Goal-setting {Part III}

This is the final portion of my goal setting series… the part where I actually, FINALLY, state my goals for the year. You can read Part I and Part II to catch up.

Finally, after reflecting on everything in the past two posts, I set my goals. Most of them are focused on creating healthy rhythms in areas of my life that need structure {school!} or setting boundaries in areas of my life that are out of control {shopping! social media!}. Here is it goes…

Goal #1: Begin and end each day by resting in the Lord, and work my tail off in between…

What I think this looks like: I am a huge advocate for starting every day in Scripture first thing in the morning. I think it’s the most important, life-changing decision any Christian makes… simply the choice to wake up and commune with God before the day’s events transpire. However, since Zianne arrived, my quiet times have become sporadic. When she was a newborn, I would sometimes start my reading for the day on my phone at 4am while she nursed and finish it at 1pm when I finally had time to sit down for five minutes with my Bible and some coffee. Now that she is on a more consistent sleeping schedule, I need to re-prioritize my time in the Word, so it happens FIRST thing in the morning. This will mean waking up an hour before Zianne every day, which ideally means I will get up at 7am and she will wake up at 8am. The other half of this plan is to try to read for fun before bed most nights of the week, knowing that some nights I’ll be too tired or we’ll have a late event and it just won’t happen. I love reading for fun, and find it very restful for me, but it’s something that’s been neglected since I started graduate school almost four years ago. So this is my current plan to begin each day in the rest that comes from feasting on God’s Word and to end it with a restful activity that helps me wind down and relax.

Goal #2: Write for school most days of the week…

What I think this looks like: I have a LOT of writing to do. In the next year and a half of my life {roughly}, I have a portfolio paper to revise, another one to write, reading exams to study and take notes for, and a whole dissertation to finish. The only problem is that none of these projects have an official deadline, until I determine one with my chair at least, and I have no one sitting in my house with me everyday telling me to get my work done. I’m on my own, so I must find a way to make writing happen. Ideally, I would write in the early AM, but with a baby and trying to put God’s Word first, I doubt I can make this happen. Instead, I plan to start using nap times very strategically. Zianne is just starting to transition to taking longer naps each day {Praise the Lord! The 25-45 minute newborn naps almost killed me when I was trying to finish up school last semester!}, and hopefully within a few weeks she will have a consistent morning nap and a longer afternoon nap. My plan is to use one of these naps for writing time {probably the morning nap} and the other to deal with housework, bills, email, etc.

Goal #3: Establish space in my life to blog consistently…

What I think this looks like: For me, consistent blogging used to mean at least five times a week. Those times were crazy, and I doubt I will ever keep that kind of schedule again, unless someone is paying me a million dollars to keep this place up and running. However, I have been affirmed and convicted time and time again that my blog is a serious ministry given me by the Lord. Between the emails I’ve sent and received, the questions I’ve answered, the words of truth I’ve been able to speak here, and the friendships I’ve made through blogging, I have no doubt that I am supposed to keep at it. And the good news is, I truly love it. I have never once, since starting this blog, felt tired or bored by it. However, I can’t just blog the day away, although it sometimes sounds fun. My main job, other than loving and caring for my family and running our home, is to finish my PhD, so I have to somehow fit blogging into the mix carefully. Since it’s fun for me, I am perfectly comfortable blogging on Sundays. It’s restful and enjoyable and I love coming home from church and blogging my heart out on a Sunday afternoon. However, to actually maintain my blog, I will need a few more hours than Sunday afternoon can provide, so I’m thinking if I am able to write for school four times in a week, I will reward myself by blogging during my writing-nap on that fifth day of the week. I might also consider devoting one weekday evening to blogging as well, and then adjust my schedule as needed from there. I am also really convicted that my blog is to share my love of God’s Word and to encourage other women in their faith. This means I will probably blog less about other topics and really focus on how I can share Christ in this space.

