Every year I take some time in early December to do my Powersheets prep and look back at the progress I made that year and what I want to focus on during the next. I let all those ideas sit through the chaos of the holidays and revisit them the very end of December or early January to finalize my goals for the new year.

This year my goals are all themed around my word of the year: instrument. While the details of some of those goals are things I don’t feel the need to share publicly, here are a few I do want to highlight so when I share some of my tending lists each month (my little by little steps to focus on what matters in this season and how I want to reach my goals) they make a little more sense with some context. So here are a few goals for the year:

*Remember that my body is an instrument not an ornament: Inspired by this book, this idea is something that has been resonating the past few years, long before that same book was even published so I was delighted to find I am not alone. Basically this goal is to worry less about what other people see when they look at my body and start worrying a lot more about how I use my body and what amazing things my body lets me do. It also has to do with taking good care of that body because, God willing, I would like to use it for many years to come.

*Lord, Make me an instrument of your peace: I feel really called protect my family’s peace this year. There is so much (mostly joyful, sometimes extremely stressful) chaos in having several young kids. Given the stress of the world the last few years that we’ve all had no choice but to deal with in various ways, this is not the time in my life to invite in anything more that disrupts our peace. This goal can feel really hard and I am definitely going to do this imperfectly, but similar to my first goal, it has a lot to do with letting go of what other people think and leaning into our priorities and values. I also want to use the faith and tools we have to spread more peace into the world. This connects deeply with the work I want to continue with local and global charitable causes. I want to use my unique personality and gifts to bring more stability and peace to my community AND to people I have never and probably will never meet.

*The silence between notes is part of the music- make time for RESTS: To put it bluntly: I suck at resting. It is counterintuitively HARD WORK for me to make myself rest. But I have learned too much about how important rest is to continue ignoring this need in my life- no matter how hard it is to change these mindsets and habits. I am going to be very intentional about that this year.

*Re-tap into my imagination- there is a symphony inside my soul. I am an artist. That is a core part of what I feel called to do in this world. And I want to nurture that aspect of me this year by returning to my love of music, theatre, crafting, writing as a joy not a chore, imaginative play with my kids, and more! This conveniently intersects with the fact that imagine and imagination is one of my focuses of the blog this year.

FEBRUARY MONTHLY GOALS

The finish line photo from my January race that might be my favorite race picture ever. Just pure emotion.

*Prepare, Plan, and Train for Rock n Roll Vegas: Because I’m a little crazy, I am doing two half marathons in less than two months. This was actually a race I signed up for about a year ago and I had a very different idea of what it might look like at the time. But I am still super excited about this evening race along the Las Vegas Strip and to do my first out of state races ever. Yes I said races, I’m also doing the 5k the night before. Did I mention I’m a little crazy?! This is the end of the month so lots of training and planning before then!
*Follow through on Fundraising and final group events with this season of Team World Vision: The rest of my team has their marathon the beginning of this month and I am looking forward to doing one last group run with them and cheering them on during group dinner the night before their race! I am so inspired by and proud of the other runners on my team and it has been such a gift to meet and reconnect with them. I am going to continue fundraising until the deadline passes and then figuring out what is next with this amazing organization.
*Revise our newest Alphabet Shakesepare Show: This was technically supposed to happen last month, but last month was ridiculously challenging so thankfully we always build in buffer before our deadlines and I am confident we will knock this out of the park this month.
*Prepare for Spring Cleaning/New Routines for a more Peaceful Home: I am one of those people who has a love/hate relationship with spring cleaning. But I’m trying to focus this year not on this being an endless to-do list or set of chores, but instead moving little by little toward a more inviting and peaceful house and setting us up for success for the next few months.
*Begin to plan 10 year anniversary!: I can’t believe my wedding was almost ten years ago! We originally had BIG plans for a grand trip to Hawaii or an epic vow renewal… we are definitely scaling back given both how unpredictable the last few years have been and trying to be more budget friendly, but we still want a memorable, meaningful way to mark this decade of being a family.

FEBRUARY WEEKLY GOALS
*Write in one batched, concentrated time a week- blog posts, journaling, plays, emails that require a lot of thought, etc.: This goal is focused on giving myself a set time to channel some creativity and allow myself to get into a state of flow.  At least one time a week I want to be sure I am writing in a way where I’m not doing it in 5-10 minute chunks which is what can often happen (and will continue to happen throughout the rest of the week). As you can see from the list in the goal, I have a LOT of ways that I feel called to work on writing- from creative non-fiction to possible new plays to journaling and clearing my head so that all the other chatter can quiet down and allow creative ideas to come through and while I am a HUGE fan of using my fringe hours to make sure that happens, I also want to allow myself more time to focus on this.
*Hike!: The best thing for my brain. Gratitude out in nature + moving my body + flexibility to do this with our without the kids = a must do while the weather still allows it.
*Continue Run With AIM weekly challenges and check ins: The online running group I am in is going to be extra important to me as I lose my in-person running group with the World Vision Race happening early in the month. Thankful for something to keep me on track as I keep training!
*Meal Prep/Try 1 New Recipe: Tis the season for me to get a little restless with meal planning so trying to be proactive here.

FEBRUARY DAILY GOALS:
*Half Marathon Training + Core Work: I am making core work a daily task in the hope that I at least check it off more than once a week. Being post partum x3 is HARD on your core. (Even being post partum x1 is hard on your core…) and I have noticed that is the place that tires first when I am running but it is, unsurprisingly, my LEAST favorite area to focus on in workouts and I know the only way to change that is to make it a priority and do the work so… here we go… the good news is a lot of core workouts are SHORT. Even 5 minutes of concentrated work adds up if I can just get myself to do it.
*Yoga + Meditation: All the running is going to lead to injury and stress if I don’t balance it with some yoga and stretching. Meditation is something that has really been helping me set a focus for the day and fight some insomnia at night.
*Morning Routine: Here is a great example of progress over perfection. I have had morning and evening routine on my powersheets for SUCH a long time and I still probably only get to check off these boxes 50% of the time. BUT sections of these routines have become habits and have almost 100% success on a given month– I just keep trying to optimize and habit stacks in new ways making this a seemingly endless tending list item. I’m not sad about it, but I do sometimes get self conscious about sharing this as a daily goal over and over and over again.
*Evening Routine: See above.
*10 minutes of music: I learned so much last month in just 10-15 minutes a day. Same focus this month to build on that momentum only giving myself some leeway for this to also include 10 minutes of helping the kids with their instruments while we figure out the plan for lessons.
*Phone Curfew: My phone is the biggest enemy to my sleep and rest. It can also be used as a tool for so many very very good things. I’m ok living in that tension. But one thing I know I need to do is follow a curfew of when my phone needs to be OUT of my room for the night.