It’s February 1, 2019. And it’s time to check in on our goals! How are you doing on the goals you set for 2019?
I spent some time today reviewing January and reflecting on the blessings of the past month and the lessons I learned. I also looked at my goals and made not of how I was doing in each area. (If you missed My Goals for 2019 post, read it here.)
In order to keep myself accountable (and because I know some of you really enjoy these posts) I’m going to be sharing a goals update post at the beginning of each month. I hope that this will not only motivate me to be focused and intentional this year, but I hope it might also inspire you in the goals you set for 2019.
So here’s my goals update for February 1, 2019:
Personal Goals
1. Read 40 books I already own. (I’m using GoodReads to track my reading this year!)
Update: I finished 5 books in January — 2 were books I already own and 3 were audiobooks I got free from the Libby app. Look for a Book Update post in the next few days where I share more about my thoughts on the books I finished.
2. Slowly read through the New Testament using the She Reads Truth Bible reading plans at the beginning of each chapter.
Update: I finished Matthew and am halfway through Mark.
3. Listen to 2 audiobooks per month. (I use the Libby app to get these for free.)
Update: I listened to 3 audiobooks in January.
4. Complete all of the Organize in 5 Diary tasks to get our home more organized and set up better organizational systems. (Psst! Did you get yours? It’s just $9 right now.)
Update: This has been going so well and I’m happy to report that I have been 100% keeping up with this. YAY! You can see two posts I did on some of my organizing projects: Cleaning Out the Cookbooks & Organizing My Purse & Bathroom.
5. Stay offline for 4 hours per day, 5 days per week. (I share more about why I chose this goal here.)
Update: This has been going well and I hit it at least 5 days per week every week in January!
6. Leave my phone in the basement every night. (I talk more about what inspired me to make this goal here.)
Update: I did this every night but two nights in January!! It has made SUCH a difference and I plan to do a full post on this and just how much it has impacted me. Stay tuned.
7. Go to bed before 10:30 p.m. 5 days per week. (I’m using this little spreadsheet I made to track most of my personal goals)
Update: I didn’t do this perfectly, but I did a MUCH better job of going to bed earlier in January and am happy to report that I went to bed before midnight every single night in January — which is definitely progress for me since I have a tendency to stay up really late on weekends and then sleep in and that throws off the whole week! I’ve been a lot more consistent in my bedtimes and wake up times and it has definitely made a difference!
Marriage Goal
8. Go on an overnight trip with Jesse without the kids.
Update: We got a trip booked to Destin, FL at the end of April!! We’re renting an AirBNB with two other couples and are so excited about it! We also are looking at possibly doing one other weekend trip later in the year. We’ll see!
Motherhood Goal
9. One-on-one time with each child at least 3 times per week. (I am planning to dedicate 40 minutes per child after dinner each evening at least three nights per week to hang out and spend time with each child individually.)
Update: This has been going so well! And I’m thrilled to report that I hit this every week in January!
Family Goal
10. Take the kids to at least two continents and 4 states we haven’t traveled to. (We’re hoping to travel to Europe in the summer and South America at some other point during the year. I have travel alerts set up to track the best prices for flights and am hoping to find a great deal to snag in the next 4-6 months!)
Financial Goals
11. Pay cash to redo our room and renovate our bathroom (we have to pull out the shower and put in a new one because it was installed incorrectly and is leaking and ruining the floor/wall and we want to do a few renovations while we’re at it + we want to finally decorate our room — we left it really bare when we moved in and decided to wait to prioritize it in the budget).
Update: We had a contractor come over and chat with us and take measurements. We’re waiting on an estimate.
12. Pay cash to paint the main floor of our home.
13. Fully fund our Emergency Fund (This is a carry-over from 2018 and we are hoping to have this done in the next few months).
Business Goals
14. Redo/set up a much more intentional customer acquisition experience for all three of our email newsletters.
Update: We’ve been hard at work behind the scenes working on this and made some BIG progress in January already!
15. Finish launching the rest of our beginner Your Blogging University courses. (If you want to start a blog, be sure to check out my other site, Your Blogging Mentor.)
Update: I’m working on my next course, Monetize Your Blog, and it’s going to be a bigger/more comprehensive course than I’ve ever done but I hope to have it ready to launch at the end of March! Stay tuned!
16. Launch a Blog Coaching/Accountability Group membership. (I’ll be opening this up to a very limited number of people in January of 2019. Stay tuned!)
Update: We launched this to 100 people at the end of January and it is going SO WELL and I am just loving it already. We’ll be opening it up to more people in a few months!
What do you use to set up your travel alerts? Thanks!
— A long time reader.
Check out Scott’s Travel Deals and Airfarewatchdog.
I’m just curious – why are you painting the main floors of your home? Aren’t they hardwood?
