Happy New Year, friends! I don’t always do this, but this year I decided to pray about what the theme of 2019 would be, and what word God would have me focus on as the year begins. The word I kept seeing over and over again in my mind, and literally in random places everywhere is the word “new”.
A friend of mine sent me this scripture and it has been life to me like never before:
“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
Isaiah 43:18-19 ESV
This is pretty fitting considering 2018 was a year of facing past hurts and disappointments, forging a deep inner identity in Jesus, letting go of who I say I am and what I thought the path would look like, and coming to the place of asking God to do what He pleases with my life.
In the past I have honestly shied away from writing down goals for two reasons. 1. I just didn’t know what I wanted to begin with. 2. I was afraid of not accomplishing what I wanted to. But I think I was approaching it wrong. I was making it bigger than it needed to be.
This year one of my besties reached out and suggested we write down some goals together and it forced me to really look at all the areas of my life and ask myself how I could improve these areas. I realized goals do not always have to be lofty accomplishments. It could simply be pinpointing the various roles you have, the areas that are most important to you, and building a framework for improving and growing in those areas.
So here is my framework for growth in 2019! Obviously some of these are just starting points to be expounded upon as the days, weeks and months go on, but doing this really gave me some perspective, clarity and motivation on my priorities and that is exactly the point!
Breakdown: I plan to take each kid on a one on one date every 3 months; connect with them over scrolling and even chores; help/teach Jackson to fall asleep on his own and stay sleeping through the night; less punitive responses, more highlighting and noticing the good.
Breakdown: It’s not only Joe’s responsibility to plan dates and initiate intimacy so I want to up my game on that end; some ideas for serving Joe I have are letting him have nights to himself after the kids go to bed, instead of asking him to pick up his things around the house just do it for him, text him just to say hi throughout the day, etc.
Breakdown: I know a lot of people who are limiting screen time this year. It isn’t realistic for me to completely ban social media forever, so I needed realistic boundaries. These have been awesome for me so far; I have lots of books in my bookshelf I haven’t read so I am going to dig into them finally instead of buying new books; writing, communicating, and creating makes me happy, so I want to grow that passion; creating positive thinking pathways, and thinking the best case scenario is an area I am constantly growing in.
Breakdown: I’m not someone who needs to workout to be sane. I bake or create or spend some time alone in my thoughts journaling to gain sanity. But, the truth is I physically feel better when I work out because of my back issues, and when I physically feel better, I mentally feel better too. So consistently working out and taking care of my physiological body is a major priority this year.
Breakdown: My faith & relationship with God is pretty much the most important part of my life, so I just want to live that reality out. A lot of 2018 was giving my dreams and desires back over to God after holding onto them for a long time. So this year is not so much about coming up with my own dreams, but letting Him show me what He has for me, and letting Him open the doors; a sabbath day of rest is something I want to incorporate and make space for because I don’t right now. I need to figure out what that looks like.
Breakdown: Community and authentic relationships is pretty much everything, and I’m thankful for a church family that values that so highly. I think that is an area Joe and I are excited to step into in 2019.
Breakdown: I have mentioned here before that Joe and I are all about budgeting, but we also get lazy. This year I want to be the most intentional we have ever been about budgeting, saving, growing financially, and having a financial life that reflects our values and freedom.
Breakdown: We don’t want to be in the home we are currently in forever, so I want this year to be the year we set ourselves up to sell and move when God opens that door and releases us to do so.
That is it for now! I feel really good about this years vision and goals! Did you set some new year goals?! How do you go about setting them and do you feel good about sticking to them? Comment below or let me know on Instagram.
In the weeks to come I will be working off some of these goals and sharing my fave resources for working out at home, meal planning and pantry staples, parenting inspirations, etc. So I will keep you posted as that happens. Have a great rest of your week!
– Melissa
