My Focus Word and Top Goals for 2018

As I have been encouraging you all to choose a focus word and to zero in on your big goals for 2018, I thought I would share some of mine.  For some of you , this shorter post will come as a relief! Hehee.  But if you were hoping for something a little more substantial to chew on don’t worry. I’m planning out lots of great future posts for The Reluctant Cowgirl.  So here is my focus word and top goals for 2018.

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My Focus Word and Top Goals for 2018

It can be tempting, for me, to think of all sort of great ideas and continuously run them over in my head.   When it comes to decision time I can tend to drag my feet as I want to make the perfect choice.  Others can easily make decisions, but they realize later they didn’t think their choices all the way through.  So whatever camp you are in I do hope you found a little time to create a focus word for 2018 and work on your goals.  It brings a lot of satisfaction when we are mindful and intentional with our time.

My focus word for 2018 is Strengthen.

Last year, it felt like I was going through some deep intense work just to Move Forward.  I glimpsed how completely powerless I am to make my body heal faster. While my faith continued to be a source of comfort, I was challenged to see that though God brought so many to comfort and encourage me He did not offer a reason as to “why” I was in this place.

With my blog, it was all about building a foundation in 2017.  I learned to make writing a weekly habit, to start venturing out into the social media world to build friendships and to face my fear of technology almost weekly.  I’ve met so many helpful and talented bloggers and business women.  It was a little intimidating at times!  But I’m so excited at the opportunity to  Strengthen my blog in 2018 and build on that foundation.  Some changes are coming that I hope will truly benefit and strengthen your family too!!!

This year, I’m feeling very thankful to take that all the deep under the surface work of 2017 and Strengthen upon it.

My Top Goals

With the purchase of the Brilliant Life Planner, you receive the Brilliant Planner School course.  I have been working through the course to help me attack some of my bigger goals.  Beth Anne, of Brilliant Business Moms, suggests creating 5 main areas for your life.  And then put your top 2-3 goals in each area.  So while I have a ton of other goals, I liked the idea of putting first things first.

For me, I chose the 5 main areas of Faith, Family, Homeschooling, Health/ Wellness and Finance/Business.  You can choose whichever ones you feel give a broad overview of your life.

Some of my/our family goals include:

Family:

Eat dinner together 2-3 times a week.

As the children got older and our farm jobs have increased it has become harder and harder to sit down together to dinner.  Our family spends a lot of time together homeschooling and working, but I have realized that I feel better when we have a little focused face time.  So I’m setting a dinner goal on top of the typical family get togethers and family nights. Country Boy and Little Red like to start chatting away right before we all head to bed, but by then I’m shutting down into my introvert shell, not looking to connect more.  So the compromise of sitting down to dinner but not insisting it is every night seems to be a good fit.

Encourage and help my daughter with her baking.

Little Red is really into baking right now.  Based on an idea that I heard from Jill Martin over at Strong Hearts/ Strong Women, I decided to break Little Red’s baking goals down by the month.  I asked her to choose 2 new recipes per month. My daughter has already done two for January so we are off to a great start.

Jill is a Beachbody instructor and motivator.  She put together some great Facebook Live videos on goal setting that you would probably really enjoy.

Health/ Wellness:

Read 2 new books a month

This is a ridiculously low amount for me.  But I noticed that last year, I did almost no reading as I was writing instead.  I LOVE to read and to share with others about the books I have been reading so I need to fit this back into my life.  I’m setting the small MUST goal of reading at least 1 for fun book and 1 self-improvement (self-help, health, business) book.

Work-out 3-4 times a week

So I want to break my 6 month barrier.  It seems like I have about 6 months out of the year where I work out.  I would like to make it a year-long habit.  I’m incorporating walking, too, as I want to have no excuse, even on my bad weeks, for not doing something to be more consistent. Other than some of my blogging goals, this feels the most daunting!

Finance/ Business

Grow my blog audience

This is a huge idea.  In order to break it down into manageable steps and an actual goal, I am targeting 5 main areas: creating a resource library, blogging 5-6 posts a month,  niche down on my main message, master Pinterest and guest post.

I have been working on refocusing who I feel like I am best suited to encourage and motivate.  So you will be seeing some changes to the blog as I want to be crystal clear on the message and reason for The Reluctant Cowgirl.

Buy hay equipment

We were so blessed to grow our herd (ok, that even sounds weird to be saying #citygirl) last year.  But cows eat A LOT, especially during cold spells like this past 2 weeks.  So my husband and I have agreed that we need to be able to bale hay to keep costs down.

While it feels nerve-wracking to make a big purchase and buy our own hay equipment, without all the money upfront like we are used to doing, I know that we have a solid plan.

Well, I have lots of more goals, but those are just a few that I thought I would share.  So do you have a goal you are excited about, big or small?

I have to tell you I’m super excited about my goal to start reading again.

My for fun book for this month is a gift from my mother-in-law.  It is from the Gaslight Mystery series by Victoria Thompson called Murder in Chelsea.  I love the series as it is set in the turn of the century.  It includes interesting social issues of the times along with great characters and always an intriguing mystery!  Any good self-improvement books you’ve read recently? I’m looking for some recommendations. Leave a comment for me below:)