On 2019 Goals and a Word of the Year. Hello 2019!

I am a self-proclaimed goal freak. I love to set goals. I love to make lists! I love to keep planners and write everything down like it’s still 1998.

Does anything else feel as good as a fresh, brand new, unmarked planner? Cue all the heart eyes.

Some people hate resolutions and they get a bad rap. I guess I don’t look at it that way! I love new goals or lists or plans any time of year, but especially after the holidays when the weeks tend to be a whirlwind of days off schedule!

My planner this year is the Passion Planner again! I used it last year and really loved it. I think I love it most for the sleek design. I don’t care for ring bound planners at the moment and I like having a bunch of space to write things!

2018 was also the year I utilized google calendar for the first time. This was life-changing to me for the last quarter of the year. I’m curious to see if works this entire year too.

If you’re wondering why I’m using two different systems, it’s because I have to keep a few things organized:

My blog + business work.

My personal life junk and home stuff, etc.

The little people in my life and all that it entails.

Having some things in google calendar means I can access stuff from my phone. Whether I’m in bed or in the car – when I don’t have a planner with me. But I love writing things down so much, and if you’re anything like me, writing is the way that I actually remember things – like they get imprinted on my brain. That’s why I love to have a paper planner too!

My Word of the Year

Honestly I’ve always thought that choosing a word of the year was a little cliché or something – I didn’t think it was anything that would actually help me reach goals or stay on track. Then I had kids and my brain went to mush.

I’m pretty good at working smarter, not harder – but this year one of my actual goals is to make sure the work that I do is intentional all of the time. That the work that I do, whether it’s for my business, for personal development or in our family and at home, just being a mom? I want it to actually pertain to my goals and values of life! I hate wasting time.

So my word of the year is FOCUS. I am so easily distracted off the path of my goals thanks to things like the internet and all it has to offer. Shiny and sparkly things distract me, new blog posts distract me, other ideas distract me – and this year, I’m not going to let it happen!

Have you ever picked a word of the year? If you have one for this year, leave it below!

Looking back at 2018

Having kids has changed my perception so much when it comes to goals. It may sound cliché but my number one goal, the only REAL thing I care about is getting to experience these everyday moments with my kids and being HERE for them. I know, I know.

I’m not immune to the comparison trap (and I’ll chat more about that in my next blogging post!) and sometimes,  I allow the internet to make me feel like I’m not doing enough to reach my own goals for business. But if I take a moment and think about what is most important to me at that moment, it’s being able to be here for these little loves of my life. You know?

The work life balance is HARD! And the way I balance it is to know that… it won’t ever be balanced.

2018 was all about survival! Emilia had just been born and learning life with two kids (which felt like going from one kid to ten kids!) was a struggle. I had two big goals in 2018 (among smaller ones) and the first was to launch The Pretty Dish successfully, in a way I felt good about. I didn’t feel great about my first book launch, so I wanted this to go well. And it did!

Another goal was to be patient with my kids, be present and raise thoughtful kind kids (obviously pertaining most to Max since Emilia was like a month old!) – that’s a goal that I’ll always have.

There are two things I’m loving right now that pertain to reaching goals and feeling good about 2019:

• Mel Robbins Mindset Reset.

Oh my gosh! I’m obsessed. You guys know I love Mel Robbins and I randomly came across this on Youtube last week. I signed up, downloaded her guide, and love the videos. It’s awesome and something that is doable in your own time without feeling overwhelming.

• This idea from Rachel about writing down your wins for the year.

This is such an awesome way to realize what I HAVE done as opposed to focusing on things that I haven’t achieved yet!

A few 2019 Goals

While these aren’t all goals I’m setting specifically to start on January 1^st, some of the goals I’ve recently set are:

• Bring you more fantastic recipes.

I have so much planned for 2019. An amazing video series coming this spring! A whole brand new relaunch. More menus and entertaining spreads. Tons of weeknight dinners. While I mentioned that I’m cutting out my weekly drink post this year, I’ll still be sharing the normal recipes almost daily for you! Annnd there may just be another book in the works…

!!! More on that later.

Share more with you on Crumbs!

Any time I ask what you guys would like to see more of, the overwhelming majority says “more crumbs lifestyle posts!” They really took a backseat this last year since I traveled a lot and was trying to find my footing as a mom of two. It is so hard because I want to do both things (be present as a mom and write here on the blog, daily, at 100%!). But I have a game plan to share more weekly with you on Crumbs, and I can’t wait! More behind the scenes posts. More days in the life that may appear on IG stories and the blog.

Sometimes I feel weird because the Crumbs section of my blog is so NOT professional, you know? I mean I basically use it as a personal diary. Can we still do that in 2019? Ha.

• Stick to a solid morning routine.

This is near impossible with having a new baby. At least, for me it was. 2018 was really the year of survival, and if I didn’t sleep all night, I couldn’t be awake and roaring to go at 5AM. Now that both kids are sleeping fairly well (although still slightly unpredictable!), I feel that I have a better chance at sticking to my solid morning routine. This includes waking up before the kids, working out (I’d love to do the Peloton here at least 3 days a week! Plus some BBG sprinkled in and yoga at home) and getting ready.

Getting ready with having little kids as well as working from home? It’s a game changer! Makes me feel a million times more productive.

I’m also not opposed to starting the morning routine later if needed! Emilia is old enough now that she can sit and play with Max while I work out in the same room. Not ideal, but sometimes necessary! And there are days when my morning routine just consists of skincare and making the bed and making sure we are all alive.

• I hate to say meditate, but… meditate.

This was a goal of mine for 2017 and I stuck to it for all of, like, 14 minutes. I’ve realized that meditating for me isn’t about meditating, really. It’s most about having those ten minutes away from the craziness of the day, without my phone, or noise, or the computer, or anything like that. Okay, so I guess that’s meditating in this day and age?

For me, this is most likely to happen right after a workout, if I’m by myself. Otherwise, I won’t do it! I lie down on the mat after cool down for 10 minutes or so.

• Write more! And read more!

I’d love to get into the habit of something like morning pages. I don’t think morning pages is a realistic goal for me at the moment (because I only have so much time before the kids wake up!) but maybe I can do… evening pages? Afternoon pages?

Reading calms me and it also makes me a better writer. I love reading books and not spending my time scrolling through Instagram. I haven’t set a book goal in a few years, but I thinking this year I will set my book goal at 40? Speaking on, if you’re interested, I might do a winter reading list. It will probably be a little shorter than my summer list.

• Utilize my time better when I have childcare.

I first talked about Alex, who watches the kids a few days a week, in my January day in the life post. Alex is my lifesaver. Like I’m pretty sure there are multiple times during the days she is here that I’m just like ALEX I WOULD DIE WITHOUT YOU THANK YOU SO MUCH! I do a pretty good job of this but I want to make sure I really utilize my time best when she is here. I always make a list and figure out what is impossible to do with the kids around (obvs like leaving the house for meetings, conference calls, huge photo shoots, etc), and then I go down that list and get the most important things done while she is here. I still always have a few others things left, but doing it this way makes it so much easier to use the time wisely!

I’ve talked about this before but I’m a huge believe in batching my work and have worked this way for about seven years now. With having kids, I have strict boundaries about when I’m able to do things, take calls, work on certain projects, etc. It’s a lifesaver and the only way I can get the amount of work done that I do!

While some of these goals aren’t super specific, they definitely feel doable for me while I have little babes running around. I would love to hear your goals, tips, tricks, books and anything that helps you reach things you want to achieve down below! xo