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Goals // January

1.4.2016 • 5 Comments

So today marks the first official day back to the grind for so many of us after the holidays. I shared a bit about this in a recent insty post, but I’m excited to hit the ground running and start doing the hard work. I’ve set the yearly goals for 2016 and not it’s time to break it down into some actionable steps for each month. Before I share my January goals, how about a bit of accountability for those December goals I made.

1. Be filled with peace instead of stress. The perfectionist in me gets so stressed out by USPS issues, lost packages, missed deadlines, making shipping mistakes and not being able to make every request happen. I’m really trying to let this go this year. I’m trying to focus on doing my best while not letting it overwhelm me. I’ve started writing lots of verses on cards and am carrying my prayer journal EVERYWHERE to make sure I’m setting my heart on truth. Hallelujah praise the Lord! This prayer was answered mightily. USPS was NOT a disaster and we only took orders for journal we had in stock so there were any weird unexpected delays to stress over. Also, my assistant Savri did ALL the packaging of journals and most of the shipping so December was eerily calm. 

12338728_424549194411201_1342829685_n2. Be intentional about my Advent Study. I did this for the first time last year with Naptime Diaries and it definitely helped me find Jesus every morning despite a hectic schedule. You can still order the PDF of the study here! Yes! The study was so incredible and thought-provoking but more than anything, it inspired me to dig into the Christmas story in the Bible for myself. God really spoke to me in so many ways I never expected after having read the same story for 30 years. 

3. Be intentional about family time. Vivi is at such a fun age discovering the holidays. She randomly says at least once a day “Happy Birthday Jesus” and when she wakes up she runs in the living room and remembers the tree is there and yells “Christmas!!” Her delight is so sweet to watch. We put up the tree on Friday night and while Tyler and Vivi hung ornaments, I watched and got to feel the baby kick for the first time. I don’t want to miss sweet memories like this because I’m too busy so I’m working on being extra intentional with my favorite people. We had soooo much family time even to the point that this introvert was in dire need of some alone time by the end of the week. ; ) We’ve already talked about next year and how to balance these things.

4. Work through my powersheets to set 2016 goals. You’ve heard me talk about these plenty already but I’ll say it again. They have made the biggest different in making the last few years more intentional and purposeful. I’m excited to create God-centered goals for next year! Yes! Y’all read all about the goals last week! 

5. Reread Redeeming Love. Our pastor talked about Hosea a little on Sunday and I remembered learning so much about God’s amazing love for us as I read that book. I’d love to soak my heart in this message as we celebrate Christmas and I also think it’s the perfect way to force me to put the work down and do something refreshing. Nope! But I feel like the end goal for reading Redeeming Love was reached since I read the Christmas story so I’m totally OK with this. 

6. Update our personal expenses and plan budget for business and personal for 2016. Honestly I didn’t want to add another thing to my month but I think this is really important. I’m so guilty of totally bailing on something if I don’t do it before the month or year starts. Anyone have any helpful Excel templates for maintaining your budget? Yes! Ok mostly done. I’ve still got to update some expenses seeing as I hadn’t done it since the spring! Eek!! But we have set a budget for the year for personal and my business and I’m excited to be more intentional with our saving and giving! 

Now for January Goals. These all pair directly with my yearly goals:

1. Take a weekend trip to dream with Tyler. Sadly this one isn’t off to a good start. We’ve got every Saturday of the month booked up so this might look more like several hours at the coffeeshop next Sunday!

2. Prepare and pray for an intentional, interactive book club! I will be sharing the first periscope today at noon and you can join our facebook group here. We will be reading through The Finishing School together. Order on Amazon if you want to get it in the next few days OR in our shop if you want to order the workbook or flash cards. In the shop we also have our imperfect copies for $6 with $3 of each copy sold going to the Her Initiative!

12356587_1676415112630244_2018983738_n3. Create a PDF of the process the book Women of the Word shares for studying the Bible and have handy during quiet times. I LOVED what I learned about studying the Bible in this book but know I won’t just remember it offhand. I love the idea of creating a key to help me as I learn to study the Word.

4. Decide how much to change our tithe to. This is on our agenda for Tyler and I’s dream day! 🙂

5. Set financial goals and make them visible. Any suggestions on fun ways to make goals visible? Keeping it in an excel sheet doesn’t keep me motivated.

6. Schedule fitness in my Day Designer. I have failed for way too long on exercise and the reason is simple. I don’t actually fit it into my day so it never happens. I’ll be planning to work out the first hour while Vivi is at school which will cut into work time but I know it will be worth it to keep my mind sharp, body more energetic and strong as I get further along in my pregnancy.

7. Find and use an app that tracks my phone usage, specifically tracking time on social media. Does anyone have a favorite??

8. Take the No Brainer Course and get rid of most of my closet. I am super excited about this. I think it’s obvious from The Finishing School that I am a nerd for learning. The clothes in our house have been the hardest area to pare down. I normally will clean the whole house and toss everything in my closet with the intentions of tackling that after I do the rest of the visible house. It never gets done though!

9. Start our next season of small group with church. We’ve been off for the holidays but I’m so excited to start back!

10. Pray and get feedback on new products. I am aiming to design a few new products in February and March. I truly want these to be products that will grow you closer to the Lord and not something I slap together because someone else is doing it or because I’m on a deadline. I’m working on a survey this week so I can get y’alls feedback on what you’d love to see next!!

BOAZ FUND

Our Boaz Fund recipient I actually haven’t nailed down a specific non-profit but I know I want it to go to Syrian Refuge relief. If anyone has a recommendation for a small organization that is sending food, Bibles, coats, etc, I’d love to hear!!

tfsad

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Comments (9)

Hi, I was going to recommend Moment too. It’s scary… but enlightening to see.

I wrote two posts on the Moment app:

https://takechargesolutions.org/blog/2015/05/18/are-you-addicted-to-your-phone/
https://takechargesolutions.org/blog/2015/07/13/an-update-on-the-moment-app/
Curious about the tithe question – do you guys not just tithe 10% of your gross?

I love the way (LOVE!) you read to support your goals. I’ve just started a little bit of that this year as relationships is one of the things that bring me JOY (my word!) so I’m reading a lot more parenting/ marriage books.

I’m #marciareads on Instagram 🙂

Moment has been extremely eye-opening!!! EK! Going to have to check out your posts!! Thanks for sharing!
Yes, for tithe we were doing 10% but wanted to do more but weren’t really sure exactly how much to do!!

Hey!! I thought about that but it’s all content from the book Women of the Word so I hate to share that much content of someone else’s for free! I would HIGHLY recommend the book though! It’s pretty short but packed full with content!

Hello! I have a rec too on an app for tracking. I use QualityTime and will let you set limits on how many screen unlocks for a day, set scheduled “breaks” (and you can choose if any or some apps are present on that break). It tracks your usage per app and shows daily/weekly usage as well. I just set mine up with daily scheduled breaks and limits on time per specific apps, like IG. Hope that helps!

Reading through your goal setting series – and these goals – has been so beneficial to me to create a strong meaning behind the goals that I’ve set for myself this year, and keep God close to them. I wish you so much luck Val!

Happy New Year!

Hi Val,

For tracking phone usage, I love the app Moment. It runs in the background of your phone, will send you notifications on how much time you’ve been on your phone, per your specifications, and will even freeze your phone (if you let it!) when you go over your set amount of time.

Happy New Year!