2025 Goal & January Goals

 A quick review of last year's goals:

2024

1. Finish Old Testament and read New Morning Mercies devotional - I did continue to read the Bible most mornings, finished the Old Testament, and am now in the book of Mark. I personally didn't love the New Morning Mercies book, so I abandoned that goal in early January and donated the book to the library.

2. Manage monthly spending and stick to a budget each month - I think I did very well on this goal the first half of the year, but it definitely fell apart towards the end of the year. I still want to look at my bank account and analyze my habits, paying attention to when I most relied on my credit card. My job was super busy and stressful for 5-6 of the months mid-year and I think my main downfall with this goal was not having any time to plan and feeling like I was just in survival mode.

3. 100+ Peloton rides - This did not happen. For what it's worth, I just counted and I did 33. 

4. Blog once per week - I'm trying my best not to laugh. This one is embarrassingly low as well (7 total blog posts in 2024), but again, my year as I envisioned it in January did not play out the way I expected due to my job.

5. Relax and have more fun - I think I'm overall more relaxed in general, but I did not have more fun in 2024. I was often sick, overwhelmed at work, and just trying to get by.

Wow, I did not do very well on my 2024 goals. But even so, I just now read back over my 2023 goals and am happy to report that two years later, those goals are now solid habits: attending church each week, reading 20+ books per year, and not buying nearly as much alcohol at the grocery store.

ONWARD to 2025!

As I've done for several years now, I use an inexpensive Bloom daily planner purchased from Amazon (shown above). For work, I use my Outlook calendar, but keeping a paper calendar is the best tool for me for planning everything else.

2025

I have one goal for this year:

1. Plan and structure my day/week.

When I told Brian my goal for the year, he pointed out that this was a goal that would take one hour, LOL. That is true. Making the plan won't take long and, in fact, I've already done it. This goal is more about sticking to the plan.

When I started a new job in October, I mistakenly thought that having 4 days each week to work from home would equate to feeling more accomplished in all areas of my life. I figured I would have time to do laundry, exercise, grocery shop, write, clean, and also do my full-time job. I was going to do all the things! 

To my surprise, my new job initially kept me busy and I found myself in front of a computer most days, often in meetings, and working through lunch. Then, once my training was done, I became more efficient. My meetings and workload reduced, but each day seemed to have something unique (a sick child, a vet visit, etc.) that would derail my day's plan. 

Once I thought about my self-improvement goals as a whole - which include some smaller health, relationship, and personal goals that I wrote down - I realized that the over-arching goal was to better plan and structure my day/week and in doing so, I would naturally accomplish these smaller things. 

I may share the detailed and hourly break down of my day/week here on the blog, but for now, I am going to move into my specific goals for this month:

January Goals

1. Get passports for Brian and Cam

We have an international trip coming up in March and getting passports is something I dread. Mine has not expired, but Brian needs a new one and Cam needs one too. This is just an annoying task that we need to knock out very soon because time is of the essence. 

2. Declutter downstairs junk room

I'm not sure what to call this small room where my Peloton is located, but I think "junk room" best describes its current state.

That's it! I guess after 2024's goal failure, I'm starting this year with small steps. If I accomplish this main 2025 goal of better structuring my day, I know that my life will bear fruit in many areas. I've taken the time to envision where I'd like to grow spiritually, relationally, financially, and personally. Better planning my day seems like the best way to get there. 

I know that this is not the year for me to climb career ladders, embark on a new business venture, or overhaul life in any drastic way. If I have a growth mindset and continually challenge myself, I'm sure there will be years in my future that involve those bigger things, but with 2024 being unexpected on the career-front and an active year for The Strawberry Group (our personal business), I'm looking forward to having a year of intentional, more-inward focus.