2021 Yearly Focus and Goals

I love goals. I love thinking about them, writing them down, deciding what I want to work on, and the motivation that I feel when I think of myself accomplishing a goal. I also love getting to the end of the year and looking back on how much I have improved. Last year, for the first time I decided to have one overall goal/theme, and then have a bunch of smaller goals that fit under that goal. My theme was to Be Intentional, and then I made smaller goals to help me be more intentional in different aspects of my life. (Put my phone away more while playing with Rose, plan and go on more dates with Ryan, find ways to put more intentional effort into my photography business, etc.) And I found that it really helped me to become more like the person I wanted myself to be! I loved focusing on being more intentional in every aspect of my life that I thought I would maybe carry it over to this year and to have it be my theme again in 2021. 

When I was writing down a list of the goals I wanted to accomplish this year I tried to figure out if I wanted to change my yearly focus or keep it the same so I made a list of ideas for a different focus and then I prayed about it. And immediately the phrase "Look for the good" popped into my head, which wasn't on my list. So, it was pretty clear to me that this year Heavenly Father thinks I should focus on looking for the good. 

Looking for the good is going to be a tricky focus for me (example one: I almost wrote "I am horrible at looking for the good, so this will be difficult for me." haha so obviously it takes a little extra effort for me to change the way I talk and the way I think.) I get stressed out easily and feel overwhelmed by the world we live in. But I want to be better at looking for the good and I think this will help my anxiety and help me to feel more joy. 

Here are some of my smaller goals that will help my overall goal:

• Start each day with more meaningful and specific prayers, and spend a good portion of that time being grateful for the blessings I have. 
• Take 15 minutes to spend individual time with Rose and Lucy most days, look for the good in them, build them up and help them feel loved. 
• Never talk negatively about Ryan to other people outside of our marriage. 
• Assume positive intent. (Something that John Gottman teaches about for healthy relationships, but it basically means not getting easily hurt or offended or upset when your spouse does something that annoys you or frustrates you. Assume that they love you and weren't trying to hurt your feelings. It's been a game changer for us and we've been working on it together! This is especially helpful after having kids because Ryan and I have never felt as overwhelmed with everything that is expected of us as we do right now, and sometimes it can be easy to take that stress out on each other.) 
• Feel gratitude for my body. I've been working out more consistently since Lucy was born than I ever have and I feel frustrated that I'm not seeing the changes that I want to see. This year I'm trying to give myself grace, not compare myself to others, and to show gratitude for a healthy body that works well, is strong, and has carried, given birth to, fed, and still lifts and carries two beautiful girls.

These are my 2021 goals that fit under my Look for the Good focus for the year. Some other goals that I'm excited about, that don't fall under that focus are:

• Teach Rose and Lucy more primary songs
• Potty train Rose (not actually excited about this one but it's one of the big ones...)
• Get Rose and Lucy into the same room. 
• Consistent and Intentional date nights with Ryan
• Be able to run 3 miles straight by the end of the summer.
• Build my credit score. 
• Reach our goal for a 6 month emergency savings.
• Make picture albums for 2018 and 2019
• Travel out of the state twice.
• Build our food storage
• Go camping twice.
• Build my photography business. (Make twice as much money as last year, 400 followers on Instagram, and make a website.)

Ryan thinks I make too many goals, but a year is a long time and I spend a lot of time thinking about what I realistically think I can accomplish in a year. This process works for me (and in my journal I have it categorized into different sections: spiritual, physical, motherhood, couple/relationship, financial, photography, random goals. It's much more organized in my journal which is where I will look to check up on how I'm doing. So, anyway, I love goals. Here are mine for the year, feel free to check up on me to see how I'm doing. :)