There’s an incredible amount of pressure to transform yourself at the start of a new year. Or at least develop a plan to launch the transformation process.
You know what, friends?
I don’t have that kind of plan.
In fact, I find the whole idea of having to create a new me overwhelming and, quite frankly, a little depressing. I spent a lot of time, energy, and money trying to transform myself when I was growing up and even in my 20s.
I don’t want to do that anymore. Instead, I want to keep working on doing what is best for me. More importantly, though, I want to keep enjoying being me. When I let myself, it’s really fun.
After an opening like this, you might expect me to say that I don’t believe in resolutions or that I’m not setting goals. Neither is the case. In fact, I find myself filled with different dreams and aspirations. But that’s a pretty common occurrence in my world.
Instead of overwhelming myself, I’m going to keep it simple. Rather than focusing on the entire year, I’m going to continue setting quarterly goals. I’m also going to try to develop the areas around my goals more fully on the blog and in my life.
Because, friends, I need an accountability buddy. And I’m signing you up.
Here’s my plan for the first slice of the year:
Health
I have been letting my health slide in pursuit of money. Which is really stupid. Because without health, what is wealth?
The one thing that kept me at least someone health-focused last year was the fact that I wore a FitBit for 365 days. OK. Fine. 362 days. Once, it died on the last day of vacation, and then the band broke, and I didn’t want to pay expedited shipping. #teamfrugalforlyfe
RELATED POST: 10,000 Steps: Why I’m Spending on Fitness
In addition to trying to stay about 10,000 steps each day, I also want to hit the floor/stair goal every day this quarter. I’m also going to observe the sleep tracker. I’m not going to set a sleep goal, though, because that’s a separate habit that I need to reform. And I have a 29-pound hunch that it’s going to be a process and a half.
Goal 1 – Hit at least 10,000 steps a day.
Goal 2 – Climb at least 10 floors a day.
Wealth
I haven’t run the official numbers yet (Fine, that’s a lie. I just haven’t written the post.), but I do know that we paid a pretty penny toward our mortgage this past year. We are going to continue to attack our mortgage, but now that the calendar has reset, it’s time to do our future selves a solid.
That’s right. We’re suspending super-aggressive (2x-3x the principal) mortgage payments until our Roths are maxed for the year. That means we’ll keep paying the mortgage principal and maybe a tiny bit extra for some closet clean out work I’m doing. But otherwise, we’re prioritizing our Roths.
Goal 1 – Send $1500 to our Roths.
Goal 2 – Put $1800 to mortgage principal.
Clutter
I was going to set a really ambitious number. But I honestly don’t even know what that means anymore. For instance, I have a pile of coupons that I’m about to recycle. That’s at least 10 items (or one if we want to count it as a bulk toss) that requires no thinking. But I have a sweater of my nana’s that I need to donate. And honestly, it’s taken five years, and I still can’t part with it.
Instead of picking some arbitrary number here, my goal for this is going to be to actually do a better job tracking what I’m decluttering and why. I’m also going to give away as much as I sell, if not more.
Goal 1 – Track my clutter/decluttering.
Goal 2 – Donate more. (For every item I sell, I must donate something else.)
Others
This year, I’m going to continue to try to do my small part to give back to others and the world. It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of charitable giving, and I want to keep that up.
RELATED POST: You Don’t Have to Give, But You Absolutely Should
In addition to that, I received the most unexpected $20 gift in December. It caused me to reconsider my entire money focus for the year. More on this in another post soon.
I also plan to continue to track my environmental impact. Last year, I focused on one-time use cups. I tracked that regularly on my blog, and it was easy when I all but gave up Starbucks. I’m going to keep this going, since that seems like an easy habit to slide back into.
Goal 1 – Continue to give monthly to causes and people that matter.
Goal 2 – Use 4 or less single-use cups.
Me
I’m going to add something here that I waffled on. For about a week, there were graphics and posts floating around about The Year Of _____. The trick is you name your year. That sets the tone or theme or focus for the year. The first time I saw it, my knee-jerk reaction was to be sarcastic. (It’s my home-run swing.) I whispered, “The Year of Me.” Then, I rolled my eyes. I think I actually snickered.
But you know what? I said it again, and I realized something. I actually love that. And I need it.
Last year, I let myself become all sorts of things to all sorts of people. And somewhere along the way, I stuffed myself in the back seat. I have yet to crawl out.
Out of all the goals I’m setting, I think this will be the hardest. I also think it’s probably the one that I need to focus on the most.
Goal 1 – Spend time or money (or both!) on myself (and only me!) once a week.
Goal 2 – Say no thank you to an opportunity at least once a month.
Final Thoughts on Q1 2019 Goals
I’ll share some other plans and ambitions for our money, my clutter, and my freelancing throughout the month. But I wanted to make sure to get these goals pinned down because goal-setting continues to be a weakness of mine. Wishing you all the best for the next quarter and this year!
