Every year we create a poster with our goals for the coming year. This is one of my favorite traditions! The rules for the annual poster are A) the goals must be achievable in one year, and B) they must be quantifiable, as in, they have to be things we can measure and check off.
First, I like to review how we did on our goals for the previous year. To be perfectly honest, we didn't do so hot this year. 2018 was a year of upheaval for us. At New Year's we didn't know where James would be working post graduation, so a lot was up in the air. As things coalesced, some of our goals changed or fell by the wayside.
James:
Did marvelously with his Duolingo study this year, he's been making great progress in Spanish. He did read (or listen to an audiobook) every day. He did obtain a post-graduation job. He did not practice the piano every day.
Joel:
Learned to read! Of course it's still a developing skill, but we love to hear him read beginning books to us, it's awesome. He's still working on his roundhouse. =)
Xander:
His goals were ones that we neglected this year.
Valerie:
I did not work on my novel "Allspeaker" this year. (Although I did make some progress on "The Seventh Guardian" fortunately.) I did pretty well with my photography challenge. Duolingo totally fell by the wayside for me. I did finish my poomsae challenge in time for my black belt test in October. Bike riding didn't happen as intended. But I definitely got pregnant!
Family goals:
We successfully moved to Utah, a location which meant we didn't need to find a new martial arts school, haha. We went on one of the two camping trips we'd intended. James and I did attend the temple three times. We are still working through the Book of Mormon together. We're terrible about walking our dog, but at least we've been on a date every week!
And now I present our goals for 2019!
-Daily Spanish study
-Daily reading/audiobook
-Settle finances
-Create and follow personal exercise plan
-Weekly video journal
-Bake 12 new recipes
Valerie:
-Earn 5th Dan
-Finish "The Seventh Guardian" revisions
-Project 52 with Clickin Moms (ie weekly photography project)
-Journal weekly
-Read 5 new books
-Finish Duolingo Spanish tree
-Take a yoga class
Family/Couple goals:
-Successfully move to Colorado
-Family camping trip
-Go star gazing
-Find a new martial arts school
-Trip to Tennessee
-Create a family budget
-Attend the temple (number of times to be determined when we know what part of Colorado we're moving to)
-Weekly "Come Follow Me" family study
-Weekly date night
We also want to add "Plant a tree" if we end up buying a house this year. But we'll have to see!
We decided not to set goals for the children this year. We've decided to wait until they're old enough to set their own goals. We feel like we shouldn't be forcing our ideas of what their progression should be, but should let them discover their own interests. Of course we'll be working on things together, but it's a little different when we're setting up checkboxes on their behalf. So we'll revisit those in later years.
We are excited about this coming year. We've got some big changes ahead for our family. Hopefully our move will go well; we are looking forward to settling down at last and hopefully not moving again for a while! =)
We wish you a happy New Year and a great 2019!
