I don’t make New Year’s goals every year but this year, I really felt compelled to list out what it is that I want to see/accomplish within the year (and within the decade as a whole). I think it might be because I’m turning 35 this year, or maybe because this new year signals the start of a new decade as well, but for some reason I just feel super compelled and motivated to visualize what it is I’d like to see happen and then … as much as I can, MAKE IT HAPPEN. You know? So here goes:

1.) Fit into my pants. LOL. I shared this on my IG Stories already but after losing all the baby weight (for the third time) after A, I actually let some of it creep back on throughout the year last year. That was honestly kind of embarrassing for me because with my first two kids, once the baby weight came off, it stayed off until I got pregnant again. BUT NOT THIS TIME LOL. Part of it was because it was a really crappy year, and especially the first half, I was dealing with a lot of personal, family issues that made eating well & exercising a low priority. That coupled with the last few months with holidays and such … me pants no fit. Which is a problem, because I have a lot of cute clothes that I’d like to wear so … goal #1 is to FIT INTO MY PANTS AGAIN.

2.) Kind of related but also not – Strengthen my core. 3 babies, all within 9-10lbs each, with back to back pregnancies, nursing, postpartum, etc. The last 10 years of my life have been marked by sacrificing my body for another’s life over and over again. And that’s fine! That’s amazing, that’s divine design. I’m so proud at what my body was able to achieve and nourish. But in this next decade, there won’t be any more (planned) pregnancies and I’d really like to focus on regaining some strength that was lost. I want to increase my core strength and my upper back strength specifically because those are two areas that actually give me a lot of pain since I’m so weak there.

3.) Read the Bible every week. I’d say every day to be ideal but I am all about baby steps, and to be honest, I don’t have any sort of regular rhythm for my devotional Bible reading anymore and I’d like to establish some kind of habit for that this year. So the goal is just to make sure I’ve spent some time every week devotionally reading the Bible. Ideally, it would be more than once a week, but if I can look back at this year and say that I read my Bible on my own EVERY week, I’ll be super proud of myself. I read an encouraging article over the break that said something like … in the beginning, the Bible tastes like medicine. You know it’s good for you but it doesn’t taste so good. Then after awhile, it will start to taste like oatmeal. Not terrible but not your favorite thing in the world – you can enjoy it but you don’t crave it. But if you keep persisting, the Bible will become like sweet honey – it says so in itself! And I want to read my Bible often enough this year that it does just that – becomes sweet honey to my soul.

4.) For this last goal, I just have one word – INTENTIONAL. I’ve seen people that have a “Word of the Year” that they use to sort of capture what they want their vibe to be, and if that were me, then I’d say that my word is INTENTIONAL. Specifically, I’d like to be more intentional about my finances/spending but in a broader sense, I’d like to just be more intentional about my everyday, too. What I eat, how I spend my time, my money, how I go about my day. I spent so much of last year and the last decade trying to just catch up – whether because I’d just had a baby, or because of family drama, or just because I was coasting through my weeks, but this year I’d really like to change that. I just want to be thoughtful about how I move about my day and the things I say & do.

So those are my 4 big goals that I’m working towards and on this year. But aside from that, I have a few … side goals? I don’t know what to call them. Bonus goals? Things I’d like to work on/improve this year but they’re not going to be my main focus and if I can’t, then I won’t beat myself up over it. Those include:

• Blogging regularly. I’ve started the bare bones of a content calendar that will help keep me accountable and on track with what kinds of posts I want to make throughout the month. I miss blogging and really hope that this helps me regain a regular sense of posting this year.
• Private journaling. Last year, I bought one of those 5-Year journal sets … I filled out my “Year 1” for 2019 diligently for, like, 3 months and then never touched it. NO!! I want to be more consistent with my private journaling, too. It could be as simple as – “I’m so tired” but I’d like to take the time at night to jot down my thoughts for the day if possible.
• Sleeping before 10. I am a total morning person but the last few months have been really wonky for me. I’ll get up early some days, and other days be up until 11pm doing random crap … I want to get back into my normal habit of sleeping super early and rising super early. Early bird gets the worm!
• Reading before bed. This is not my Bible reading goal – this is just for my fun reading. I really hate doodling on my phone before bed because I just feel like that’s an icky habit to have but sometimes I really do feel like I need to “unwind” before I can sleep. So for those nights, I’d like to foster a “reading before bed” habit consistently. I already read a lot (of fiction) and often read before bed if I’m in the middle of a good book, but aside from those times, I’d like to just have it as a habit that I read a few pages of my book (or more) before bed.

Last – you may remember my post about the 75 Hard challenge that I posted a few days ago. I actually did Day 1 pretty easily … but I was thinking more about this challenge and am sort of questioning now if this is something practical for me as a mom of 3. I mean, if you’re a young 20-something year old and all you have to worry about is yourself and your job, then yea – finding time to get two workouts in a day, one of which HAS to be outside, is most likely just a test of your mental toughness. But when your schedule is dictated by the schedules of 3 tiny humans … sometimes it’s just out of your control. So, I’m still thinking through how I can actually get this challenge done. It’s not that I want to make excuses for myself, but for example – if a kid of mine gets sick, I can’t leave him/her to go for a workout outside LOL. I might be able to get a workout done at home but if it HAS to be outside, I don’t know that I can stick to that (or maybe I can?). So, I’m still trying to figure out maybe what my version of this challenge is? The one outdoor workout is the hardest part for me. I can do 2 workouts a day if I have the flexibility to get it done at home … so maybe I’ll just make it 2 workouts a day, with the hope of 1 being outside but if life gets in the way (which it often does for a mom) then maybe walking around my backyard for a bit and doing a workout at home has to suffice? We’ll see! 🙂 As a reminder, here are the “rules” of the challenge –

1. Pick a diet and follow it. The diet is up to you but once you designate what you want your eating to look like, stick to it for 75 days. NO cheat meals!
2. Workout twice a day for 45 minutes each. One of these workouts has to be outside!
3. Drink a gallon of water a day.
4. Read 10 pages of a non-fiction book a day. I’m going to use this one to read 10 pages of my Bible – it’s like knocking out two birds with one stone!
5. Take a progress picture every single day.

Leave a comment with your goals for the year and/or what you think of this challenge!