So Tell Me…Are you focusing on anything specific for this quarter? Do you have plans or dreams for the new year?
I find ‘The Year of Me’ a very good idea! Like they say, you can’t help others until you ‘put the oxygen mask on yourself’.
My husband and I are crawling out of debt after a string of unemployments (yes, multiple ones). I earn tip money at my job, and after looking at my paycheck discovered that I made over $3000 in tips last year! What did I spend it on? I honestly don’t know. So this year I’m going to save 70% of my tips to put toward debt and keep 30% for things I want/gifts/grabbing a quick bite to eat once in a while. Small steps that should net big results!
Happy New Year!
I hope you have nothing but success on all your goals. And there is nothing wrong with the year of “you”.
I had a lovely huge vet bill happen early December (its a good thing I love my dog!) so my goal is to pay that sucker off before year end. I had to finance it over 3 years and already have one year paid off. Then its on to the next debt!!!
I will also be finishing my last required course and getting my designation (with a healthy pay bump) which will make paying off debt hopefully easier!! So my goal once school is done is to take some much needed relaxation time and maybe some extra naps and walks with the now (mostly) healthy pooch!
Happy new year!
I love the idea of focusing on one quarter at a time. The year is so long and so much can change, that revisiting your goals each quarter sounds like a really wise plan.
You’re in that stage of life where you can get completely lost in motherhood, the daily grind, and work. I think focusing on yourself is, in some ways, selfless, because it means you’ll have more to give your family. I have fallen down the rabbit hole of sadness and depression, and that was really bad news for my family.
I’m still finishing up my own 2019 goals. I wrote some, then thought, “these are bad and pointless,” so now I’ve got to kind of rethink my whole approach to the year. What’s really important? I agree that health is waaaay up there.
Here’s to a successful Q1 Penny!!
Awesome goals there Penny! A year of you sounds just like what a new mom needs. You go girl. <3
Happy 2019, Penny! I love the “year of me” focus and the idea of quarterly goals. I’m behind on figuring out goals for 2019 and have been thinking about continuing my monthly experiments/goals but I also like the idea of having longer-term things to actually focus on over time. So perhaps I’ll do quarterly goals!
I love this. In the continuous pursuit of always being better, we can lose ourselves. A couple times a year, I have to take a step back and realize I am running a marathon not a sprint. It is really okay to pivot and focus on yourself. I hope you have the best year ever.
Awesome goals! I miss my now-defunct and dead Fitbit. But I’m not buying one at this time. I exercise a lot with other motivations, so it’s just a shiny, fun toy for me. And toys can wait until I’ve met other goals.
I love the idea of spending time on yourself, though. I think that’s what my meditation goal is really all about this year. I hope you find fun ways to meet your needs!
Hey I like your goals set quarterly, haven’t heard of anyone doing that before. I’ve heard of yearly and 6 month goals but quarterly sounds like a nice way to get goals done.
My quarterly goal is to get BwC potty trained. Having him only in overnight diapers is fine as along as he goes to the potty during the day. We are planning to have him attend preschool by this fall and require him to be fully potty trained. So getting him mainly potty trained by the end of this first quarter of the year would be fantastic.
Nothing wrong with a year of you! Sort of made me think of a part in a book I read – the idea of protecting the asset. It was talking specifically about sleep, but I think it could apply more broadly to the idea of spending all your time trying to be everything to everyone.
Coming into the new year, I picked a few focus areas to work on. Apart from finances, I also want to 2019 to be a year of spiritual growth, with progress on some creative endeavours (the blog, writing). I also want to work on my French! I can’t speak it or write it, but I am working on my reading and would like to continue that.
We have similar ideas when it comes to “Year of me,” that’s what I have in mind when setting my yearly goals too.
I missed like over 50 days wearing my Fitbit. I mean, who would wear one when they’re in Hawaii and going in and out of the water all the time? I also don’t wear it at night, probably because tracking my sleep is too depressing. 🙂
This year, I decided to share my goals on my blog and provide updates regularly. Just haven’t figured out if I want to do quarterly or monthly updates.
I like the idea of quarterly goals, I think I’ll try that myself this year! For some reason, I have been pondering your nana’s sweater- maybe you can turn it into a pillow or a stuffie for your ‘29 lb sleeplessness.’ Lol
Your plan sounds great and I always like your specific goals around environmental impact. This quarter 2 of my goals are small and one is big. Small: stop using paper towels and napkins, and continue to declutter. Big: taking some real steps towards (re)building my career. I’ve been a stay at home mom for over a year and want to make the beginning of this year serious about finding part time work.
I find the idea of tracking quarterly goals quite inspiring. For now I still write down only annual goals though I try and chunk then down into quarters.
I think the Year of Me is so important. It’s easy to forget the individualistic aspect of our lives, but it finally feeds the most into our happiness.
I’m so glad you left this comment, Aparna! It’s only been a month (not even!), and I’m already forgetting about “Me”!