New Years Goals

I am the type of person who loves setting goals.  New Year’s day is my jam.  I love setting goals and looking at what I was able to accomplish each year.  About five years ago, I stopped working on my goals each year, which was very different for me. Yearly goals was a thing for me, and I had been setting them for most of my life.  What changed?  Motherhood.  I was so focused on my kids, that I didn’t even take time to focus on goals for myself.  I actually wrote a blog post a few months ago on my lack of self-care, and goal setting for myself was one of the things that suffered.  Two years ago, I had a friend who introduced me to the idea of picking one word for the year.  That one word is supposed to be the word you focus on in your life for that year.  I automatically had the word simplify come to my mind.  I felt like I had too much clutter in my life, mentally and physically, and I wanted to simplify and get rid of all of that clutter that was making me overwhelmed.  I chose the word simplify two years in a row because I needed it so much.  In fact, I still need to simplify, but I am much further than I was two years ago.  This one word goal helped me a lot.  I was able to focus on ways I could incorporate it into all aspects of my life.  I wasn’t disappointed at the end of the year by not accomplishing certain goals, and I was able to change my life in a more meaningful way.  This one word theme/goal helped me so much that I want to spread the word about it.

I am going to try my best to teach you how to set goals with just one word, so hopefully you will be able to benefit in the same way I did.  

Look at your life right now.  Look at the things that you want to change.  Look at the goals you want to meet.  Look at what ways you can break those goals down to make it to your bigger goals.  Is there a common theme with these goals?  Are they centered around family?  Self-growth?  Simplifying?  Well-being?  If you cannot find a theme with your goals, don’t panic.  In fact, if you can’t think of any goals, I have another way for you to figure out a word that you can focus on.  Take a moment to meditate, or sit in silence, and let your thoughts pause.  Maybe you will be able to have a word come to your mind with this method.  You can also try journaling, or writing it out.  Write about what words come to mind, how they make you feel, and what words really stand out to you.  You can also look up ideas on the internet.  Pinterest is one of my best friends.  I actually used it last year when I was trying to find my new word for the year.  In the end I decided I still needed to work on the previous year’s word, but it was so helpful, and gave me a ton of ideas.

When you pick your word, write it down.  I don’t care where, but at least make sure to write it down somewhere.  I  always write my goals, and now my word for the year in my journal.  I also know people who put it up in the bedroom, or somewhere that they will see it every single day to help them focus on their word.  Whatever you decide will work for you.  I truly hope that this will help you with your self-growth throughout this next year.