Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful time celebrating the beginning of 2018.
Things to Look Forward To
This is the first year in a long time that I haven’t had strong feelings about leaving a year behind and starting a new one. In years past I normally find that I am either really excited to start a new year, or I’m not quite ready to end one. This year it doesn’t really matter to me one way or the other; 2017 was a good year and 2018 holds lots of promise to follow suit.
As a family, we have a lot to look forward to in 2018. My daughters will turn ten and eleven, my oldest will enter middle school, I will turn 33, and my husband and I will celebrate twelve years of marriage. We have a family gathering, a weekend getaway, and a family reunion planned as well, all in the first six months of the year. If God allows it, it’s going to be a fun, event-filled year.
Resolutions
Everyone is talking about resolutions this time of year. I asked a few people myself and the most common answers are: to exercise or lose weight, join a gym, spend more time on a hobby or preferred activity, and/or go to church more. My favorite is from a friend of mine who mentioned that she always makes a resolution that includes experiences – last year it was to take a long trip with her son and she did just that. A simple goal with a well-documented outcome, and something they will remember together for years to come.
Personally, I’ve never been a fan of resolutions. We make them over and over every year, and yet, more often than not, they are forgotten by March, April, and May, and then we beat ourselves up over our lack of follow through.
Ever been there?
In an effort to keep from making the normal mistakes – gorging ourselves on holiday foods and overspending our budget on Christmas gifts – that often lead to temporary resolutions come January, Justin and I did things a bit differently this year. At the beginning of December, we sat down and discussed some changes we wanted to make in our personal lives, family life, and finances, in order to achieve our short- and long-term goals going forward into the next year and beyond. Those goals have carried on into our resolutions for this next year.
Our Goals
So, without going into specifics, our goals this year are 1) to work within our budget and focus heavily on debt payoff, specifically student loans; 2) to continue to be physically active; and 3) to focus more on the grace God gives and less on the perfection we feel we should strive for.
To help us stick with those goals, we have logged certain milestones on the calendar so that we are constantly looking to see if we are meeting them. In addition, each time we meet one of those milestones, we have rewards in place for the whole family. That keeps us all accountable to each other and allows us the chance to celebrate when we meet our goals.
What are your resolutions and how do you plan to stick with them this year?
