Don't you love this time of the year? It seems like there are endless possibilities for success. In this blog post, I'll share the things that have helped my set goals in the past as well as my 2023 goals and how I'll achieve them moving forward.
Things To Keep In Mind When Setting Your Goals:
With each year there are new dreams and challenges connected with living and succeeding in those goals. For the past few years, I've been breaking my New Year's Goals down into categories. I have 12 different categories that I've broken my goals into for this year: financial, spiritual, health + fitness, environment, giving, fun + recreation, marriage, career, personal development, writing, family + friends, and YouTube + Patreon.
There's something so special about writing goals down. I always feel like I have this intense magical power when writing them down like anything is possible. That I CAN achieve anything I put my mind to. And with New Years, I feel like it's a blank canvas open for you to splash paint on it.
After writing your goals down you need to figure out WHEN... when you'll work on the goal and what the outcome of that will be?
For example, since I am a writer who is working on a RomCom book. I decide that I need to finish writing the book in order to get it out in the world. So then I'd decide how many words the book is going to be also when I'd like the book done by. Then I take the word count and divide that by how many days I'll be working on it. Then it's a much more manageable chunk.
As with anything, consistency is key - it's the small daily habits that get you where you want to be or make you fail.
My 2023 Goals
It feels so weird to write 2023 down and think about a whole NEW year. I know I'm going to have so many issues writing that whenever I write the date.
In the past, I used to write a huge list of all the things I wanted to accomplish and I had unrealistic thoughts that I'd have them all finished by yesterday. *Which honestly, isn't possible, but for some reason I thought I could clone myself and travel back in time to get it all done. Not possible. Plus, projects take a lot longer to finish.*
1. Finances
This is one area my husband and I are trying to get in order. And one of the things that have helped us with our budgeting is an App called Qapital. You can schedule it to take so much out every week, every other week, or once a month and have it save to a goal. One of our savings goals are a trip titled "South Africa" since we will be going to visit Johan's family in 2023.
our finance goals:
Begin making $2000 a month with virtual assistant jobs
Pay off our debt
Pay off car
GET $25 to use toward's your savings goals when you sign up to use Qapital (Just make sure to use our code to get your $25 - tq6wg8bt)
2. Spiritual
My spiritual relationship with Jesus is of utmost importance. I try to prioritize it, even though sometimes it has fallen by the wayside. And I feel bad that's happened. But that's one area I want to pay more attention to this year. It's also another reason I'm shifting my YouTube channel. I'll talk more about this in the YouTube category below.
Something that really surprised me in 2022 and helped encourage me in my relationship with Jesus was the show THE CHOSEN. It's so cool to get to know the disciples as real people. Even though it's not certain how the disciples lives were or what they were like. But it's cool seeing it brought to life and makes you see how they could have lived. Makes it really relatable to see what their struggles could have been like, along with Jesus being portrayed so well on TV. Best portrayal of Jesus on TV ever. Hands down! But it's still important to read the word and spend time praying, but I felt like this was a good addition. Something our world needed for such a time as this. Plus, it's actually free to watch online.
A few years ago, my husband and I had weekly worship nights online and actually had it live online so we could have friends join in if they wanted. I really want to do this again - at least for Johan and I starting out.
my spiritual goals:
Read Bible every day.
Journal daily
Worship and prayer nights with Johan
3. Health + Fitness
In the last few years, I've noticed that I haven't been paying as much attention to my health. Not a good thing. I have a sweet tooth and so it's easy to get pulled in by that stupid thing called sugar. I swear. So, I'm starting off the New Year, by doing a sugar fast.
So this year I'm going to be really focusing on my diet by eating as close to how they ate in Bible times: veggies, lean meats, whole-wheat bread, and little sugar. Last year, (It feels so weird to write that still...) my hubby and I did a Daniel Fast which was so invigorating. We plan on doing one of these a quarter to just refresh spiritually as well as mentally.
my spiritual goals:
Daily Loving Movement - even just 30 mins.
Lift or dedicated workout
One Daniel fast a quarter
4. Environment
Ever since moving into our house in 2019, we've been trying to finish up house projects. It seriously takes FOREVER AND A DAY! We have a few still needing to be finished. I'll definitely show progress pics and posts when we finish them along the way this year. I'd really love to finish most of the projects we started but didn't finished.
I also have this life goal of being minimalistic in my home. Only have things that really mean something to us or add something to our lives. For Christmas this year, we were given a really nice set of pots and pans so we cleared out all the icky pots and pans we have and are giving the others away. Johan also got me a really nice set of plates and bowls for our kitchen. So what happened to our old ones? Yup... I got rid of the mismatched college plates. That feels good. So I want to do that with our whole house.
