Goals for 2025

With January behind us now, I’m checking in to see how your goals for 2025 are shaping up. I hope you took the opportunity to listen to my podcast with Erin Van de Voorde about setting goals and keeping them. If not, you can listen here: Podcast #35 - Erin Van de Voorde - Setting Goals & Dreaming Big

I thought I’d share with you what I have learned about making the year intentional, so that each family member feels that they are going into the new year with enthusiasm and can look back on it as a year of personal growth and improvement.

First, my husband and I start out by looking at our personal goals, family goals, and the kids’ goals for the year. These are the most important things for each of us to accomplish over the course of the year and they become our primary focus in helping to keep one another accountable. A daily plan is made, including time to accomplish goals for that day, added in a way that allows them to become habitual to the existing routine. These must be WRITTEN DOWN in a place that we can see daily.

1. Exercise goals

2. Prayer/spiritual goals

3. Sports/music goals

4. Personal goals, benchmarks, accomplishments (books, study, improvements, achievements)

Here is the list of big things that my husband and I sat down with as we began planning what we wanted our 2025 to look like.

1. Vacation (beach/cabin trip with family, Dollywood)

2. Pilgrimage/Retreats (year of hope, local sites for plenary indulgence)

3. Rites of Passage (hike old rag, camping, receive pocketknife)

4. Service (giving talks, volunteering, serving)

5. Family 5k

6. Weekend trips (battle fields, Williamsburg, camping, hiking, kayaking, rock climbing)

Once we lock in those dates, we decide what weekend warrior projects we want to tackle on the home front and fit them into the schedule.

1. Finish mud room

2. Flooring in the office

3. Mailbox

4. Fix fire pit

5. Refinish Deck

6. Tree house

We order these things according to how important they are, so that we can be sure that the most important things WILL happen. Trips may be dependent on outside factors, such as weather, health, money and travel, but our personal goals are able to prevail as a daily focus. At the end of the year, we want to see a noticeable change in our spiritual growth and in our unity as a couple and family. This is our primary focus, and everything else is built to enhance these things. We rely on the support of retreats and spiritual books and talks as well as quality time together in building us up individually and together.