No. 51. My 2023 Goals

The things I want to grow this year

People have mixed thoughts about goal setting and new years resolutions, but I personally LOVE setting goals, and it’s something I continually do throughout the year. However, I do like to do a goal reset at the beginning of each year.

I shared some of my goal setting tips here, but here’s another tip I learned since then as I’ve been reading this book: write your goals in context of your big picture vision. This requires including the why behind your goals, and that can be pretty impactful! Here’s the recommended structure:

I will achieve [YOUR SUPER GOAL] 

because [YOUR ULTIMATE WHY] 

so that [A FEW OF THE BEST WAYS YOUR LIFE WILL BE DIFFERENT]. 

As a Christian, each of these goals is prefaced with: God willing, because we can make our plans and goals, but the Lord determines our steps. So, I’m writing these goals out in faith, and holding them with open hands in case the Lord has other plans for my life.

Note, I know it’s tempting to make big ambitious goals to become a “new” you and accomplish all the things. But remember, January 1 is just another day. You’re still the you that you were on December 31. There’s no magical change that happens overnight.

That’s why I’ve learned that to actually accomplish my goals, I don’t need to do something drastically new - it’s more about adjusting the course of what I’m already doing and who I’m becoming. It’s why my goals look very similar from year to year as I try to grow in each area of my life, versus trying to become someone new.

So, without further ado, here are the big picture goals I’m focusing on in each area of my life. 

GOAL #1: I will become more healthy and fit because I want to take better care of myself so that I can feel more comfortable and confident in my body, prepare my body for another pregnancy, and have the energy and strength to play with my kids and watch them grow up.

• I gained a lot of weight when I was pregnant, and I’m not one of those women who loses weight while breastfeeding. Levi’s sleep has also been rough, even with sleep training, so with sleep deprivation and the stress of becoming a first time mom, I feel like I’ve just been eating too much (including a lot of emotional eating). I want to feel healthy, confident, energetic and comfortable in my body. 

• I do have a weight goal in my mind, but I don’t want to do a diet just to lose weight, but focus more on changing how I approach food and fitness so that it becomes a natural lifestyle for me to choose the better, more nutritious thing so that I can build sustainable, long-term, healthy habits. This will take time, but it will be worth it. 

• I’ve been doing a lot of learning in this area, and these two resources have been a wealth of knowledge for me lately: 

  • The Noom Mindset book and the Healthy Eating for Busy Women Podcast

GOAL #2: I will simplify my life to have less stuff & noise (screen time, social media, tv) by prioritizing what grows good things in my mind, soul and life: prayer, Bible study, family time, being outdoors, reading, podcasts, and rest so that I can better manage my anxiety and cultivate more peace and intentionality in my life.

• I have been craving peace lately. There is just so much noise around us and I spend way too much time looking at screens and multi-tasking. Usually, it didn’t really bother me, but since becoming a mom (and probably the sleep deprivation of the last year), I feel like my anxiety has started to act up more frequently, and I’ve noticed it’s usually because I’m overstimulated and overwhelmed. So, I want to simplify what I take in and replace it with life-giving things that encourage me to slow down, grow, and be more intentional. 

• In the words of Emily Ley, “If the adage holds true that we pour out what we put in, what does this say about how our social media usage affects how we parent, serve, communicate and love?”

GOAL #3: I will grow my newsletter & blog into a thriving community by writing regularly so that I can share what I'm learning, equip other women to navigate modern issues from a Biblical perspective, and build a strong platform for future business opportunities.

• I love learning and sharing what I learn to help others, especially other women. Last year, I started blogging more regularly and publishing a weekly newsletter, and it has brought me so much joy.

• I want to continue growing a community for Christian women to come together to navigate modern issues from a Biblical perspective: from marriage and parenting to how we show up in our work. 

GOAL #4: I will launch a career e-course to encourage women to grow in their careers and excel in their work and help create a passive income stream to support our family dreams.

• Over the last year, I’ve been slowly working on a digital course to help Christian women elevate their careers and excel in their work. Most of it was written while I was on maternity leave, and in my spare time, I’ve been working on finishing the course up to share with you. It’s so close to done and I’m excited to introduce it to y’all!

GOAL #5: We will meet our savings goal because we need to steward our finances better so that we can buy a farm and give generously.

• My husband and I have an ambitious savings goal in our minds that we’re working towards in order to be able to buy a ranch and move out into the country. To do that, we want to get back into being better at monitoring where our money goes (having a baby last year kind of wrecked our budget!).

• We’ve also in the last year decided to up how much we give and tithe, and in 2023, we want to grow our giving efforts even more. 

GOAL #6: I will become a present and joyful mom and wife by praying, spending less time on my phone, making time for date nights & family time, so that we can build up a strong family culture and invest in our marriage and children. 

• My family is the second most important priority in my life, after my relationship with God. I don’t really have any SMART goals specific to this, other than being intentional with what I commit my time to and making intentional time for my family. My other goals, like getting healthy and simplifying what I consume will help me to be more present and joyful as a mother and wife. 

GOAL #7: I will cultivate community locally by starting a women's Bible study and more actively mentoring the younger women in our church because we were not meant to do this life alone.

• I have been craving community lately. The postpartum/newborn season left me so isolated as baby and work took up all my time last year, so in 2023, I want to be more intentional about building up relationships with other women in my life. 

GOAL #8: I will establish routines and systems to create a tidy, healthy and life giving home.

• This is something I’ve already started working on, but really want to become more focused in how I build up and maintain our home.

• Especially when you’re a working mom, your time to do all the house things is limited, so I want to be intentional in building up routines and systems to keep up with household tasks and free up as much time as possible to be with my family.

• For example, I want to set up a cleaning schedule and then put reminders in my phone calendar for certain repeatable tasks like washing the floors so that I’m not trying to constantly remember if I washed the floors one week ago or one month ago!

• I have also been slowly working to swap out what we use in our home to use products made with clean ingredients. I want to keep educating myself on this front and bringing in less toxins into our home.

I also have several work goals I’ve written down, but those are more specific to my job, so I’m keeping those private. Daniel and I also have goals as a couple that we’re working on together in our ministry and family, in addition to my own personal goals above. 

Generally, I write my goals down in my PowerSheets, but this year, I’m trying an Excel tracker instead (you can download my template here!). I wrote out my big picture goals, and then under each goal, I’m adding action steps and/or mini goals on how to achieve the bigger goal. I’m also putting tentative timing since I also like to break down my bigger goals into smaller quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily goals. 

I also created a vision board to provide a visual reminder of these goals!

What are your goals for 2023? I’d love to know - respond in the comments!