January Goals and the Start of a New Year
It’s the beginning of a new year, and (unlike last year) I’m excited and prepared to walk into 2024. If you read my previous post, the beginning of 2023 did not start with me setting goals for the year, picking a word of the year, or dreaming for what 2023 was going to bring. I wasn’t at a place in my life where I could have the mental clarity or capacity for such planning, so it just never happened. BUT this year feels different, and I am SO excited to set goals and start taking steps towards meeting them.
My Goal Setting Process
I’m sure there are so many ways to approach goal setting for a new year, and there’s no one right way to do it. But this was my process for this year if you need some direction for your own planning session.
In the days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, when I found myself with a little bit of downtime (which is rare as a mom of three little boys), I would grab a pen and some paper and just sit down on the couch to brainstorm different goal ideas. I didn’t want all my goals to be achievement-related or financial in nature, so I wrote down everything from “having more fun” to “experiencing life more” to “learning how to be more calm”. I didn’t prejudge anything before writing it down. If it came to mind, I simply listed it on my paper in a brain dumping manner. To gather some more ideas, I watched a few YouTube videos with creators talking about their goals for the year or sharing a list of goal ideas for their viewers. Anything that sounded interesting and potentially realistic got added to the list. When I just barely started to feel that my list was getting overwhelming, I put it down and decided it was complete.
The next part of my process was to read back over my list and cross off any goals that truly didn’t matter that much to me. For example, I wrote down “learn to do my nails at home”, and as much as I love having my nails done, I knew it didn’t hold much weight in my heart. I have had a DIY acrylic and gel nail kit for at least a year, and I haven’t made the time to learn in the past. It’s not to say that I couldn’t now choose to make that a priority, but I knew in my heart that I’d rather spend my time and energy on other things this year. Therefore, I immediately crossed it off my list as well as any other goals that I just didn’t care as much about.
*I thought it would be helpful to note that there IS such a thing as setting TOO MANY GOALS. If you really want to make progress on the intentions you set, you have to narrow things down and prioritize. You simply can’t do everything!
After reading through the list again and eliminating the goals that didn’t matter as much to me, I then began to start organizing my goals into different categories. One category was “Yearly Goals”, another category “Monthly Goals”, another category “Weekly Goals”, and the last category “Daily Goals”. In my experience, it is hard to identify daily goals when the big goals haven’t been established first. For example, I may say that I want to read 52 books in a year, but how many books do I have to read monthly or weekly in order to make that goal realistic to achieve? I may say I want to reach a certain physical weight, but what are the daily practices that are going to support that intention? I may say that I want to pay off a certain amount of debt this year or save a certain amount of money, but what goals do I need to put into place to make that a reality? There are also some goals that simply don’t involve some form of daily practice, so it may fit better in the “Monthly Goals” or “Weekly Goals” category. Organizing your goals into categories helps in actually executing the plan.
Once I had my official list, I then went into Canva on my computer to create a vision board. It’s helpful and encouraging to have a visual representation of your goals. I personally put mine up as my laptop background as well as on my cell phone lock screen so that I can see it daily. Even though we’re just one day into the new year, I could tell that looking at my goals on my phone helped me to better stay focused during the day!
My January Goals
Now that you know my simple process and can start your own goals list (if you want to and have capacity to this year), here’s my list of personal goals for this month. I hope this allows you to get to know me a little bit better and what I’m working on or looking forward to this month. I also hope that it serves as inspiration for your own lists!
Read 4 to 5 Books
My reading goal for the year is to complete 52 books, and in order to achieve this, I will need to read around 4 to 5 books per month. I am planning to read a mix of fiction and non-fiction books, and I’m also hoping to incorporate more biographies, autobiographies, and historical literature this year. In 2023, I didn’t quite meet my reading goal, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to try again this year!
