Jesse and I spent time really discussing what my focuses should be for 2014 and we nailed down four areas that are my priorities for this year:
- Marriage: to continue to invest time and energy to strengthen and nurture our marriage and make it one of the greatest priorities
- Mothering: to continue to invest in our children with the goal of teaching them character, life skills, and raising them to be responsible adults
- Myself: to make my health a priority and to invest in my personal growth as a Christian, business owner, writer, speaker, and leader
- MoneySavingMom.com: to invest time into blogging — not just overseeing the business and my team, but making writing content pieces one of my top blogging priorities
Having these specific areas determined at the beginning of the year is really helping me to prioritize and giving me much clearer direction on when, where, and what to say no to this year.
Here’s an update on how I’m doing (or not doing, as is the case with many of these!) on my goals this year:
Marriage Goals
1. Read 6 marriage books. (I’ve almost finished 5 marriage books so far.)
2. Write 50 love notes to Jesse. (I’ve written 40 love notes so far.)
Kaitlynn with the French Toast that she made almost entirely by herself!
Mothering Goals
3. Read 40 books aloud to the kids. (We’ve finished 9 books so far — yes I’m probably going to fall woefully short on this goal this year.)
4. Finish memorizing Romans 1 together.
5. Go through a cooking course with the kids. (I have been teaching the kids quite a few different cooking skills the past month. We haven’t done any official course, but they’ve learned a lot more cooking skills this year.)
Personal Goals
6. Read through the Bible. (I paused this goal to instead dive into the She Reads Truth Hospitality study that I got at Allume. I am LOVING it — and it’s been a great change after years of just reading straight through the Bible. I’ll probably blog more on this soon just because I love it so much!)
7. Memorize Romans 2. (I’m working on this.)
8. Run a 5K race and go through P90X again.
9. Read 150 books/ebooks. (I’ve read 73 books so far this year.)
Blogging Goals
10. Write 150 substantive content pieces for the blog.
11. Write 50 DIY/Recipe posts for the blog. (I’ve written 37 DIY/Recipe posts so far.)
12. Blog about/participate in the 12 Months to a Healthier You Challenge.
Did you set goals for 2014 yet?
If you’ve posted an update on how you’re doing on your goals for 2014, I’d love for you to share your link in the comments. Or, if you don’t have a blog, feel free to just leave a comment with an update on how you’re doing on your goals. Let’s encourage one another to live lives of intention and purpose!
If you’re brand-new to goal-setting, be sure to read my post on How to Change Your Life By Setting Goals.
Sarah says
I had a lot of success in October with setting fewer, smaller goals. I’m also realizing more and more that I do a lot of goal-type things that don’t make it officially on my goals list – I’m still working out how to give myself motivational “credit” for what I’m doing without becoming legalistic in crossing things off a to-do list!
Raechel says
Love these goals, Crystal – and sheesh, you’re really managing to hit most of your targets! I’m impressed!!! Glad you’re enjoying the SRT Hospitality study, too! 🙂
Allyson @ All Our Days says
I’ve been making monthly goals instead of year-long ones this year. With our new businesses, it was hard to make long term goals, so this is working for me right now.
http://allourdays.com/2014/11/monthly-goals-back.html
I also haven’t been reading to my kids as much as I wanted. We still read a little bit every day, but I’ve been relying heavily on audio books during this busy season.
sarah says
Pick a few shorter books to read to your kids… so many “picture” books are appropriate even for older children and can be used to teach valuable lessons.
Crystal Paine says
If shorter picture books count, then I’ve *definitely* hit my book goal for reading to my kids this year! Maybe I should just focus on picture books for the rest of the year to get back into the habit (I fell off the bandwagon since I’ve been working on my book and Jesse’s been doing almost all the homeschooling while I’m writing!)… and then get back to chapter books in January? I like that idea! Thanks for the suggestion to give myself grace. And my kids LOVE picture books, too!