My 2019 Goals + 2018 Recap & My Word of the Year

My 2019 goals in the areas of personal, home/financial, and business with a review of 2018's goals and the new word of the year I'm choosing and how it will affect my goals and life.

Each year I take the time to reflect on the previous year, the goals I set and how they turned out, and craft new goals for the new year. I actually started doing this after my first year of blogging in January of 2010 (you can see all the goals I've shared here). I was inspired by other bloggers I read who shared their goals and what they were able to accomplish with a little planning.

**I interrupt this article to ask - did you notice the date I mentioned? I started AOC in February of 2009, so 2019 marks my 10th anniversary writing and sharing recipes and life with you all on this website!! I really can NOT believe it. Okay, back to all about goals...**

And that's what I always hope this sharing of my goals does for you - inspires you to set one, two, or more goals you'd like to see happen in the coming year. I am convinced that setting a few focus areas is key to not just letting life happen to you - where you react to all the things that have to be done, the normal day-to-day life that takes up so much of our time vs. moving forward towards being the person you'd like to be.

If I hadn't made it a priority to make time for my family, I wouldn't be the best mother and wife I can be. If I don't plan for friendships, they wither. If I don't motivate myself to read with a goal, I spend my extra time on social media or watching forgettable television. If I don't keep up with my health, it will definitely get worse. And business and work goals have been key in moving this website forward (it's SO easy to just spend all my time reacting to things in the blogging world!).

Perfection is definitely NOT required - nor is meeting all the goals each year. For example, it took us more than 5 years to fully fund our emergency fund. We didn't give up, or feel like we failed - any progress was better than none.

If you can look back and see progress, that's a win. Sometimes it may be in an area you didn't even foresee - that happens sometimes because, life. But moving forward and growing is the overarching goal, which is why I hope that sharing my successes and failures helps you to see that setting a few realistic goals is a good thing.

How do I Write Goals?

I aim for 3-5 goals in each of three areas: Personal, Home/Financial, and Business that come from our "big" 5-year goals. These big goals are a little more general - the things we just want to see happen more like travel, home progress, relationships, retirement planning, etc.

After reflecting, I write my goals in my Flexible Planner and then immediately use the Goal Action Steps section to list out 3-5 small steps I can take towards them for the first quarter of the year. Then I can move those to the months and then weeks, breaking the goal down as necessary.

Whatever system you use, just write them down where you can see them and review every three months or so - that's the key to not letting the January excitement of a new year fade by month four (or two, ha!).

2019 Goals & 2018 Recap

Recap of 2018's goals and results:

Personal:

1. Keep healthy by continuing regular workouts and eating right. Specifically I’d like to add even more vegetables to lunch and dinner with 1/2 to 3/4 of meal to consist of veggies. RESULTS: I feel really good about this, especially after learning to ferment and making sure to eat some of those veggies daily. Dinner usually consisted of two vegetables and lunch was often leftovers or a salad. One thing I didn't specify was to lose the 10 lbs. that had crept on after turning 50, but it was a major focus for me and I'm happy to report that Intermittent Fasting is what finally worked for me (listen to this podcast for more on that) - I'll be writing more on this in the future.
2. Read 50 books again this year. RESULTS: Smashed again - I read 85 (!!) books this year, so I think it's time to shoot for a larger reading goal, don't you?
3. Join church home group in new house area. RESULTS: Mixed. There wasn't a group in our area, so we've become the leaders of a new group that so far has only one other person. Hopefully in the next few months we will be meeting on a regular basis.

Home/Financial:

1. First phases of remodel for new house. These will include: foundation work; siding, new front door, and master bump-out. RESULTS: Well, looking at this we actually completed or started all this in 2018 - and this is after me thinking it took so long to get started and we were so behind! The foundation is done, old siding restored & moldings back, new front door, and a lot of the framing & roof done on the master extension.
2. Rent second home by end of 2018. We’ll be living in it the first half, but with a goal to rent to help fund the remodel of the farmhouse. RESULTS: Ha! No. We're no where near to moving in and the renting of the home we're living in so close to the farmhouse is iffy. We're now thinking of AirBNB or something.
3. Retirement planning by meeting with a financial advisor. RESULTS: Met! After two years on the list, we found and met with a planner who has really helped us even with our minuscule savings. I'd recommend meeting with a planner to anyone.

