We’ve got some big changes coming in 2024 here at Finding Joy in Your Home. We are in the middle of a huge redesign to make it much easier to find all our resources and connect better with everything! Keep an eye out in January for all those changes to start taking effect 😍

One big change that I will be overseeing in our business and ministry is figuring out ways to deliver content in better ways to all of you. For the past few years, I’ve felt like I’m on a hamster wheel. Constantly churning out content, providing great resources, having terrific discussions on IG, for it to all be gone in 24-48 hours. I get the same questions over and over (which I don’t mind), but the internet today is just not as easy to 4navigate as it used to be.

I’ve been toying with this decision for a while (because I honestly doubt how much people are reading these days over watching 10 second reels). But I want to make my brain slow down this year. I’m done watching 10 second mindless reels that provide little to no actual helpful content. I have long LOVED Instagram (and Pinterest before it) for education: For connecting with like-minded women, for finding new books to read, for having great discussions, or getting housekeeping or cooking tips….and IG is largely NOT that anymore.

I want a more peaceful, less fractured mind going into 2024. But I still want to be able to provide amazing resources to you, my wonderful community. So I’m going back to the old age: I am going to begin blogging again. And if you are with me still here in this paragraph, CONGRATS! Your attention span is much larger than average these days 😉

With our new redesign of the website, we are going to make things so much more findable. For example, I shared our Strep Throat protocol I did for our family back in August that helped us heal from strep throat without antibiotics. I get requests for that weekly since then, and yet there’s no easy resource to point them to. I will be attempting to gather these resources and make them ALL in one easy, spot! 🙌

Starting today: With my first new blog in a very, very long time. Will anyone want to read this? I’m not sure. But I do know that we’ve had some truly incredible discussions and I’ve shared some amazing resources on IG the last 2 years that are simply GONE now. So here’s what this will look like going forward:

1. I WILL still be posting on IG. In fact, I’m hoping to get into a much better habit of opening up these discussions and sharing great resources over there.
2. Once or twice a week though, I would like to take those discussions we do over there and turn them into a blog post or a resource round up HERE so you can find them easily.
3. We will be also tying these into NEW free workshops that we will be doing monthly to provide a good format for longer discussions and growth.

(If you have any ideas on how we can make this better, what formats would work well, etc just let me know!)

So with that said, today we are going to dive into Goal Setting and Planning! I did a Q&A over on Instagram so I wanted to be able to share and go deeper here.

Last night, Jason and I sat down to plan out our goals for 2024. The last 3 podcast episodes have been focused on goal planning and are great places to start. We discussed how we do a year end review, how to choose a theme for your year, and what goal setting looks like in your home.

We both set some great personal goals and some killer business goals! We’ll be posting our podcast episode tomorrow break down those goals so you can see how we do it.

Links mentioned today:

• My Kindle Scribe – this is the new Kindle I’ve been using since the summer. I use it to read of course, but also to take notes, plan, etc. If I have a new course or am working on podcast notes, it’s ALL done on my Kindle! I LOVE IT! (Hint: I got mine refurbished AND on sale! Keep watching the sales on this one, they are often.)
• Someone asked where I’ve been doing my pelvic floor exercises. I’ve been doing Nourish Move Love’s Postpartum workout plan. This is my second full time through the program (it’s free) and she has pelvic floor and diastis recti exercises throughout.

Q: I have paralysis because life had has so many major hurdles the last 3 years. Afraid to plan. 

Stop and pray for that fear. It can feel so hard when we feel like “what is around the corner”. We can become fearful for what the future holds. But God asks us to walk in faith and to not live in a spirit of fear. Pray that the Lord would help you deal with that anxiety and fear and that you would take that to Him.

Our fear of the future is because we are not trusting Him with our future (believe me, I’ve been there)! Turn it over to the Lord. We make plans but God is the one who sees them through.

