Hello, 2017! A Few of My Goals {that YOU are going to hold me accountable to!}

First blog post of the year!  🙂  Oh how I love new year’s.  I’m not sure why the switch on the calendar means so much to me, though.  Is it because I desperately want an excuse to have a fresh start?  Maybe.  But no matter what the reasoning is behind why so many of us cling to January 1st like it’s some “magical” day, one thing is for sure- a new year makes me feel very expectant of what’s ahead.  It renews my sense of hope and is my permission slip to go after the things that were left unaccomplished from years prior.

I sent a newsletter out to my subscribers earlier this week about goal setting and what I was doing to get them out on paper. (You can still receive that newsletter if you sign up today! [wysija_form id=”1″]

I haven’t yet completed my goals list, but I did spend some time looking backwards before moving forwards.  I used Susannah Conway’s Unravelling the Year Ahead workbook once again, and that made me really dig in deep to reflect back and make a good plan to move forward.  Full disclosure:  As a Christian, I can’t get on board with everything Susannah Conway teaches (i.e. the use of tarot cards and other practices that don’t go hand in hand with my relationship with the Lord), but she is very insightful and has a very gentle nurturing soul that I can’t help but to be drawn to.  That being said, I simply skip over the things that don’t apply to my life, or I find a different use for them.  For example, in the workbook there’s a page on drawing an oracle card for each month, so instead I chose 12 scripture verses & wrote that in place instead.

Honestly, 2016 was a good year.  The problem is, I was only remembering all the bad stuff.  I amplified the crummy parts so much in my head that I forgot all the good.  Pastor Steven Furtick from Elevation church said,

“God doesn’t want us to leave the year empty handed.”

How right he is!  SO, I’ve taken the lessons I’ve learned over the past 365 days and am applying them to my next 365+ days.  Today I thought I’d share a few of my goals with you… and yes, I’m expecting y’all to hold me accountable on some of these, got it?  😉

A small list of my 2017 goals:

– Create one scrapbook layout per week.  At the end of the year, I would like to have 52 layouts that I can bind together into one big book using my bookbinding tool.  I think it will be a fun way to not only get better at scrapbooking but also share my favorite story or event from the week on one page.  And I’ll share them with you, too.  Actually, I think I’ll make a new Instagram hashtag that we can all use if you want to join me.  #scrapmyweek

– Simplify my craft room.  I don’t know what the heck has happened over the last few years, but I went from happily scrapping out of a big bag into having a room exploding with papers and goodies.  And over the past year, I’ve discovered that I actually prefer having a minimal amount of everything to use.  Because then it actually DOES get used instead of lost in the midst of so many other pretty things.  So this is the year I simplify my creative space and stop feeling so entitled to get all the cute new paper collections before I even finish using what I have.

– Journal a little each day.  Not for anyone else to see.  Not with pretty decorations or doodles on the page.  But messy, REAL journaling.  Cause I’ve discovered there’s a lot that swarms my head that needs released… daily!

– Send more letters.  I’m not really talking about all the pretty “flip book” and super crafty mail that’s popular right now.  That’s fun to do every so often with some of my gal pals, but I’m talking traditional letters.  I have a friend Jayne who has inspired me to put my pen to any old paper and write.  Cause every single time I open my mailbox and find a letter inside from her, I’m beaming from ear to ear.  She writes from the heart and sometimes tosses a card in the mail with one or two lines in it.  And I can’t tell you just how meaningful that is to me.  So I’d like to do the same for her and for others.  Sometimes simple is best.

– Blog from the heart on a weekly basis.  I love blogging… yet for some reason weeks will pass and I have yet to post anything.  Believe me, there’s A LOT going through my head that I want to share, but it seems like I never make the time.  And then when I do have the time, I justify not blogging because “I don’t have a pretty picture to share with the post so it will look boring and nobody will read it” or some other lame-o excuse that pops into my head.  What I HAVE learned over the past few months is that there really are people who read my blog and enjoy hearing what I have to say.  I’ve said it before & I’ll say it again- I have absolutely no interest in having a “following,” and social media likes and follows don’t mean anything to me.  Right now I have almost 6,000 subscribers on my YouTube channel, but do you know what I’ve recently discovered?  From viewing the analytics, it’s mainly my subscribers that do the unkind thing and give me thumbs downs after I work so hard to scrape together the time to create and edit a video for their enjoyment.  I’m not trying to sound bitter about it- I’m just wanting to make a point that the number of readers doesn’t matter to me because I know for certain that there are a handful that have been nothing but encouraging and loving to me.  I won’t publicly share some of the things they’ve said out of privacy, but there are moments I get an email or message after writing a post and the feedback leaves me in tears.  I’m grateful that I’ve been allowed this opportunity to share my heart with you all- no matter how few or how many.  So I want to spend time doing more of that and not taking that gift for granted any longer.

And as for some other personal goals, there are things like:
– Finish two rounds of my new favorite Core de Force workouts.
– Have date nights with my husband seasonally.  (We’d have more if we had family close that could watch Nadia, but we don’t so we can only get a sitter every few months.)  😉
– Read 4 new books this year.  (Some people choose 12 books a year, but I’m being reasonable here… I barely finish a book in 3 months so I’m not going to set myself up for failure on that one.  LOL)

Of course there’s more- but they are actually personal.  Like, not-for-public-viewing kind of personal.  So that’s all I’ll be sharing today.  Let me know if you’ll be joining me with goal setting this year, and if you pick “one little word” like I do, what’s yours??  I’d love to hear from you so be sure to comment so I can say hi!

Hope your new year is off to a great start!