Goals and Reflections for a New Year

Do you create new goals for yourself and your family in the new year?

We always create goals for ourselves and help our children create goals as well. Throughout the year we often have discussions about how we are coming along with our goals, changing up goals and the fact that if goals are met it isn’t a fail.

Goals for a New Year

I realize that goals are supposed to be more concrete than the ones I have here, such as lose x amount of pounds by a certain date, but keeping these ideas in my head throughout the year is more helpful to me, but everyone is different.

➤ Eat Healthy and Exercise – I know this is pretty much everyone’s goal and for good reason. I do okay with the exercise portion because I like to exercise and it does wonders for my overall well-being, but my eating habits aren’t always the best. There is room for improvement and no matter how much a person exercises – you can’t outrun a bad diet!

My simple, but not always easy plan:

More fruits and veggies

More water

Green Tea each day

Less sugar and other processed “food”

➤Read more – the last couple of months I have been spending less time on my phone/computer (blogging less!) and have been reading more. In 2015 my reading goal was 20 books and I ended up reading 24 books. This year I think I’m going to make 25 books my goal. I also want my reading to be more intentional this year. I participate in a book club with my homeschool group and I’m also doing another reading challenge which I will share more about soon.

➤Journal/Commonplace Book – This one goes along with the above, of being more intentional. I started journaling when we started the adoption process of our oldest. I have been doing it on and off for the last 14 years. More off than on the last several years. That will change in 2016. Journaling also helps with my prayer time!

I want to encourage my children to journal so New Year’s weekend we are going to make a trip to the craft store and pick out some inexpensive journals to decorate.

There are lots of ideas on my Pinterest Journaling board.

➤Simplify- Simplification in a large family is a challenge. Managing the “stuff” for 8 people often feels overwhelming. We often declutter, throw out and give away, but the “stuff” multiples like bunnies when I’m not looking. We did Christmas a bit differently this year and it was so helpful in this department.

➤Limit Distractions- Easier said than done in a large, busy family! There is always plenty of noise and activity to go around. But, again with the phone and the computer – they can certainly be a distraction. It’s not that the phone and computer are bad, it’s is the mindless scrolling that is often a waste of time. Like I mentioned in my post about connecting with your teen, social media is here to stay and we need to model good behavior ourselves.

➤Blogging – And blogging goals? I have none. Not one and it feels good. As I mentioned in a previous post, my plan this year is just to blog when I have time and when I feel like I have something I want to document. I’m even contemplating deleting my blog Facebook page. The way FB is set up, so few people see my posts anyway, it just might help me work towards more simplifying. Instagram and Pinterest are enjoyable for me though and I will keep using those social media outlets.

What are your thoughts and plans for 2016?