Goals for 2018

If you know anything about my family, you know we are big goal-setters.  Most years, you can see Janssen and Merrick's posts about their goals for the New Year, and I am no different. I love setting goals.  My dad is a huge goal setter, and we would always have a family night before the New Year to make and talk about our goals and our game plan for making them happen.  

My mom was here for many weeks (thanks, Mom!) when the twins were born, and she and I talked a lot about goals and goal setting, because of the upcoming year.  She had sorted hers into some categories (family, personal development, spiritual, etc), and while I was putting mine together, I did that, too.  

Then a few nights ago, I was thinking about typing up a final version of my goals, when I realized that sorting my goals with this method wasn't the right fit for this year. I just couldn't get them to look and sound the way I wanted.  Almost immediately, I had a stroke of inspiration.  I quickly wrote down the categories that I wanted to use instead: names.  

Using names to associate with my goals suddenly made my goals feel much more personal and important.  I also put the names in order of importance to remind me what my priorities need to be.  

Not completing a goal that has specific person in mind seems like a significantly bigger failure, and thus should help me actually complete my goals for this year.  I am hopeful that it will also help me remember my goals (I usually print out a copy and put it somewhere where I will see it everyday.  It helps to put it somewhere like the bathroom mirror where I look at it while I am brushing my teeth). 

I also have a few focus words picked out to give direction to some of these goals.  

So here are my categories:

God

Landen

Adam

Fox

Badger and Bear

Family

Home

Travel

Here is a little explanation about how these goals will work for me: 

I am very religious (I am Christian/Mormon, if you didn't know), and I want God to be the center of my life, so those goals are focused on how to strengthen my faith and to help me come to know God better.  I believe that knowing and loving God makes me a better person and will help me accomplish all my other goals.  

Then, I need to take care of me, so I have some goals about getting ready every day, and getting my hair cut regularly. Potentially superficial sounding, but I am a total procrastinator, and typically get it cut only when it is getting ridiculously long, and I despise it. 

Next, I want to strengthen my relationship with Adam, and make sure that we are taking time for us together.  We are planning on scheduling a date night in once a week (more on this later), and a special dinner in every week (because we are probably not ready for a babysitter for a while).  

Then I have my boys.  I have some goals related to helping Fox particularly grow and develop this year, despite my having two infant babies. I also have a goal or two about getting the babies on a regular sleep schedule so that I can still make dinner, blog occasionally, clean the house and spend quality time with Fox.   

Next we have some family goals for making some traditions, getting outside, and doing a few things in Utah, like hiking, going to the park regularly, etc.  

I have some things that I want to do around our house (make a lumbar pillow for my bed, clean out a few cabinets, techniques for keeping the house tidy, etc).  Those are lower priority, but I would still like them to be done.  

Traveling is my last category, because we are planning on doing a few trips this year.  We have a family reunion, would like to visit both of our parents, and take a trip into the Utah Mountains (NOT camping, although, I would like to do that eventually).  

How do you structure your goals?  What are some of your goals for the New Year?  

And, if you would like to try this kind of goal setting yourself, click here for a printable version.