Goal Setting into 2017

Our Chirstmas was every bit as relaxing and precious and memorable as we hoped it would be. But now, we are all feeling the drive to finally get off the couch and jump into our new year. 

I have always been a huge fan of ringing in the New Year. I love the space after Christmas to sit down with my husband and a good cup of coffee to evaluate what worked and didn't work about 2016 and set our intentions for 2017. I believe that we are much less likely to break new ground in the New Year if we aren't setting our sights on what we want to achieve. But that, of course, can be a slippery slope. I have a strong tendancy to make my goals lofty to the point of nearly unachieveable and then spend the first month of my year pressuring myself to get a running start on goals I'll probaly never reach. 

Last year around this time I heard New Year's resolutions referred to as New Year's experiments. That definitely registered with me as a healthier practice. So I created the worksheet below to help me identify the areas of my life that I cared about improving and set manageble goals that seemed within easy reach. Recently I've been exploring bullet journalling and I'm using that platform break my yearly goals in bite sized chunks through weekly goal setting and forming daily tasks. I'll be writing soon with my advise on starting a bullet journal without adding extra stress. 

Finally, Ben and I pick our word of the year. I like to choose a word that embodies the progress I want to make professionally, spiritually, and relationally. I try to dwell on that word as I make foundational choices for scheduling my new year. My word for this year is, "Abide." My hope is tht I can rest in my job before starting my graduate work, that I can create white space in my calander to fill with kingdom work and unstructured time with friends and family, and that I can find quiet in my mornings and through each hour of my day to abide in the presence of my Savior and savor this season, storing it up in my heart. 

If you would like to use our worksheet to create some guidelines for your 2017 experiment, click the link below to download, and I'll be wishing you a lovely New Year. 

Click to Download!