Business:

1. Continue working on affiliate income and creating products. In fact, you can expect something this month that I’ve been working on for a few years! RESULTS: Met! The Flexible Planner and Vegetable Gardening the Easy Way are out in the world and I shared with you some wonderful Ultimate Bundles.
2. Hire a social media specialist. RESULTS: MET! I hired a person to help with FB for awhile but then decided to focus on Pinterest with a new VA who specializes in it. This has helped my load a lot.
3. Increase newsletter subscribers. RESULTS: Not met. I have a good list, but I cleaned it out to get my open rate higher, so actually lost subscribers this year, ha! I'd still like to work on this.
4. Do regular FB lives and Instagram Stories (my ‘scary’ goal…) – I’m hoping having the new property will inspire me to see this as a fun way to communicate with you. Expect lots of befores, in-progresses, and afters! RESULTS: Mixed. Well, actually not met as far as the "regular" part. I did do some Insta stories and longer videos I added to my You Tube channel. I'd like to still work on this.
5. Attend 2 conferences (still ‘scary’ goal for me!). Both are scheduled for the first half of the year. RESULTS: MET! One wasn't as profitable, but the other was really worthwhile (plus we got to explore Austin and Waco together).
6. Join a mastermind group for biz goal accountability. This is in the works and I’m so excited! RESULTS: MET! Our group met together for the first 6 months of the year and helped keep accountable as well as sharing business insights. I've been meeting with a blogging friend monthly for more specific accountability, which has been so good.

2019 Goals & Word of the Year

Personal:

1. Maintain weight with Intermittent Fasting (16:8 eating window) and healthy eating (I feel this just has to be a goal every year, even if I'm at a good weight).
2. Move everyday. Barre at-home videos 3x/week (I've been consistent at this for more than 2 years now- a record for me!) adding in 4x/week walking and/or gardening/DIY. Also, add Pomodoro timer to computer and set to work in 60-90 minute blocks before getting up to move.
3. Read/Listen to 80 books.
4. Build relationships by connecting with friends in person 2x/month and home group 1x/week.

Home/Financial:

1. Farmhouse Remodel: Finish master extension, flooring on main level, porch roof, living/dining room, kitchen, vegetable garden fenced and useable, and sunken flower garden started.
2. Max out retirement funds.
3. Find new CPA + better plan for taxes.
4. Move by end of year? Plan for manufactured home?

Business:

1. AOC Products: promo current products and introduce 1-2 more.
2. Increase newsletter subscribers.
3. Pinterest focus to increase traffic from that source.
4. Continue SEO optimization of older recipes and articles.
5. Regular videos and more social media lives.

2019 Word of the Year

Every year I think maybe I won't have a word for the new year - and then one just comes to me, usually at the last minute (being a Christian, I like to think it's from God). I had been casually thinking about it for the last few months and then during our church's service on December 30th, the speaker was talking about something that just jumped out at me and I knew it would be my word:

Steadfast

I think it builds nicely off of 2017's Hope and 2018's Trust - I want to be steadfast in all the areas of my life: my relationship with God, with my family, and steadfast in my commitments and business. When I looked up the definition, the other words used to describe steadfast are exactly what I'd like to be known for:

Dependable, Reliable, Consistent, and especially: Unwavering & Faithful

When I think about the goals I've made, being unwavering will go a long way to helping make them a reality - dependably produce useful content for you, reliably meet my deadlines, consistently put my relationships before my business, etc.

I will again do a year-long Biblical word study of steadfast (doing this has made the yearly word so much more meaningful!), looking up a new verse daily/weekly and writing it in my journal.

So that's it, friends - another year of goals and another new start to becoming people who live simple homemade lives! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for joining me on this journey - I appreciate each and every one of you!

Never hesitate to leave a comment or email me with your thoughts and suggestions - I love hearing from you (if you want the quickest access, sign up for the newsletter below - then you can just hit "reply" to my newsletters and be in my inbox whenever you think about it!).

For more inspiration, you can see all my previous goals from 2010 on here.