It’s that time of year again! Time to make up your resolutions -- I always see the titles “New Year, New Me” but as I read others lists to get ideas of what I personally wanted to work towards the more I thought, “I like where I am -- why do I need to be a new me?” So I decided on “New Year, Not So New Me” to describe 2021 sounded much better.
Truthfully, I am not one to make the famous resolution goals/lists. This is very strange for myself because I am an enneagram Type 1 (if you don’t know what this is go google it! It is so fun to see your personality type written out. All you have to do is take a 20 minute test and you will have your results.) -- I am all about the lists and organization! However, I think, I just set my goals a little too high and by the time February rolls around I've thrown everything out the window and get stuck in my normal routine all over again.
This year I've decided to ACTUALLY write up and print out a list with goals I can manage and be successful with instead of trying to completely change habits. I'm going to think of it as a little tweak to each big section of my life. In the hopes that I can actually stick with them this year.
So this New Year, Not So New Me...I created 4 categories:
"Family, Faith & Self-Care" : This is my biggest category, I have about 11 goals written down from losing baby weight to reading my Bible much more. Again keep them small so when you lose one pound and read one chapter you can say “I am really working on my goals this year” because it is more than what you did the year before (at least that is how it is for me). I have weekly goals in this group as well as long term or monthly. Examples of my weekly include: dinner at the table each night and going to the park with the kids once a week. Then monthly ones are: date nights with my husband and completing a bible study. Simple and sticking with this group's theme.
"Home Improvements": My husband and I like to do one big home improvement project a year. However this past year with COVID we got multiple big renovations done (we took down a wall in our main living area and we got a patio put in the back yard and let me tell you both made a huge difference when having to quarantine!) -- so in 2021 we will mainly be focusing on doing much smaller projects like “getting home decor” and “organizing/cleaning out rooms” and simply just getting rid of the junk we do not use. Though we are talking about creating an office space for myself/kids play room in our spare bedroom. Again nothing huge, just rearranging furniture and getting the pieces we need to make the space into an office.
"Money": This is always one of my favorites. Trying to save up for our next vacation or paying off chunks of loans. It is such a great feeling to not be in debt and it is something we personally strive to keep up with every year. Highly recommend having a Money Goal for your family every year as well as open communication with your spouse about money -- it can so easily get out of control if you do not talk about it. We normally have a sit down every two weeks to go over the budget and look at the bills together so we are both on the same page. It just makes the year go by much smoother and way less fighting.
"Business/Work": I decided this group was going to be mainly for myself this year. My husband’s job does their own quarterly check-in plus if he told me his goals I’d probably have no clue what he was talking about anyways! So personally for me, this category has a lot of goals for my blogging -- coming up with topics, places to explore etc. As well as where I want to see my Instagram account in the next year, dream brand collaboration to weekly bring home money goals. They seem small now but I am praying the hard work will pay off by the end of the year!
I've found splitting them up into categories really helps me stay focused. I am able to determine what is most important by ranking my goals within these categories on what I really want to get accomplished to what I'd like to get accomplished.
Just so I don't get super overwhelmed and end up quitting like I do every year.
This year I actually picked a word as well -- EMBRACE. To be completely honest I am not sure how it came to me. I looked up the definition a couple times and I am talking about the “accept & support” one not the “physical touch” one because well you all know...COVID. I truly want to embrace the new year with a fresh outlook. I want to shake out all the negativity in my life and be happy.
One of my favorite Bible verses is:
Psalm 139:14
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
He made each of us different and uniquely perfect. We all have been called here at this specific time in history for a reason and I am blessed to live in this beautiful, crazy world. There is so much more to learn and see and I am going to EMBRACE every second of it.
After the chaos that was 2020 I felt like this word weighed on my heart. If 2020 taught me anything is was to take things as they come and embrace the moment so here I am -- New Year, but no so new me and I like the sound of that.
XO,
Christine ~ The CurlyQ Mom
Have you created your New Years Resolutions yet?