I’ve got plans for 2019 and I’m much better at actually achieving things when I make them public!  My plan is to check in at least once a month to give a quick progress update.  So here we go!

HEALTH & WELLNESS

The first group of goals are related to health and wellness.  About two years ago, I successfully lost a significant amount of weight and exercise was a regular part of my daily routine.  I can feel myself slipping back into old habits and I want to nip that in the bud before I find myself back in a place I never wanted to be again.

Goal #1 – Regular exercise

Right now this is going to look like me getting 10,000 steps a day.  In order to make this happen, I’m instituting a “no YouTube unless you’re on the treadmill rule”.

Goal #2 – Attend weekly Weight Watchers meetings

I know they’re calling it WW now and they aren’t meetings (I think I’m going to “workshops” at the “studio”).  Whatever.  The accountability and support at those meetings are what really put me on the right track.  I won’t freak out if I miss a week here or there but an average of at least three weeks out of the month will be what I’m shooting for.

Goal #3 – If I bite it, write it

This means getting back to tracking my food using the WW app.  I’m going to start slow and tell myself to track 4 days a week in January.

Goal #4 – Run a 5k

A year and a half ago this would have been easy peasy lemon squeezy.  Not anymore.  I really hope I can exceed this goal but for the sake of keeping it achievable, I’m going to start here.  I can always add to it later!

FINANCIAL

The next group of goals are financial.  Let’s just say my spending has not been as controlled as I would like over the last year so I think a few simple things to focus on will get this back to where it should be.

Goal #5 – Quarterly spending freeze

For one month each quarter, I’m going to force a spending freeze on non-essentials for myself.  I’m finding marketing tactics working way too easily on me lately.  This is only going to apply to me, not the rest of the family.  January will be the first month.

Goal #6 – Monthly budget tracking

Very much like food tracking, making myself aware of where my money is going will improve my spending habits.  I’m a CPA, this one should be a slam dunk.  But you know what they say about the shoemaker’s kids, right?

Goal #7 – Participate in a few craft shows during the year

Not sure if “financial” is the right place to put this, but I did two last year and they were fun and I made a tiny little profit.  I have some ideas on how I would like to approach this and step one will be making some choices on which shows to participate in.

HOME AND FAMILY

Home and family is the next group.  There’s nothing that really needs significant improvement here but these are things that can always use attention.  Overall, I just want to appreciate the place we are all in right now a little bit more.

Goal #8 – Declutter the house

I find myself spending to much time maintaining the “stuff” in our house.  I feel mentally calmer when things are sparse but that’s just not the normal state around here. So things we don’t need, need to go!

Goal #9 – Date nights

For a number of reasons, it’s been tough to find time for date nights over the last year.  Making an effort to really plan and do better in 2019.  Maybe once a month?

Goal #10 – Tobii modeling

This one is pretty specific but might be the most important one on the list.  Our oldest daughter is non-verbal and after MANY years of fighting, she now has a device that is able to track her eye gaze and provide her a voice.  It’s awesome but also overwhelming. Learning my way around it and modeling for her is the plan.

Goal #11 – Spring break vacation plans

As soon as we realized that the change in our normal school year calendar and a late Easter that would fall after the tax deadline made travel over spring break possible for the first time ever, we knew that was going to take the place of our regular summer vacation. I really want all the details worked out before the end of January so I can just happily countdown to our departure!

Goal #12 – Annual photo book

I’ve used physical Project Life for a number of years to document our family life with photos and stories.  But truth be told I don’t think there is a single year that is actually finished.  I’m going to use a digital approach this year and try to keep up so I can just print a photo book at the end of the year and call it done.

Goal #13 – Continue Finn training

Our ultimate goal for our lab, Finn, is to have him certified as a therapy dog in the next few years.  He’s just shy of two and still has some adolescent energy to work out.  I’ve fallen behind on regular training practice with him so I need a plan to get things back on track.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

The last group of goals are all related to my own personal development in some way or another.  These are not related to my career (I have separate goals there that will remain private).  I do have some pie in the sky long-term goals that many of these are related to but for now, I’m just looking to learn and relax doing things that I enjoy.

Goal #14 – Blog up and running

If you’re reading this, then goal accomplished! I find myself way too paralyzed trying to get things set up perfectly but I really just need to start somewhere and worry about the details later.  The “running” part is going to be a goal of one post a week to start.

Goal #15 – YouTube channel 

This is the scary one for me.  But I really enjoy being a consumer of YouTube and would like to contribute something.  My guess is this one will happen later in the year.

Goal #16 – Complete Kit & Clowder classes

I purchased a few online coloring classes from Kit & Clowder.  I started working through them but the holidays caused me to not get very far.  What I’ve learned so far was awesome so I don’t want to waste this opportunity.

Goal #17 – Read 4 books

This seems like a laughably small number of books but I’m going to just start with one a quarter.  I’ll share information on what I chose and what I thought of it.  It’s like a book club of one!

Goal #18 – Use the craft supplies I have

Remember that spending freeze goal?  More than a financial goal, I also want to stop adding more to my craft supply inventory.  I have plenty, more than plenty and too much is unused.  I want everything I have to either be used this year or to find a new home.

Goal #19 – Contribute/mail more cards

Those of you that follow me on Instagram know that cardmaking is my primary creative outlet right now.  So I have cards, and lots of them, waiting to be shared.  I’m not looking to necessarily make money from them but to just send or contribute them.  I have a few ideas about how to make that happen.  The card drive we did for our oldest daughters birthday last year part of the drive behind this goal!

Well that really seems like a lot now that it’s all laid out!  I’m reserving the right to modify these if something really isn’t working.  Or to just say “nevermind” and consider something different for next year.

There are a few blogs I follow that share goals like this.  Even if their goals are nothing remotely meaningful to me, reading about people making commitments to themselves and seeing their progress is really inspiring to me.  If you’re doing something similar, please feel free to share in the comments!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton