How to Move Forward in the New Year by Looking Back

Are you ready to rush into 2020? But wait! Before we move forward in the new year, it is vital to look back, though some years are more emotional to review. Looking back can help us reflect on our losses, celebrate our wins and learn from our mistakes. Taking a moment to reflect can be very balancing too. Often, we can forget all the wonderful things that happen, the things we worried might happen that never did and the blessings that took our breath away.

So I want to share my 2019 year in review. The goals that were accomplished, and the goals I didn’t reach. What worked and what didn’t work. Hopefully, you will be encouraged (or given courage, if need be;) to do the same! And in this way we can move forward in the new year!

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How to Look Back to Move Forward in the New Year

My 2019 Year in Review

I split my goals into 5 main categories: Family, Faith, Homeschool, Personal and Business. And my FOCUS WORD or ONE WORD for 2019 was JOY!

Focus Word or One Word for the Year

If you have never created a focus word for the year, you can learn how to create your own focus word here. I really appreciate setting one word for the year as it weaves throughout all my goals, giving them focus. And it always so interesting how my ONE WORD may change its meaning as the year goes.

This year’s ONE word, Joy, became about seeing beyond the shifting changes around me and finding JOY in what I truly have been blessed with in life.

College Boy moved out, and we sold our home that we had completely remodeled. It was our family’s first full year without my Dad and my Grandpa. And we went through some more major changes at our church. One of my best friends moved an hour away. And several of my good homeschool friends graduated their last student! Life at times felt like there was nothing solid to hold onto.

But we moved, were blessed with a great sale on our home and were able to move back to the house we were at 4 years ago. So once we resettled, and I realized that I get to have my husband and daughter with me and take all my lovely memories, I was able to experience much JOY!

Holding onto what you are not meant to keep is far more stressful than just letting go! Change is hard, but it can be very freeing!

Unexpected JOYS in 2019:

College Boy graduated college (and learned to cook;)
Our oldest son and his wife moved closer
We welcomed our first grandbaby
We made a great sale on our home due to housing market in our area
25 new calves were welcomed into the herd
Bottle raised Buddy the calf
Spent a week in Hilton Head with my brother and his family
Enjoyed a lovely vacation in Gatlinburg with my family

Family Goals for 2019

My top family goals for 2019 were to work on tidying habits with my daughter, help my son graduate and get resettled, and work with Teen Red on her interests.

YES!! Teen Red finally makes her bed without thinking about it. And I know, some of you all mentioned that you don’t worry about a made bed, but I knew I needed to start with a defined, clear tidying habit. Now we can move on to something else! What to tackle next??

I did take some time, dropping everything else and help College Boy move! He graduated one weekend and moved into his apartment the next. Our second son has done really well, learning to grocery shop and cook. He already knew how to clean and do laundry, as he has always been good at that. But as he never was really interested in cooking, I was a little worried! Ha! But he made the transition and even asked for some help a few times:)

Lessons Learned to Move Forward in the New Year:

New habits really are best built one at a time!

Faith Goals for 2019

Well I blew this one is some ways. The goals I had set, to find a life verse for each of the kids and host a Biblical festival meal with my sister-in-law, did not happen!

Though this was not one of my written goals, I did I desire to create space in my life to hear from God. Ever since I had my 3rd heart attack in the end of 2016, it seems like it has been harder to gain clarity from God.

Partly this was due to being so tired all of 2017, it was all I could do to keep moving. And then I realized that being on social media so much in 2017 and 2018, with blogging, was a little distracting. So this year, I set out to try to make my first half an hour of the mornings God’s. If He showed up to talk, great! But if not I wanted to make sure I had created space in my life to hear Him if He did want to tell me something. So I tried to keep the focus on making the space for God and not worrying so much if I felt like God was talking to me everyday or not.

As a mom to just one teen at home, I can find physical silence. But I still find it challenging to silence my thoughts and frame them on one thing. But this year, I do feel like I made a little more space in my life for what mattered most first thing in the morning.

Now, I do want to get to that Biblical feast next year!

Lessons Learned to Move Forward in the New Year:

Go ahead and set dates if you plan to celebrate or plan an event.
Making time to be silent and listen is so important for faith growth and self-care.

