular outings to create valuable memories; with the family and also for just my husband and I.
- Did some of these, but will always want this as a goal. I just need to be more present in the little moments as well. Would love to have a weekend getaway with just my husband this year. And I’d like to do more educational games with the boys when we are at home.
Self Care
- Exercise Routine– Since I haven’t had a regular routine in a long while, start with 3 times a week and increase to 5 later.
- Yay! I’m so proud that I actually exercised regularly for a year. Did I lose an insane amount of weight? No. But I’m stronger and feel a million times better. Will extend this goal to do more strength training instead of the cardio that I love.
- Meal Plan and Cook at Home– This has double rewards! It’s a big part of our new budget and will help cut calories.
- I cooked a lot more this year! A next step for me is doing more monthly freezer batches. I need to be able to grab something healthy on busy days or weeks.
- Blog Regularly– Create an editorial calendar. Be creative, connect with other moms and bloggers, and build a business.
- This has been so fun! The blog has been such a fulfilling project for me and I’ve connected to a lot of moms which is exactly what I wanted to do! This year I’d like to connect with and meet more bloggers as well as keep learning and growing the platform.
Will I accomplish all of these things? Maybe, maybe not. But they will keep me focused and motivated when I want to give up. And serve as a reminder for what I want to become!
What are you looking forward to in 2018?! I’d love to hear about it!
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