When your kids are 1 and 4, goals and plans are made pretty loosely. I actually feel like when G was a baby and A was three making plans was a lot easier. I’m not sure if it’s the combo of a one and four year old or if I’m just shifting priorities, but the mindset to go go go has completely subsided (at least for now).

I’m hoping this year we slow way, way down. I want to actually start furnishing our home. I want to go on monthly date nights with my husband. I want to go hiking at least once a month. We’ve set a very low goal of camping three times this summer. We’re keeping things easy.

We also, for the first time in a decade, have zero plans (or desires) to get on an airplane. We are likely taking what we’re calling a ‘gap year’ and hoping to just stay in the PNW for the entire year. I surprised myself with how excited I was to write this down as a goal for the year. We traveled with our kids on 17 flights last year and we are ready for a break.

I also am hoping to read 15 books this year. This feels BIG for me. I don’t not read, but I also don’t read fast. I used to set a goal to read one book each month. With the pandemic and then having a baby I basically was down to around 6 books a year. I know I can read more, and I know if I put my phone down at night and read instead that I can easily reach this goal. I’m reading Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow right now and it’s SO GOOD.

Recognizing Boundaries With Goals

There is a fun and cool Instagram account called 1000 Hours Outside. The entire concept is to spend 1,000 hours outside in a year. I love this idea. I love the motive and I love the reason behind it. I love being outside, and there is so much to learn from being outside. I mean, I even put A in Forest Preschool this year! I’m all about outside.

What I’m not about: things that will put added pressure on me and make me feel like I’m not doing enough. I thought about printing off one of the tracking sheets and starting off the month with filling in our hours spent outside on Jan 2 doing this hike. As I was planning on doing this, I quickly realized this would not be good for me. Being outside would become a chore. It would not be fun anymore and it would be an activity we have to do instead of something we get to do. Camping trips would be focused on the hours we’d rack up, not the memories we’d make. Needless to say, we will not be tracking how many hours we log outside.

All of this to say that I love goals and planning things out. But I think it’s so important when thinking up goals and hopes to really protect yourself and your mind. Do things because you want to do them and you know that you can do them. And then celebrate yourself because you did it!

Cheers to a new year!