Word of the Year
I’ve been trying to decide on a 2018 word of the year for weeks now. Last year I chose the word “risk”, because I wanted it to be the year that I finally took a few risks both personally and professionally. I wanted to be unafraid of all the changes that I knew was coming my way, after I saw that positive pregnancy test. 
2017 definitely ended up being risky: I had a high-risk pregnancy, quit my two jobs, Saia lost his job (and then found a new one) I had a C-section, had baby Gideon, became a virtual assistant, and a stay-at-home-mom. Whew!
For 2018, I kept going back and forth between various words. Hubs and I have a lot of dreams for our side hustles, and I wanted something that would reflect that. I considered choosing: hustle, do it, work, intentional, and push. But every word or phrase that I mulled over made me feel a bit queasy in my stomach, because each of them made my perfectionism kick into overdrive, and that made me feel depressed.
That’s when I knew the word for this coming year: imperfect.
I am not perfect, and I need to stop trying to become so. Perfection only limits, and paralyzes me. There are a lot of people out there accomplishing the things that I want to accomplish, and doing them imperfectly.
I am giving up on perfection.
I am going to do all these things, but I am going to let myself off the hook. The goal is to do them. Period. No perfection tolerated.
Our Goals Meeting
Hubs and I sat down,on December 31st, and spent about an hour reflecting on 2017, and setting intentions for 2018.
It was 8 pm, Gideon was asleep for the night, and we were both incredibly exhausted. We squinted at each other throughout the whole meeting, because we could hardly keep our eyes open. That’s parenthood, for ya, about ready to fall asleep at 8 in the evening. Ha ha! We, also, had stiff necks and sore shoulders–him from taking a tumble sledding at Christmas, and me from sleeping in a wonky position the night before (because my chunky baby was crowding the bed, ha ha!). It wasn’t a perfect time to make goals, but we got them done!
We asked each other these questions:
- What worked this year?
- What didn’t work this year?
- What do I want life to look like in December 2018?
- What are my dreams: personal, health, home, money, work, and marriage.
- What daily steps do I need to take to get there?
- What accountability do I need?
- What pitfalls can I expect/what would stop me from meeting this goal?
- How many hours a week do I need to meet this goal?
Then we created a completely new schedule that will provide us both enough time to work on our goals. I am SUPER excited about it! I have snuck away an hour here or there, without Gideon, to run errands. But this new schedule gives me several hours a week specifically earmarked for blogging work!! He’s thrilled, too, because he has several hours a week to work on both music and go workout at the gym (and since I will be getting my own free time, I won’t be as crabby to deal with. Ha ha!).
2018 Goals
Our new schedule
- Every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday once he gets home from work, I get to spend the next 1.5 hours working on my blog work while he watches G.
- Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday he gets to go workout after he gets off from work.
- Every night we will spend one hour working after Gideon goes to sleep–him studying his music, and me working on virtual assistant work.
For the Blog
- Post every Monday, Wednesday and Friday every week (no exceptions)
- Get two weeks ahead on my blogging schedule, so I have everything ready to go
- Mentor two other bloggers
- Write and release two e-books
- Launch our podcast
- Take a graphic design course
- Start an Etsy shop
- Take a photography course
Monthly Goals
- Every month make weekly goals
- Read four books per month
- Exercise every day (even if it is a ten-minute workout) except for sick days
- Do four Tongan lessons per month
- Memorize four Bible verses per month
- Do the dishes, and put away the laundry before bed every night.
- Work on printing photos, and putting them in a scrapbook every week
Money goals
- Cut our grocery budget down to $300 a month
- Save for and buy a new vehicle by November
- Continue to pay double our student loan payment every month
- Continue to budget
Marriage goals
- Read a chapter or two of a book together every night, starting with The War of Art
- Go on a date without Gideon
- Go bike riding and running together this summer
Hubby goals
- Launch his masonry business this spring
- Apply to grad school this fall
I love the word ‘imperfect.’ I sometimes repeat this mantra to myself, ‘nothing about this day needs to be perfect.’ I have been playing around with the words Trust and Courageous. I especially like courageous because it doesn’t mean going forth without fear, it means persevering even when you’re afraid. Fear has unfortunately become a feeling I have become too acquainted with lately and ignoring it or asking it to leave doesn’t help. You guys have some lofty and great goals put in place! Love it!
Oh, Alice, I LOVE that mantra! Thank you for sharing! I am going to be repeating that to myself today. Those two words are very apt. I really appreciate your description of courageous. Fear is unfortunately something I grapple with too. Is your new mom life going okay? Those first few months are brutal. Are you doing alright?
Aww, I love how you and hubby did this together, that’s so wise. You’re killing your blog goals this week! Way to go, mama!
These are such neat goals! Now you’ve got me wanting to rework our schedule so I have more built-in blogging time 🙂
(I currently just reserve one morning a week for blogging, but if I need to sleep in that day or if something comes up, it doesn’t happen-also, cramming everything into one 2-hour chunk is tough)
I’m excited to see what exciting things you bring to this space in the coming year!
Bethany! YES!!! What a perfect word of the year – I will absolutely need some reminders with that word as well – my little perfectionist heart struggles so much some times to let things BE! <3 So excited to see what this year brings for you!
I love how intentional you were about creating specific goals for different areas of life this year! Very cool, and I think you’ll have an amazing year. I’m not making any huge goals right now…because currently my huge goal is simply to handle the transition to motherhood with grace, faith, and joy, and since I have no idea what to expect, I figure now is not the time to start making fixed expectations for what schedules and days will look like. It’s a bit too early, but the time will come for that again! 🙂
I’m so excited for your goals that you’ve made for this year- a podcast and all of those amazing classes you’re going to take! I’m excited to read more about your life (so, I put that in your survey). I love imperfect! I think sometimes people fear being perfect so much that they don’t do anything at all and you already have so much planned for this upcoming year. You’re going to do awesome!
I love you word of the year. As an idealist, I can relate. ❤️ I haven’t chosen a word of the year, but I keep feeling “surrender” pressing into my heart. I want to set aside my ambition (very hard for my personality, but also a constant source of frustration) and seek God first. There are so many things in life I try and force, but I feel like He wants me to be willing to let go.
I love that, Nathana. I am definitely someone who tries to force things to happen as well. I’ve had to take a step back in various seasons of my life as well. God has a plan for your life, and I just love seeing it unfold!