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Setting Goals for 2012!

Lily draws a bug

Lily draws a bug

Another year has flown by! This year both Emma and Johnny started school (kindergarten and preschool, respectively), and Lily became an expert talker. I wrote my 1000th post. We had moderate success with our first serious gardening attempt. I said goodbye, first to my paternal grandfather, and then my maternal grandfather. All three kids kept us laughing, and focused on what matters most. Emma learned how to sew, and Johnny and Lily gave it a go as well. We were very relieved that no trees fell on our house during the October snow storm that left us without power for five days. And, we’ve had NO snow since, apart from a few barely-visible snowflakes Christmas morning.

I’m sticking with the same target areas for goals that I used in 2011, except I’m cutting generosity because I find it always gets paired with gratitude:

  • Health: Helping my family eat well and getting the exercise we all need to be happy.
  • Peace: Limiting conflicts, disagreements, and meltdowns – and managing them well when they do occur.
  • Education: Identifying my children’s interests and using these interests to teach them. Challenging myself to learn new things too, and to use the talents I already have.
  • Gratitude: Teaching my children (and myself) to appreciate what we have rather than focusing on what we want. Loving, sharing, and giving to others.

My December goals were so simple that they were easy to keep – although I’m glad I wrote down the food pantry goal, or I would have forgotten! For January 2012, I hope to:

  • Focus on incorporating lots of fruits and vegetables into our daily diets. Target Area: health
  • Help Emma plan her February birthday party. Target Areas: education and gratitude
  • Declutter. Target Areas: health and peace
  • Keep kid-focused time a priority for every day. Target Areas: gratitude and peace

monthly goals at mama smiles

What are your goals for 2012? How about this January? Add your link below! The code for the goals button is on my right sidebar.

MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.

17 thoughts on “Setting Goals for 2012!”

  1. What a great idea – I really like the idea of having a focus each month. I’ve decided to have a bucket list this year of things I want to achieve but it would be so much easier to do a monthly bucket list.

  2. Aleacia @ Dilly-Dali Art

    You have great goals, I like how you break it down into months. Makes it seem easier to do when you make smaller goals for each month and in the long run it equals a huge success! :)

  3. Joyce @Dinosaurs And Octopuses

    I love your use of target areas. It’s all very organized. It seems like it would make it easier to remember to actually work towards each of your goals. I love your monthly goals posts and need to work on my goals for this month! I was feeling rather overwhelmed before, bur your post makes me feel ready to tackle it. Thank you for sharing :)

  4. I need to do this more. For some reason, I get anxiety over setting goals, but I like your idea of setting target areas and making a goal each month to accomplish that target area rather than quantifiable goals.

  5. Always take my time with setting goals and I just took a look at yours. I will adopt your target areas – they apply to us so very, very much! Your January goals are so great I will copy 2-3.

  6. I seriously need to set some goals. We usually try to do that on the 1st. I’m sure they will be a lot the same as last year…lose weight, be more healthy, exercise…I’ve been setting the same goals for 35 years!
    Sandy

  7. Congrats on your 1000 post!!! also good goals list – really like using your children’s interests to teach them and to learn yourself. I am also with you on exercise and healthy family eating!!! Happy New Year!!!

  8. Ooooh, I like that kid-focused-time goal. Days are much more pleasant that way. Actually all your goals sound terrific, and I love the face on Lily’s bug!!

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