A Slower Start to 2025

My goals for the year & how I approached it differently!

A Different Approach

I am a big fan of New Years. Not because I am a stay up late, wear the 2025 glasses, toast at midnight kind of gal. I am more so a clean the whole house, set a bunch of goals, declutter and move around the furniture kind of gal.

But this year, I wanted to try a different approach. A slower approach.

Coming off of the holidays, I don’t always feel a ton of motivation or energy. Usually, I have been traveling. I have spent lots of time in social settings. I have been cooking and planning and wrapping and going since Thanksgiving, and I am tired. Anyone else?

So, while I am always anticipating the New Year’s season and what it entails, I usually feels rushed trying to get everything in order before the calendar flips.

But I don’t want to just skip over the New Year. I think setting goals is important. I think having a vision for your year is important.

So what is my solution?

I didn’t do it all before January 1st.

This year, I allowed myself to brainstorm goals later into January and didn’t push myself to start implementing every single change on the first of the year.

In fact, I designated each goal to a specific quarter of the year, so I won’t even be thinking about working on some of them until October! This will help me really focus on certain goals and not try to do everything all at once.

Once I had my goals, I took some time to write out some actionable steps under each of them. I am not making these to-do’s but more so using them as a way to get my brain thinking about how I can actually implement my goals into my life and move them from ideas to action.

So, let me share some of my goals with you!

Goals

1. Daily movement - I am being general with this. Some days it is a walk or a stretch, other days it is a run or a full on gym session. The goal is some kind of movement every single day. Allowing it to be simple, small, or short makes it feel much more attainable.

2. Fine tune meal planning & grocery shopping - We love to cook most of our meals at home, but groceries are expensive! My goal this year is to find simple, healthy, cost-effective recipes that we love. Please, send me yours!!

3. Be intentional with what I watch / listen to / read - We got rid of our TV last year, and I think that has already helped us a ton with this goal. However, I want to continue to be picky and have discernment about what I am allowing my mind to dwell on.

4. Take more photos - I don’t know when this change happened, but I feel like at some point I decided that taking pictures was for big, monumental life moments and not for the mundane everyday ones. But it is!! This year I am working to document my life - however seemingly big or small.

   

   Photos I have taken so far! My current non-fiction read, the pretty morning light, & all the winter gear after going out in the snow!

5. Explore and make time for hobbies - Growing up, I loved to sing, write songs, and make up dances. I loved to read and create my own stories. I rode horses, performed in theater, and doodled a ton. The only hobby I feel like I really make time for anymore is reading. But this year, I am working to not only make time for the hobbies I already know I love but also to try out some new ones! Crochet, pottery, and journaling / scrapbooking are a couple new ones that come to mind.

6. Weekly review / planning sessions - I want to set a time where I reflect on the previous week and plan for the upcoming one. This will likely look like journaling, filling out my planner, and deciding on what habits and priorities I want to set for the week ahead.

7. Weekly date nights - Having a date night when you don’t have kids yet almost seems silly. Isn’t every night like date night? But I think it is precisely for that reason that having a set date night is so important. The goal is not just time together but intentional time.

8. Stop putting rest and fun at the bottom of my to do list - I am so bad about completing my to-do list for the day and immediately looking to see what I can get ahead on for tomorrow. It is as if I think that at some point I will actually reach the bottom of the list. Spoiler: you won’t! This is the year that rest and fun become a part of my days and not just something I get to when the to-do list feels more empty or manageable.

9. Prioritize adventure - We want to travel more this year and in general cultivate more adventure in our lives, big or small. Send me your favorite travel spots!!

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Your Turn!

If you haven’t set goals for 2025 yet because you have felt overwhelmed or busy or unmotivated, I encourage you to try.

Here’s a simple approach you can do right now!

1. Find a quiet space and grab something to write on.

2. Journal about who you want to be this year, what you want to change or keep the same, start or stop. Think about how you want to feel and what you want your days to look like.

3. Using what you wrote, write down some specific goals you could set for yourself.

4. Assign each goal to a specific quarter of the year that you feel like makes the most sense for you.

5. Write down some action steps for your quarter one goals, and start implementing them!

Let me know what some of your goals are and what your thoughts are on the slower approach to the New Year! I would love to chat!

Thank you so much for reading! I hope you are feeling inspired in this new year.

Take care,

Caroline