Homeschool Goals for the Year

Field Trips!! OK, so I decided we had better start participating in a couple more field trips before we started the high school and part-time job years. I set the goal for at least 5…we could only remember doing 4. But that is on top of going to her co-op, play practice and winter swim. And I’m not the best at taking pictures on field trips!

But we did enjoy our field trip to the Cyclones Hockey game!

And in February, I did coordinate another College & Career Fair! It was very successful, but I am still getting about the same in numbers. The event is so much work, but I do love seeing it all come together!

Personal Goals for 2019

Honestly, I didn’t create a ton of personal goals this year. I think 2018 left me feeling a little overwhelmed. So I scaled my personal goals back for 2019 and picked just a couple goals.

One goal I set was to read the book Cozy Minimalist Home: More Style, Less Stuff by Myquillan Smith and learn how to create some cozy spots in my home. I ended up listening to the book while I was on the elliptical in the mornings and I LOVED it. My mom ended up buying a physical copy, and I have borrowed it several times.

I always thought decorating was one of those gifts you either had or you didn’t. While interior design is definitely a gifting, I learned so many practical tips from the book, Cozy Minimalist, that anyone can learn to apply! I was thrilled to know that I can create some cozy, beautiful spaces in my home.

And then we sold our home… perfect!

But because of what I learned, I have slowly been applying the cozy decorating steps to my new home.

And my husband and I were able to make it through, with out marriage intact, the GREAT COUCH DECISION of 2019! No joke, ya’ll, I thought we would never be able to reach an agreement! It was intense! Thankfully, if you have been married long enough you learn to trust that you will eventually make it around to some kind of agreement. Even when it looks like it is NEVER going to happen! Ha!

Lessons Learned to Move Forward in the New Year:

Sometimes our best goals can be to make time for nothing. I enjoyed reading for fun and learning something new just for the pure joy!

Business and Blogging Goals for 2019

At the end of 2018, my husband and I both felt that we wanted to support each other more in our businesses in the new year. We decided with the farming to set Tuesday afternoon, as the day Teen Red and I would go over and all work together. Setting an actual day and time helped us make “farm days” happen.

With the second half of the year, we moved, had summer farm work and started a facebook page for our freezer beef business. As it quickly became apparent, I was in charge of social media! Check out our freezer beef business, Hickory Hollow Farms Freezer Beef page here. I started creating videos showing how to use all the various cuts of beef, highlighting some of my favorite beef recipes. This video on How to Make the Perfect Steak is one of our most popular videos (maybe cause Country Boy appears;).

Our beef business has done very well. We grew by 25 calves this calving season, tried a new product line by selling beef individually, and increased our sales and audience through social media.

Meanwhile back at the ranch…hehee! My blog goals were to learn SEO and increase traffic through SEO. And I wanted to make a part-time income through The Reluctant Cowgirl in 2019. The first half of the year, I was putting in 15-20 hours, but the second part of the year, I had to scale back that time to 10 hours to make time to work on the Hickory Hollow Farms’ business.

I did increase my traffic through SEO and learn a lot through Mike Pearson’s course Stupid Simple SEO. But as I did not come close to reaching my goals. I will be taking a hard look at the direction I want to head in 2020 with The Reluctant Cowgirl.

While blogging is a ton of work, I love creating and hitting “publish”. I love when I hear from readers that they appreciated my post or it helped them in some way. But as a blog takes lots of traffic, very vocal raving fans and a strong clear message to make money to cover the costs and provide an income, I am not sure yet where to go in the new year.

I am thankful that I learned a ton in my Mastermind group, Your Blogging Mastermind through Crystal Paine. I did several guest posts, was invited to be on a School Counselor Gone Rogue’s podcast, and created over 40 new posts (about 60,000 words;0). And the highlight of my blogging year, was meeting my blog friend Julia from Dogwoods and Dandelions!

Lessons Learned to Move Forward in the New Year:

Continuing to aim high on your goals takes a lot of courage, especially when your don’t hit your goals.
Everything you learn in life, at home or work will be used. Learning and growing is never a loss. But be flexible to holding your plans loosely as God may have other plans.