Happy New Year! Welcome To My 2024 Goals!
Happy New Year! Today is January 1st, 2024. I want to welcome in the new year and I also want to welcome you guys! First of all, thanks for sticking by me throughout last year. I really do appreciate your support!
We’re starting the year fresh with new goals. I’m hoping that I can put a new spin on things for myself this year. I sometimes find myself getting caught in a rut. I turn to the same goals that I had in previous years, and tackle the same tasks day after day. In my last article about goal planning, I wrote that you should try to scare yourself with your goals. I’m definitely going to try more of that this year.
From the date of writing (Nov. 15th, 2023), I am attempting to wrap up 2023 goals. I don’t know if I would say that I accomplished everything on my list for 2023. I think I gave it a good try, but we had a lot of set backs last year. We had unexpected things (most of them negative) happen, (which is life), but it threw us for a hard loop. Personally, with our baby who was born with Cystic Fibrosis and then with finances, and then with other sporadic things like appliances breaking down all at once. I will be talking more about finances this year, and I think I’ll be bringing my budgeting videos back to my YouTube channel @Sandradahl because money is always at the forefront of our thoughts. It’s maybe unfortunate, but currency is what makes the world go round and what puts food on the table, so it’s important to discuss how to manage finances responsibly. In my humble opinion, I don’t think kids get taught about money from schools or their parents. They’re pushed out of the nest and expected to figure it out on their own and I don’t think that’s how it should be. I’m all for personal development and learning on your own, but there are definitely some things we let slip as a society when it comes to raising our children properly.
Again, as of writing, I don’t have my 2024 goals ironed out completely - (if you’ve followed me for awhile, you know that I’m a huge supporter of Cultivate What Matters, and I haven’t done my Prep work in my goal planner yet!) This is where I usually brainstorm and iron out the kinks and figure out how I want the next year to look. (Yes, that’s me in the driver seat - I am in control of my life, and I give it direction by setting goals). Sure, life happens, but I get right back on track and continue on that road even if it takes a little longer than originally planned. (2020 anyone?)
Here, I’ve developed some thoughts on my upcoming 2024 goals if you want to stick around and take a listen!
Scaring myself - I’m going to do (at least) one thing that I’m not used to. It doesn’t have to be sky diving, but I’m going to step outside my comfort zone a little bit and do something (for myself) that I don’t normally have time for. I’m going to make time!
In 2023, I finally separated my work and personal planners (I use a Franklin Planner for my life and a Janes Agenda junior disc-bound for my business). I always tried to keep them together and it just wasn't working for me. I’m going to do the same thing with my goals, and completely separate them. I will make substantial and fulfilling goals for my business, with the help of a business planner from the Makers Yearbook 2024. It’s written by Nicola Taylor if you want to check it out for yourself. I will be discussing this exclusively in a Youtube Video coming soon (if not already). I have a business, and it’s time that I actually create a business plan for myself!
Routines - I find that routines do truly make your life a lot easier. Habits that you follow through with consistently become second nature the more you do them, and if they’re healthy habits, it eventually will lead you to a really good place. You might not see progress over the short term, but every little action you do on a daily basis leads you to the best future version of you. For example, my daily schedule for work hasn't always worked out because I have kids. If I fall behind during the week, it’s very easy for me to become lethargic, unmotivated and I lose my productivity flow. I’m looking for ways to prevent that. So, if it means doing extra work now to make things easier later, that’s what I’m going to do. This might look like changing up my schedule, or changing the order in which I do things in the morning. If I get up at 5:00am every day, then maybe I do the most important tasks first thing before my planning. If I find that hard to do because I’m too tired, I might have to re-think my bed time and night time routine.
I’ll be keeping some of the same old maintenance goals around to help me maintain my organization standards and home life. A big goal here is Swedish Death Cleaning. If you don’t know what that is, it’s basically when you are older, you clean up and get rid of all the belongings you no longer use before you die so that your relatives are not left having to do it. It might sound morbid, but I don’t need to leave that burden to my kids. I keep the stuff I use and get rid of the stuff I don’t. This means everything is used, replaced if it’s broken or runs out and everything has it’s home. It helps to keep your home decluttered and more organized because you don’t have as much stuff.
Another maintenance goal is to maintain relationships with my friends and loved ones. Relationships take work. You need time to work on relationships, so I try to think of ways to keep my relationships healthy. For example, my husband and I try to have a date night at least once a month to spend quality time alone together without the kids. As a family, we try to take the kids out to dinner (doesn't happen that often due to finances, but also because the whole experience is super stressful). We also try to go on walks if it’s warmer out and we go swimming once a week as a family. I call my mom almost every day, we FaceTime family that live further away and I write my best friend letters even though she lives a 15 min. drive away. This is a kind of reminiscence from the past as we used to write back and forth all the time.
5. I think one of the biggest goals that I want to work on is personal care for myself and personal development. It’s the one thing that I haven’t been able to focus on during 2023, and I think it’s mostly because I have a small baby. Anyone who has had a child knows that first year usually revolves around the baby. I think things will become easier as time goes along, and I’ll find more time for me as our routines get more standardized.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog today. I hope this blog gives you some inspiration for your own goals!
Happy New Year and good luck with your own goal setting!
❤️ Sandra
