2019: Goals, Dreams, and Plans

Earlier this week I shared my 2018 Year in Review post. So, since we’ve taken one last official look back, it’s finally time to move on into 2019 and all the goals, dreams, and plans it holds! You can see last year’s review and goal post here. I just re-read it myself, so I thought we could quickly evaluate how those goals went before expounding on this year’s goals.

2018 Goal Recap

Travel Goals: We set a goal last year to go back to San Francisco and to visit my sister-in-law in Zambia. Neither of these happened. It was a huge bummer!! But, I’ll expound on what this looks like in 2019 below.

Ministry Goals: Our goal was to build our hospitality muscles last year, and I think we did that pretty well! We lived in a very small space, but hardly a week went by without our hosting someone.

Family Goals: we loved our first year of urban living! It has definitely simplified many areas of our life and created a family culture more focused on experiences and time together than on accumulating more stuff. We’ve signed another lease to continue this in 2019, and we’re still really loving it. 🙂

Business Goals: My goal in 2018 was to blog more consistently and to stay ahead on social media and blog posts. I did a pretty mediocre job of blogging consistently, but I did do a lot better with social media!

Personal Goals: My three main personal goals in 2018 were to 1. wake up early: I’d give myself maybe a C- on that. I did do this sometime, and it was amazing. Other times I turned my alarm off and slept until a small child came to wake me up; 2. Start running again and complete a half marathon: I did this!! I trained somewhat consistently and ran my 5th half marathon in early November. It was so fun, and I officially have the running bug again. I can’t wait for my next race, hopefully again next November; 3. Read 30 books: I did this one, too!! I have a blog post in the works for next week sharing which books I read and sharing my thoughts on them for anyone looking for good reading material this year!

2019 Goals

It made sense last year to break my goals down into the above five categories, so we’re going to do that again.

Travel Goals: There are so many countries we want to visit; that list feels inexhaustible! This may not be the year we add another country to our list of places we’ve been and loved, but we also want to visit all 50 US states. So far we’ve been to 25, and we’re hoping to check off one or two more this year. As for international travel, we want to do it well. In this stage of life with small children it’s hard to spend a total of 4-5 days traveling only to have a week and a half actually in the country we’re visiting. So, we’re hoping to be really smart with our money, savings, and investing so that next year we can spend an extended period of time overseas. We’re looking at Tanzania with maybe a stop in Amsterdam on the way there and/or back, but nothing is definite at this point.

Ministry Goals: We recently were connected with a ministry that feeds the homeless in our city; this is something we want to commit to doing at least once a month. We also want to continue to open our home to friends and even strangers in need.

Family Goals: This year our family goals are focused on dating. This means consistent date nights for Kyle and me as well as regular one on one time with each of our girls. Since we do live right in our city we also want to prioritize lots of time enjoying and appreciating nature. The girls and I already get outside every single day together whether it’s to go to a playground or to explore a trail or just to stomp in puddles. But we also want to do this as a family, so we’re looking at adding a monthly hike day to our lives. We will also continue our homeschooling journey and continue to connect with other homeschoolers.

Business Goals: This year I want to focus on 4 basic areas: 1. blogging twice/week 2. booking more sessions: I only have room for 3-4 more weddings this year, and I’ve already started booking for 2020. I don’t want to loose momentum! 3. Vendor relations: there are hundreds of incredible vendors in our area; I want to learn how I can better serve them. Plus, I just want to be their friend! 4. Continue learning: I’m taking a business course, and I’m so excited to implement all that I’m learning there! I also want to really study the photographers I most admire and their work; not in a weird way, but there is so much to be learned!

Personal Goals: I want to continue running and do another half marathon in November or December. I also want to do better about waking up early each morning to journal, pray, and get a head start on my day. And, I have another reading goal of 30 books. 🙂

What about you? What do you hope 2019 holds for you this year?