New Years Resolutions
New Years Resolutions…I have always had a love/hate relationship with these. One year in High school I gave up soda and felt so great at the end of the year for achieving that goal, but it had no real lasting impact on my life. Most years I would set these almost unachievable goals for myself. Confession: I am an all or nothing person. There is no middle for me and this can make goal setting defeating instead of motivating. After all it is hard to look at the entire year and decide some major things that I am going to commit to every day or every month..why? Because each season of life looks different. Some months are busier than others. I am learning to give myself grace as I am a recovering perfectionist. So instead of this year looking at my blank notepad and trying to come up with some dramatic life altering goals that have way too high standards, I did something different and I am so excited about it!
This year I decided to set monthly goals. So each month at the beginning of the month I sit down with that blank notepad and set some REALISTIC and healthy goals for myself. I broke this down into categories: spiritual, physical, business, relational, and personal. The reason I did this is because some months I may have lots of time to invest in my relationships and other months I will be shooting multiple weddings and know that my business will be more of a focus. This gives me the freedom to be realistic instead of saying “for the whole year I am going to do 3 blog posts every month!” Pretty sure I said that one last year…but the reality is some months that is just not realistic for me. Balance in life is key and it is something I am constantly trying to be aware of and intentional about. Hence the multiple categories!
On January 1st I sat down with my notepad and started to think about January and what it will look like. We are in our slow season for weddings. I like to take this time to invest in education and other business ventures that my husband and I enjoy (currently have a house full of puppies, blog post coming on our puppy journey next month!). So this month my goal for my photography business was to prepare for our expo at the end of the month and start a new photography course. Those are 2 goals and they are very realistic for me this month. Along with these goals I wanted to choose a word for the month. I have always loved this idea, so this month my word is “discipline”. In order to achieve a healthy balance in all the above categories I need mental and physical discipline. So here’s to a new year of setting intentional goals, month by month, focusing on grace and growth.
What about you!? If you are a goal person what are yours for 2019? Would love to hear some ideas that may give me inspiration for the upcoming months!
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