Goal #4: Set boundaries with the busy…

What I think this looks like: No matter how much or little I accomplish in a day, I always feel busy all day long. Whether I plan too many social events in a week or stay home in sweats all day trying to clean and nap train and catch up on emails, I always feel overwhelmed with things to do. I often feel like a slave to my to do list and I hate it. I am realizing I need to set some boundaries to help eliminate this bondage to busy that’s been weighing down on me lately. I’m not entirely sure how this will play out this year, but I’m starting with a few things… 1) I am going to try eliminating social media on the weekends. I deleted Instagram and Twitter from my phone this weekend, and I loved it. I missed Instagram from time to time, but overall, I got more done on Saturday, rested better on Sunday, and got to read for fun a bit more since I wasn’t scrolling through pictures all day long. 2) I am unsubscribing from all sale and discount emails and un-following certain shopping Instagram feeds I follow. Not only can shopping turn into an idol for me, but it also keeps me busy. Whether I’m buying, returning, or debating whether or not to buy, consuming is simply taking up too much of my time and brain space. 3) Saying no to housework… sometimes. I know most people resolve to keep their houses cleaner, but I can be OCD when it comes to keeping my house clean {and I’m not throwing that term around loosely; I often wonder if a doctor would diagnose me, because I can truly be controlling nut-job about my house}. I need to face reality. My house is decently clean at all times, because I have good rhythms with housework. My closets and cupboards are mostly organized. I pick up my house every day, and I even stay mostly caught up on laundry, even with an infant. I need this to be enough. I need to be okay with a few piles here and there, or waiting until the afternoon to pick up the house, so I can prioritize writing in the morning. It’s so easy for me to slip into picking up my house ALL day long, and suddenly the sun goes down and I feel annoyed and unproductive and bitter that there is STILL one more basket of laundry to fold. I am hoping that devoting afternoon naps {only!} to cleaning will help me get this under control.

Goal #5: Build a family archive…

What I think this looks like: I am a historian by nature. I am a diary-keeper, calendar saver, picture taker. I like history, legacy, and artifacts. I love museums and lineage and history. I have my family tree traced out to my great-great grandparents in a box somewhere. I have complete scrapbooks from high school and college. But since getting married and starting the wild ride of graduate school, I’ve fallen a bit behind. I made a photo book for Micah to document our first year of marriage and since then I’ve done nothing. Now that we have a child, I feel like it’s even more important to document life, find ways to preserve memories and even create new traditions and celebrations. This year I hope to catch up on my yearly Russum family photo books, complete Zianne’s baby book to document her first year, continue to keep a prayer journal devoted to Zianne, and also start a journal Bible that I will write prayers and study notes in to pass down to my children someday. I also want to continue to invest in my marriage by planning fun dates night and writing encouraging notes to Micah from time to time. Hopefully, my goal to encourage, document, and create fun memories will spill over and I’ll be able to celebrate with and uplift other family and friends more often as well.

Goal #6: Polish the silver…
What I think this looks like: By “polish the silver,” I mean touch up and improve the areas of my life where I’ve already established a good rhythm. Again, I’m not entirely sure what this will look like over the course of a year, but I have a few small goals in mind that I want to start now. 1) Establish a consistent workout routine and get my abs back. I’ve been working out since Zianne was six weeks old {I literally left my postpartum visit and went directly to the gym.}, but it’s definitely more complicated with an infant to juggle. Now that school is starting back up, and Z is old enough to go to childcare at the gym, I want to establish a routine where I am working out 3-4 days a week again. And although my post-baby body has been surprisingly good to me, I am on a mission to get my abs back to what they were. I am also hoping to run an organized race of some sort {5K, 10K, or sprint-tri} during the year. 2) I want to go DEEP in the Word. For the past four-ish years, I have read the Bible broadly. I’ve read it all the way through at least twice, and I’ve read most of the New Testament and Psalms and Proverbs three or four times. This is the year to dig in. I want to focus on a few power chapters or books of the Bible and study them like crazy. Word meanings. Commentaries. Memorizing. Listening to sermons on certain passages by pastors I respect and admire. I’m still working out my exact plan, but I’m super excited for something new. 3) Improve lunches. Overall, my meal planning, cooking and grocery shopping go pretty smoothly from week to week. We have easy breakfasts in the house at all times, and I generally cook dinner at least three nights a week. However, when it comes to lunch, I really struggle. I pack Micah’s lunch most days, and I always send him with the same boring things… typically a sandwich, fruit, and some processed junk like fruit snacks or chips. And when I’m at home during the day, I never know what to eat. Some days I will eat a Lean Cuisine from the freezer, but I try to save those for days I’m at school. If I’m feeling really ambitious, I will cut up an apple, throw some crackers on a plate, and dip both into a glob of peanut butter. The worst case scenario, which happens all too often, is that I never really eat lunch but go from eating cereal and finishing my coffee at 11am to scrounging the pantry for junk food at 3pm. This plan is not good for anyone, but especially not for a breastfeeding mom. I need to figure out some creative, healthy, easy lunch plans ASAP.

That’s it for now. Six big goals with many small steps. I’ve sketched out here what I think achieving my goals looks like right now. As the year progresses, I’m sure I will add to, delete, and modify my methods, but my overall hope is that the six outcomes above will happen to some degree by the time 2014 comes to a close. What about you? Do you have goals this year? Please share them below. Thanks for letting me ramble and reflect on my goals this week. I hope this little series has helped you get a grasp on your own goals and plans for this new year!