Oh, I’m so sorry for the confusion. We’re painting the WALLS in the main floor of our home.
Crystal,
I’m voting for a family trip to Georgia. I would love to meet you. Check out the Georgia National Fair in October. HUGE event.
We’ve already been to Georgia a number of times! 🙂 We’re for sure going to Utah… and we’ll see what other states we end up visiting!
I love your updates on your goals. They are so inspiring! I appreciate that you keep your old posts from previous years on your site as well. I have a 7 year old, a three year old, a two year old and another on the way and I homeschool. I love looking through your past goals and updates and gleaning from them as well.
On an unrelated note, I just wanted to say I love the darker shade of blonde you are doing for the wintertime. It looks so nice on you!
Blessings. ?
Thank you so much for your kind words of encouragement!
Goals I did well on in January were:
Read more (I read 6 books total).
Read out loud 150 days to my kids (I read 12/31 days and we finished a book!)
Less screen time (since I made reading a priority, this one happened as a result).
YAY for reading aloud to your kids and reading 6 books total!
I have always made “A Goal” per year. But a few years back you inspired me to make multiple goals in different areas of the life! Loving it! I’m doing great thus far this year! ~Reading thru the Bible in 90 Days (right on track) ~1 Date Night per Month with Hubby (January Completed) ~Send one “thinking of you card” out per week to a friend or family member (All weeks completed in January) ~Read 4 Books of my choice this year (This goals was small and I already completed the whole thing, all 4 books) ~I own a business and want my bonus every month (Achieved in January) ~Visit 2 people per month (family or friends) (2 Visited in January) ~Pay off Hubby’s Student Loan (we have money saving to do so by end of year)
Woohoo!! Way to go! And thank you for sharing your goals update!
I was watching your instagram story yesterday and wound up ordering Sacred Grounds, Sticky Floors and I was wondering if you could tell me the other devotional books you were doing 🙂
Daily Light and Streams in the Desert.
Wow, you’ve been very busy and very intentional! Impressive.
My word for 2019 is servicio (service) and I have aquured more supplies for making homeless survival bags as well as giving out a few. I began a new system for organizing the supplies in the back of my car vs in my apartment. The organizing has not gone as planned and I’m finding I’ll need to rethink it, but that’s part of the process, right?¡! ? When I get a minute I will blog what I’ve done and what has/hasn’t worked.
Thank you so much for sharing — I love how you are living out your word for the year!
We are redoing both bathrooms this summer. My husband’s shower leaks and my master bathroom has tiles growing mold. No we don’t share a bathroom ?. I’m just thankful that 1) he can do all the work and 2) I’ll be out of the country when he does it!
Yay for your husband being able to do all the work — and YAY for not being home when it happens! 😉
Aw, my hometown is right across the bay from Destin (the small town of Niceville)! You will love it there! ❤️❤️❤️ I live in Asia now and really miss the beautiful beaches and small town life ?
Can you believe I’ve never been there before?? I’ve heard it is just amazingly beautiful and we’re so excited about it — especially to go with dear friends AND because we got a really good off season deal on the place we’re staying at!
It really is amazingly beautiful! Though I didn’t mind growing up in a “hidden” gem 😉 And that’s a perfect time of year to go – the weather will be wonderful! I hope you have a fantastic time!
We lived in Niceville for 17 years, hubby worked in Destin, and now we live the next county over. The beaches in Destin are gorgeous! My husband and I were just talking about how much we enjoyed our time there. You’re going to love it, Crystal!
Thank you! We are excited!!
I really wish I could convince everyone I know to keep a consistent wake time (and bed time) instead of the whole sleep in on the weekend thing. Our first born forced us into this pattern. No matter what we do he’s awake by 7, usually earlier. Because he’s a rambunctious 5 year old everyone else is also awake – he makes a lot of noise just taking himself to the bathroom. Then the two year old and five month old think it’s time to eat :). But it’s made a positive difference in our lives. Even on a slow weekend morning we’re ready for the day relatively early. We’ve been going hiking on Saturday mornings and usually we’re on time for church on Sundays. Now our goal is to go to bed before 10 five nights a week and almost never stay up later than 11 the other two nights. When we do that we feel so much better without the hangover feeling you can get from sleeping in too late. So far I think we’ve been hitting our goal 50% of the time. We’ve been pretty consistently close to 10 but not before 10.
YAY and way to go on your progress on your goals!!
I found your site awhile ago, and have been intently observing you. You are an accountability queen. I really like this goal setting/revisit for progress thing you did at the beginning. I really need that in my life. I will be bringing your simple outline to my family for our own planning. Thank you! (And, the remaining content is, of course, awesome. As always.)
I’m so glad this was inspirational. Thank you so much for your kind words of encouragement!