Some seasons in life, we make “goals” and plans for everyday, simple things. There ARE seasons for big goals and big plans. But there are some seasons where your plans look like:

• Drink enough water
• Take my vitamins daily
• Go on a walk 3x a week
• Read one book per month
• Read Scripture daily (even if it’s just 5 min a day)

Pray through it all. We hold our pans loosely with an open hand. Anything we ever plan is held knowing that God could change it at any moment. It’s not a failed plan if it doesn’t work out, it’s God’s perfect plan (even when it doesn’t feel or seem perfect to us).

Q: Actually narrowing down and deciding my goals and not forgetting them by June! 

First – get those goals WRITTEN DOWN! Vague plans we keep in our brain are more quickly forgotten.

Second – We want to take those goals and plans and slowly work them into manageable, weekly and daily routines so you are working towards them in small chunks.

Third – Reviewing your plans is all part of your weekly review so you are going back to them again and again through the year!

Q: Actually making it happen when things feel out of control. 

I am a big fan of setting a goal and then very slowly working into it.

If your days are a MESS and you know getting up earlier would help, don’t go from struggling out of bed only when the kids come in to jump on you to suddenly trying to get up at 5am. It’s not gonna work.

Start with setting that alarm for 7:30 and making that happen for a week or two. Ease into your goal with something hard, but manageable. Once that feels comfortable, set it back to 7 for a week or two. Keep going until you hit your desired time!

It’s easy to get really excited about a goal (or goals) and we think Jan 1st is some magic day that will suddenly gives u perfect structure, motivation, and routines. Make a decision to change something and then START SMALL! It’s 100% about breaking down that goal into smaller, more manageable pieces AND sometimes even working UP to those small pieces if need be!

Goal setting is NOT all or nothing. And that’s the biggest mistake we often make.

Q: Choosing which goal to focus on first. 

what is your absolute biggest pain point? Or what goal is a precursor to a different goal?

Let’s say you really need to fit your workout int the morning before kids are up (or it doesn’t happen, which is hasn’t been) .your first goal isn’t your workout. Your first goal is getting a better morning routine established to then give you that margin to work out in.

What ONE thing do you wish you could change in your home or life right now? START THERE!

Q: Not going too hard and burning out right away and dropping it all and feeling quilty the rest of the year! 

FIRST THING: No guilt! Repeat after me: “I am setting goals to improve my life, not to make me feel quilty in yet another area”!

I set 12 goals for this year. And 2-3 of those I never even worked on this year (at all). My year changed and shifted, or my priorities shifted, or I just didn’t make time for it. And that’s perfectly okay.

I might bring those goals into the next year to give greater focus OR I might realize that’s not a goal for my season of life right now.

But with setting goals, I want to encourage you: you don’t need to master them all right away. I have many goals/habits I really want to work on this year. Several oni that list, I won’t even be touching in January.

My focus in January is to get back to getting up at 6am and doing my full morning routine and my workout plan.

I will incrementally be pulling back my wake up time as I recover and get back into the swing of things after a long and somewhat exhausting December. I will also continue finishing this 4 week workout program I’m doing and start the next one.

I may touch some of my other goals, such as reading throughout the month. But I won’t be focusing on those per say. My energy and focus will be on those two goals and if I fit some other stuff in, then great!

February, once  I hopfully have those two thins down well in my routine, I will pick another focus area or two for the month.

My advice if you are new to setting goals: 

Pick 6 goals for your year (they can be simple ones),. Then take 2 months per goal to work on it!

Jan + Feb you will take your first goal, break it down and work on incorporating small, daily baby steps into your routine. This way you have ONE new thing to focus on.

Come March, the goal is that those daily habits that are taken out of that goal are habit now. So you don’t abandon that first goal, but you can easily carry it into the future because it’s been ingrained into your life.

March + April you then turn your attention to goal #32 and how to slowly incorporate into your daily/weekly life. And so on throughout the year!

JOIN OUR FREE COMMUNITY! 

If you want to continue this discussion with other like-minded women, you need to hop over and join our community! You can access it from your web browser OR download the app to make it even easier. JOIN THE FREE COMMUNITY HERE! If you are already a member, you can join in the discussion for THIS BLOG post here.