Do you set goals each year? I know it can feel intimidating and sometimes hard to know where to start. So that’s what this post is all about - how to cultivate goals for the year ahead. Ty and I have done this for over ten years and it really helps me in making decisions throughout the year, especially when it comes to how I spend my time.

Whether you’ve set goals before or not, its worth a try. After all, they say that you are 42% more likely to accomplish something JUST by writing it down (Dr. Gail Matthews)

The hardest part of goal setting for an entire year is getting started. Thats why I break it down into smaller categories first so I can think and pray over it in bite size pieces. Here are the categories I like to think through:

• Spiritual

• Financial

• Marriage and Family

• Personal

• Professional

Of course, you can use all, part or categories of your own! Next I write the actual goals. I like to use the SMART tool when writing out my goals. You might’ve used this in a professional settting and it works well here to make sure your goals are:

Here are some of my goals for 2022, how I use the SMART tool to create each goal and ideas for your own goals in 2022:

Spirtual: Finish reading the Bible chronologically by end of year using Tara Leigh Cobble’s Bible Recap as a guide.

I generally don’t have such a quantifiable goal for this category but this year I do! I’ve been wanting to know and understand God’s character more. So I started reading the bible chronologically with some of my mom friends. We are using Tara Leigh Cobble’s podcast as a guide and its been very manageable. Her plan is to read the Bible in a year through daily readings, but I can’t commit to reading every morning because #momlife. For me, 18 months should be a good push and realistic given my current life. This is what I mean by making sure your goals are attainable and timely.

• Can you really accomplish it in the amount of time? Is this a true desire?

• Does it sounds like its attainable? If its already causing dread and angst, reassess.

Financial: Create and stick to 2022 budget.

I want to be very careful in this category. This is a goal that works for Ty and I. We have practiced it over and over for ten years. We’ve budgeted every item spent for ten years (literally!) and do a monthly recon to see where we are doing well and what we need to work on. This is a foundational element in our marriage. We are both very committed to creating a budget and sticking to it. Your financial goal could like something like this or something more specific like:

• Create a $1000 emergency fund in the first 3 months of the year.

• Pay down credit card debt by end of the year using XYZ plan.

• Attend and complete a Financial Peace program in Quarter 1.

• Review spending from previous three months and create a budget for the first three months of the year, then reassess.

Again, I am not an expert in this area but I do know that money stuff is hard and it helps to get organized, understand where you are, and make small attainable goals. I highly recommend Rachel Cruze and her programs if you need assistance reaching your money goals.

Marriage and Family:

• Celebrate 10 years of marriage and go on a trip just the two of us!

• Role model respect to my children.

Ty and I usually go on a “vision date” where we talk about our dreams for the year ahead and beyond. We usually come equipped with pen and paper and just talk about our different goals. And this category is my favorite. Here are some goals we’ve had in previous years:

• Post-Baby: Go on dates every other week. This means adjustingthe budget to include babysitters, deciding who is responsible for planning the date night and who is going to get a sitter.

• Pre-baby: Schedule a weekly date night.

• Schedule a monthly date with each of my sons (I hope to do this in the future!)

• Commit to 10 minutes of “Mommy-Tommy” time daily. This is uninterupted time for Mommy and Tommy which really helped when we became a family of four.

Again, make sure your goals are attainable. I shy away from goals that are vague (especially in this category) like “communicate better,” “fight less,” “celebrate more,” or “make time for more intimacy.” I would dig into each of those as a starting spot and see if you can work at the root and set a goal around that. For example, if communication is a challenge, is it because you don’t have enough uninterupted face time together? Would a weekly or monthly date night help with that? If its “celebrate more,” can you plan a trip together or think about how and what you’d like to specifically celebrate more of?

This year, I also want to improve in the area of role modeling respect to my children. Its something I am convicted over and have to think and pray through how I can improve. This doesn’t require anything of my children but a keen awareness of my own behavior around them. I want to focus on this by demonstrating honor and respect to my elders and not bad mouthing (especially in front of my children) others. I want to invite respectful opinions and demonstrate appropriate conflict resolution skills with Ty. Phew! With a goal like this, I will definitely need accountability from Ty and a good friend.

Personal:

• Get a facial quarterly as a means of self-care.

• Identify a workout plan I can commit to.

• When I make purchases, consider investing in more sustainable products.

Personal goals for me are all about self-care, mental and physical health. This year, I am setting aside room in my pocket money for a quarterly facial. I got one as a gift in the Fall and it was incredible. I can’t stop talking about it. (If you are in Nashville, I highly recommend Sydney at Luxe and Luna!)

Workout goals are hard. 73% Of People Who Set Fitness Goals As New Year's Resolutions Give Them Up (source). Well, thats not motivating at all. The main reason poeple give up on goals is that they are not attainable or timely. You feel behind before you even start, you don’t actually have room in your schedule or you don’t see results in a timely manner. For workout goals, I have three suggestions:

• Set a goal for number of days you want to work out and cut it in half. For example, if you want ot work out 4 days a week. Set a goal for 2 days a week.

• Find a workout plan that you acutally enjoy. Maybe even give yourself the first quarter to try a few things out. Its so intimidating to join a gym, buy a Peloton or commit to a year barre membership only to discover you don’t love the workout. Give yourself the freedom to try out a few things and find a good fit.

• Plan which days you are going to do work out, what time of day, and who will care for your kids while you are doing it. Eliminate all the obvious time obstacles.

Professional:

• Continue with one blog post per week (if not more!).

• Create a content calendar for 2022 and use 2021 as a reference (what worked vs. what was a total bust).

When I was in hospital admin, I loved using this chart called the Capability Maturity Model to determine where my team was, where we wanted to be and then working together to figure out how to get there. You can read more on the CMM above but in short its a scale to help you optimize your processes (and teams) to increase efficiency, capability and production.

I use this even today to point out where I am with Organize Nashville, a true one man show. Right now, I am somewhere beween initial and repeatable. Here’s what that looks like:

• My writing, blogging, and social media is largely manual.

• I don’t yet have a set schedule for blog posts and content so my work is often reactive and dictated by my commitment to posting every Monday.

• I do track some metrics like followers, my email list and engagement on posts but inconsistenly at best

• In the coming year, I’d like to move to a more defined state where I have a documented content calendar that is somewhat standardized. In the next 3-5 years, I would love ot invest in some automation to assist with adding links.

I really didn’t expect this post to be this long, so if you made it here THANK YOU and CONGRATULATIONS! I hope you can see and feel my passion for goal setting. It helps me tremendously making space for the MOST important things. I’d love to hear your goals, know if this was helpful to you and answer any of your questions. I’ll be over on instagram talking more about 2022 goal setting so please come join us there!