Happy New Year! Can you believe it’s 2016? I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are ready to start fresh in the new year! I am back from my blogging break, as you may have seen yesterday, but I am still implementing some changes to this blog that will take place over the weekend and I will officially be back and ready to hit the ground running on Monday. (Stay tuned to the end of this post for big hint at the changes happening this weekend).

I just wanted to stop in today because it’s January 1st and I want to share my goals with you. Just like most of blog land, I’ve been picking a word of the year to live by for the last couple years. Last year, my word was learn. The year before it was trust.

In the past, I have also set New Year’s Resolutions (here is 2014 & 2015). However, the only resolution of either of those posts that I actually completed was the “read 15 books in 2015” from last year. So this year, I’m not doing resolutions. I much prefer monthly goals. They’re less intimidating and easier to attain and yet they can accomplish the same goals.

Thus, instead of a list of New Year’s Resolutions, I give you my 2016 word of the year and my January monthly goals!

Word of the Year (drum roll please…):

Present. Yes I know a lot of people use this word. It was a really common word of the year in 2015. It almost seems cliche, but I really need to learn to slow down and enjoy the present. And to be present. I think our culture as a whole needs to slow down. We’re all so connected and we’re always looking ahead. We see proposal ideas and perfect weddings on Pinterest. We see tons of baby pictures from our friends on Facebook. And we’re constantly longing for the next big milestone in life. No, I’m not hating on social media. I love getting fantastic inspiration from Pinterest and celebrating with friends across the world on Facebook. I’m just saying that we need to be more intentional about enjoying the here and now these days.

Also, as a blogger, I’m constantly planning posts ahead of time and scheduling them for the future. I even schedule social media posts! Again, this isn’t a bad thing. In fact, in theory at least, scheduling ahead gives me more time and flexibility to enjoy the present. But sometimes I get in the mindset of constantly looking ahead. Sometimes I get my days mixed up really bad because even though it’s only Friday, I’ve already written blog posts for Monday and Tuesday next week.

Anyway, I’m not quite sure how this word of the year will look in tangible ways, but I’m planning to try to incorporate it in my monthly goals posts every month. This month, I am going to practice eucharisteo. With a little ‘e,’ that word means “to give thanks.” With a big ‘E,’ it means “full communion with God.” I like to think (along with Ann Voskamp, author of One Thousand Gifts) that the former leads to the latter. In her book, Ann talks about how counting gifts in a list of things she’s thankful for helped her to stay in the moment and appreciate the little things. So I will keep a running list of gifts to be thankful for this month.

Spiritual:

It’s no secret that I’ve been terrible about keeping up with my bible reading. I didn’t even get past the first week of the Good Morning Girls‘ Advent Study. And before that, I was two studies behind. I don’t know why but I just can’t bring myself to study. It’s 15 minutes per day at the most! Why can’t I just do it? I always feel better after I do. The problem is that my priorities aren’t in the right place. So that’s what I’m going to work on this month. The Good Morning Girls are starting a study on the book of Job on Monday. I have always loved Job and I’m hoping this will get me more excited to study the scriptures and to create a habit I love.

Physical:

Of course, I didn’t do anything as far as working our or eating well in December, but I expected that. Now I’m ready to start fresh in the new year. My love for food, detest for working out, and my overall health is getting a bit out of hand. So, this month I’m going to work out with Cassey every week day. I’m going to start with this seemingly difficult goal because I know I can do it. I’ve done a whole month of Blogilates week day workouts before. So I will start with that. I’m not going to put any specific goals on my diet, but I will be more conscience of what I eat. No more late night drive through runs just because I’m hungry.

Mental:

I finished all my reading goals for December. Pearson and I finished Black Widow: Forever Red in the car on the way to my brother’s house to kick off our Christmas vacation. While on vacation, I read Oasis and Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (Both were fantastic, by the way. I’ll be reviewing Oasis on the blog soon).

For this category, I am actually going to make a resolution for the entire year. As I said at the beginning of this post, the only resolution I completed from last year was “read 15 books in 2015 with 5 of them being non-fiction.” So, in 2016, I will read 16 books. 6 of those books will be non-fiction! This month, I will read Life is Beautiful by Sarah M. Johnson and I’ll start The Princess Bride because I never got to read it last year.

Marriage:

By the way, the Marriage & Relationship Goals link up will not be continuing into 2016. So I will no longer have a separate post every month for my marriage goals. Instead, I will include goals for our marriage in my monthly goals post. Last month, I think I did pretty well on my goal of being present with Pearson considering his ridiculous schedule and my traveling for work along with the business of Christmas and holiday traveling.

This month, I want to go on one intentional date per week without any technology. That means that watching Netflix doesn’t count. TV is technology. (But I think I’ll let movies in the theater count). Going along with my word of the year, I want to enjoy every moment with my husband and not be worried about what’s going on in the social media world etc.

Blogging:

In December I actually got everything done that I wanted to in preparation for all the changes in 2016 that I’ve been talking about. They will finally be implemented this weekend! So be looking for a complete re-brand on Monday! Woohoo!

With that being said, I didn’t finish either of Helene’s courses. Oops.

This month, I want to at least finish Instagram for Success. I’ll work on Quit Your Job to Blog as well, but I’m only setting the goal to completely finish the Instagram course. I don’t wanna get too crazy. On top of the courses, this month I want to focus on the quality of my content. I created a survey about marriage a couple months ago and got a lot of good information about what people struggle with in their marriage. I plan to use that information to create great content! I’ll tell you more about that on Monday when I introduce my new and improved blog! (I’m super excited and you should be too)

What goals have you set for yourself this month? Do you set resolutions? Let me know in the comments. Or if you wrote a post about it, leave the link in the comments!

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you on Monday with a new and improved blog!