Try Out 1 New Local Restaurant, Eatery, or Food Truck
Okay, okay. This may seem like a super silly goal, but I came across this idea while listening to a YouTube video, and I just LOVED it! My husband and I aren’t the most adventurous eaters, but we do consider ourselves to be foodies. We love setting aside time to enjoy local fine dining experiences, but we can’t typically afford to do that more than once or twice a year. So I’m hoping to find some other local eateries that we can afford to indulge in once a month. There’s literally a food truck a few minutes from my house that I pass at least once a week, and I have never tried it! Well, that ends soon because I’m going to be exploring the local Colorado Springs food scene this year (and hopefully documenting that here on the blog and also on my social media accounts).
Complete One Bible Study
I have a confession to make. I am NOT great at completing Bible studies. Or at least, I haven’t been great at completing them in the past. I have started many Bible studies. I have bought many Bible studies. But I have yet to COMPLETE one. Well, this year, I’m working on the follow through! I am kicking off the year with a Bible study I started at the end of last year and just didn’t complete. As much as I love opening up new things in the new year, I am doing my best to be a person that isn’t just a starter but a finisher. So I’m finishing a study by The Daily Grace Co. titled Emotions and the Heart. So far, the content of the study has been wonderful, and the book itself is simply stunning! If you haven’t looked into The Daily Grace Co. resources yet, I’d highly recommend doing so. They always have some sort of a sale going on, so you can easily stock up on Bible studies or grab extra copies to do a study alongside your friends. They even offer his and her studies if you’re dating, engaged, or married. Check them out if one of your goals this year is to do a certain amount of Bible studies!
Make a 2024 Prayer Board
This is another idea I got from a YouTuber and is a great goal for the beginning of the year. I may even turn this into a date night for my husband and I! To be perfectly honest, my husband and I ended 2023 somewhat discouraged in multiple areas of our lives. In terms of our relationship, we’ve been doing great, but we just feel like we’re stuck in ways, especially financially and in our living space, without a clear direction for how to move forward. We have been praying about specific things for many years that have not been answered yet. We have been praying for peace in knowing what our next steps are. We just have some bigger decisions ahead, and we know we need to be praying intentionally. I think creating a visual landing place for our prayers would be helpful in reminding us to pray continually and also to help us recognize when specific prayers have been answered. We all need reminders of the faithfulness of God throughout various seasons of life, so this is just an intentional way of recording and displaying that.
No Desserts, Candy, or Sweet Beverages
Let’s be real. This probably won’t be an ongoing goal month after month, but I thought it would be good to try for at least 30 days. I have always wanted to eliminate sugary treats just to see how I would feel, but I’ve not been very successful and consistent in a LONG time. Although my overall intention is to adopt a “in moderation” mentality about sweets, I think this will be a good and healthy challenge for the start of the year.
Reach the 160s Weight Range
I’m hesitant to share any weight-related goals on here because it feels very vulnerable, and I’m not the biggest fan of what diet culture has done to many of us. But I feel like I’ve been able to approach weight loss in a healthy and sustainable way over the past couple of months, so I might as well share my goal with all of you. After my last two babies, I really struggled to release weight from my body, and part of the reason is because I didn’t want to adopt any practices that would be extreme or detrimental to my mental or physical health in the long run. I am cautious and avoidant about developing disordered ways of eating or accepting punishment-based messages regarding exercise, so I just didn’t do a whole lot to re-compose my body. Now that I’m almost 18 months postpartum, no longer breastfeeding, and not pregnant again, it’s the perfect time to put healthy effort into reducing my body’s current weight set point. I think I can realistically reach the 160s this month with consistent daily practices, so I’m going to go for it!
I hope you now feel empowered and encouraged to write down your own goals for the year and to start taking small daily steps in the right direction. And one important reminder. Even if you don’t accomplish everything you write down, you will still accomplish more than you would have if you didn’t set the intention to begin with. I love the quote by Norman Vincent Peale that says, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” So don’t look at setting goals as an effort to find or achieve perfection. Set goals from the perspective of taking small intentional steps towards the life you desire to create and experience. Maybe you’ll even find yourself among the stars as you do.
Shavonda Rase
Thank you for this well-researched and thorough article. The insights you’ve shared are incredibly valuable, and I’ll be referring back to this post often.
Erik Demary
This is very insightful.