Winter Goals

Winter should be one of my favorite times of the year. There's Christmas, our anniversary, and my birthday in there, even if they are squished into one two and a half week span. Instead winter is my least favorite season. It's dark. It's cold. I love sunshine and playing outside with the boys. This year, in an effort to put my least favorite season to work for me, I decided to set some winter goals.

Now goals are different from resolutions, at least in my book. It's really all in the definitions. Resolutions must wait for New Year's and generally don't change your life because you quit about two weeks in. Who wants to even bother? But goals are actionable steps that you can take to change your life. I worked quite steadily through some goals last year and it helped me focus on purposeful work.

A few months ago I talked about where I wanted to be when I turn 30. I won't just magically get there. It will involve working toward those goals day after day. A little work today and a little work tomorrow. 

My winter goals this year are for December through February. I may keep setting goals in three month cycles that coincide with the seasons and different family schedules; this might be a genius idea. I'll tell you in a year. I did have one exciting goal that popped up a couple of days ago and doesn't start until January. But I have been working on it in various forms for a few years and I'll tell you about it last. 

Winter Goals: (in no particular order of importance but grouped by category which are listed as well)

1. Lose 7ish pounds. (personal) Let's say "adios" to the last of that baby weight, shall we? That probably means saying "goodbye" to snacking on chocolate chips. Sad day. 

2. Once a month out-of-home dates. (marriage) We do weekly Friday night dates at home but for these three months of winter we are going to prioritize getting out of the house by ourselves (with baby Caleb probably) once a month. Of course this month it will be to celebrate our anniversary! Seven years, people. I'm starting to feel a tad old.

3. Marriage book club. (marriage/friendship) A friend of mine and I worked through a motherhood book back in the fall and it was so refreshing to get another perspective on the work. This time we are going to use a marriage book and read through it together and discuss what we can apply to our lives. Informal and fun, but very helpful. Ever done anything like that?

4. Read two books on mothering. (motherhood) I have two picked out and I've read them before. But they are good and I guarantee I don't remember everything they said. 

(Am I intentionally not telling you names of the books? Yes. Email me if you want to know but the particular book doesn't matter. Learn something on what's important to you! Use what you have if you don't want to spend money.)

5. Start preschool again mid-January. (motherhood/homeschool) Our homeschool co-op will start back then and Caleb will be almost three months old. Seems like a good starting place. Although I must admit we haven't totally stopped the past weeks, just scaled way back. 

6. Join The Influence Network. (personal grad school) Start attending the free monthly class. Done and done for this month. I got to attend two free classes this month because I got a free class for being a new member. They were both amazing and I took copious notes. 

And the one that surprised me at how quickly it worked out but excites me the most...

7. Start piano lessons in January! (personal grad school) I've been working at piano for five years as an adult and have always thrown around the idea of taking lessons again. So starting in January I'll be taking lessons from a lady that I worked with ages ago at our local university. I am super pumped about this one because I was having a hard time setting goals for my piano work. 

How do you set goals? Do you wait until the New Year? Does that approach work for you? What are you working on now?