Another pain point for me is laundry and socks. OMG... we have so many socks but can never find any. And we are ONLY TWO PEOPLE. I can't imagine what it'd be like with baby and kid socks. So I want to get that handled. So I've made up a plan to buy some Darn Tough Socks for both Johan and I. We have a few of these and what I love about them is that if they go bad or get a hole, you can send them back to the company and they will send you a brand NEW pair. So, basically you probably wouldn't need to buy new socks ever again. So I think that's what I'll do for Johan and me. Buy like 10-15 pairs each and then it's simplified and we don't have a HUGE pile to sort then either. ONE AWFUL THING OFF THE TO-DO LIST!
my environment goals:
Keep clean home with cleaning ZONES and the Fly Lady cleaning method so it's easy to stay on top of.
Fixing up house trouble spots
Declutter house + become A Cozy Minimalist
5. Giving
One thing I want to improve about myself is to focus on becoming a person who gives more freely. I'm always astounded by generous people who give, give, give. And give so deeply and I love it. I want to be more like that. Of course, there's more to giving than just money... like giving encouraging words as well. So I want to get better at encouraging people so I think I'll try write a letter to someone a month to encourage them and pray for them.
my giving goals:
Give to a charity monthly.
Tithe at church
Give good tips
Help someone out when I notice they need help
Send letters to friends and family every month. I might pick one person a month.
6. Fun + Recreation
My husband and I love going on trips together. Traveling has always been something I enjoy. So that's something I want to continue doing this year. We actually have two international trips coming up in 2023. In March/April we will go to South Africa to visit Johan's family and then in September, we'll fly to Columbia for my sister's wedding in September.
One area I want to improve is doing more recreational fun around home during our day-to-day lives, whether that's date nights every week or fun family activities at a jump zone or something else.
7. Marriage
I'm always reading or listening to podcasts about marriage and how to continue growing a healthy relationship. My husband and I are by no means perfect. And I want to get that out in front of you guys right now. That's one thing that bothers me about couples who are inspirational speakers... who act like they have everything together are are perfect. Then it comes out that they are getting divorced. *Cough* *Cough* Rachel Hollis. I don't have an issue with her and really loved her work but just wished she'd been open about her and her husband's issues earlier. I think it would have made her brand stronger if she'd done that instead. But, we are all only human I guess.
my marriage goals:
Bible Studies together
Worship nights together
Weekly family meetings syncs
8. Career
I want to be location free when it comes to my career. Don't want to be tied down by place. There's something so draining and depressing about that. Not being able to travel somewhere when you want or meet someone in the middle of the day or workout in the morning when you like.
How I'm going to do that? Well, I am setting a four month goal for myself. I want to get four virtual assistant clients so I can leave the job I'm currently at and work with people I really want to work with. People who are aligned with me goals and dreams. People who are encouraging and positive. Not toxic. Toxicity in workplaces are so sad and I feel for people in them, because I know what it's like. Honestly, I wonder how many on average - in the country are good bosses vs bad. I know there are good bosses out there, because I grew up watching my dad lead his company and how much thought he put into everything he did. But I know there are bad ones out there too, out of experience.
my career goals:
Do what I love and get paid for it
Quit at the bank.
Get book published
Get publishing company up and running
9. Personal Development
Along with bettering other areas of my life, I find personal development to be key when changing your life--like reading, courses, and podcasts. They say you are the average of the 5 people you hang out with most. Who are you reading? Who are you learning from or listening to?
personal development goals:
Read 80 books in 2023
Finish courses I've signed up for but not finished
Listen to podcasts
Create a 2023 Vision Board
Prayer + Journaling
Create a morning routine
Create an evening routine.
10. Writing
This one is simple but oh so hard. Write everyday! EVERY SINGLE DAY! So I'll keep this category simple and just say this. I need to write everyday and to make this happen I'll focus on getting up every day at 5am before the day gets busy so I actually get the thing done before anything else.
11. Family + Friends
Spend more time with family
Text Tony, Cassidy, momma, daddy once a week If we aren’t talking every day.
Text/whatsapp friends and family every Wednesday
12. BONUS: YouTube + Patreon
I took a little hiatus from posting regularly on YouTube because I needed a brief break since earlier this last year. I took a job at a little bank where I live.
I've been brainstorming and thinking and thinking about my watchers/readers and what they want to be seeing. Since I'm a writer/author my followers are readers. They aren't writers. Even though some of mine will be writers too--because writers are first readers. So I wanted to change my angle with the videos and content I put out. So I'll be focusing on LIFE WRITING WANDERLUST -
LIFE: lifestyle/relationship stuff mixed with spiritual and health stuff.
WRITING: Writing, publishing, and interviews
WANDERLUST: adventure, travel, and finding magic in every day life
YouTube/Patreon Goals:
Publish one YouTube post a week. Every Friday.
Publish blog posts that go with the Video Podcasts
Get 1,000 followers on YouTube
Get monetized on YouTube
Update Patreon tiers and publish on there twice a month.
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