We all know how it goes! The Christmas songs are approaching their end date, the needles are starting to fall off the tree and you have officially forgotten what day of the week it is. Therefore it is time to start setting those goals for next year. For most these are centered around the gym, nutrition, finances, and personal growth. In excitement for the New Year, we set lofty goals and all intentions are good, but before the winter snow fully melts we have already forgotten what we set out to accomplish back in January.
I have been in this vicious cycle for more years than I can count, but then I married a wise man. Braden brought light to the fact we need to make changes to not only remember our goals, but to work towards constantly striving to achieve them. This is why we do our best to readdress them throughout the year. Before it was a quarterly date we set with one another, but have since come to realize that wasn't enough and why we have moved it to a weekly conversation. During that time we have the opportunity to check in with one another, and ourselves, with where we are at in relation to our goals. It is also an opportunity to hold each other accountable. To determine these goals we have now gone on our second yearly goals retreat as a couple. Our first year of marriage was consumed with cancer and so last year we began our small getaways. We spent our first in downtown Denver and this year was spent in Colorado Springs. Nothing fancy or too far from home, but allows us to spend quality time together focused on what is to come. Our main desire is to live out of intention. We often fail at this but succeed in acknowledging when we've let our priorities get jumbled.
So you may be wondering what is on our list of goals. Well, let me just say Braden and my goals look VERY different. Where his consist of developing his business to make X amount in profit, mine hold more things like drinking half a gallon of water every day. I used to feel the need to match his loftiness, but then realized I need to do me and need to feel no shame in that. We have different interests, which leads to different focuses. Where he loves challenging himself in his work; I love fitness and pushing myself to new limits. Thankfully we both touch on each other's loves, but again it just looks different. He may wish to run a 24Hr marathon (which was a real goal of his last year, that he accomplished I might add), but I have a long list that includes increasing weight on lifts, more daily steps, more water, etc. While I want this little blog of mine to grow into something that can impact the lives of more people; he wants to double the profits of his business within the next year. The moral of the story, do you! Here is a glimpse at how I structure mine if you are needing some ideas as you start to brainstorm.
I start with breaking them down into three main categories personal, work, and marriage. Within each, I break it down further. In personal the goals are centered around consistency, health, and volunteering. For work, they revolve around my blog, managing our rentals, and assisting my husband in his business. Then marriage is all about communication, spark, and faith. Typically in marriage is where Braden and I will have some overlap. From these categories, some of my biggest goals are to reduce social media by adhering to my time limits set on my phone (personal), eating dinner at the dining table with my husband 5 nights a week (marriage), and to post weekly to my blog (work).
Hopefully getting a glimpse into how we handle resolutions will better equip you for your own. Many are itching for new beginnings in 2021, but try not to write off 2020 completely. I like to look at it as a year of challenge, but also a year of growth. Personally, 2019 was much harder on me than what has happened in 2020, but everyone has individual experiences. While 2019, and other years prior, were hard and even debilitating at times, I am thankful for them in a lot of ways. I am who and where I am today because of them. Let us use 2020 to make us even more beautiful in 2021. Let us not let this year be a waste because I promise you there is a purpose for it!