Setting Goals for 2017 Month By Month

Setting goals for 2017 – breaking them up into month by month chunks to keep them achievable and to adjust for the realities of life.

Click to read also: How to Choose a Word of the Year

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2016 was a great year for our family! As you can see from my “best of 2016” image above, I had a lot of fun capturing our year on Instagram. Mike and I celebrated 15 years (!) of marriage, and we took the kids to Scotland (along with a bunch of Mike’s students). We visited Muir Woods. We read a lot of books. I made a LEGO cake for Johnny’s birthday (post I need to write). I took the kids to Florida to visit my parents (more posts I need to write). Anna made a lot of art. We made no-sew doll carriers. And we celebrated Christmas around a gorgeous tree that consumed our entire living room for one joy-filled month.

I set very simple goals for December, the final month of the year, and I was able to achieve all of them! Johnny enjoyed a fun birthday party (post coming sometime soon). I finished Lily’s quilt top – it only took me a year and a half! I found some simple service opportunities for the kids, where they were happy to help. We sang a whole bunch of Christmas carols (my kids excelled a little more than I would have chosen at singing “The Twelve Days of Christmas”).

This week we are visiting Mike’s mom and sister in Las Vegas, and it’s time to set goals for 2017. As always, I plan to break my overall goals into smaller monthly goals.

Setting Goals for 2017 Month By Month

I picked “Live” as my word of the year for 2016. I’m sticking with it for 2017. I love the emphasis on taking things as they come and making the most of what we have.

Read about my other words of the year:

• 2015 Word of the Year
• 2016 Word of the Year
• 2017 Word of the Year
• 2018 Word of the Year
• 2019 Word of the Year
• 2020 Word of the Year
• 2021 Word of the Year
• 2022 Word of the Year
• 2023 Word of the Year
• 2024 Word of the Year

FOCUS POINTS FOR SETTING GOALS MONTH BY MONTH IN 2017

I am keeping the three areas of focus I used in 2016 as I set goals for 2017:

• Gratitude: Noticing all that is good in life, and the people that make my world go round.
• Learning: Making the most of opportunities.
• Mindful Living

I thought about adding in resilience, but that is really the same thing as learning.

Major Milestones for 2017

There are a few major milestones that will be structuring my goals in 2017:

• We will, sometime in the second half of the year, be moving from our condo into a house. This is really exciting! We originally planned to live in this condo for one year; it has stretched into four. A house means our own parking spot that will ALWAYS be available, a small yard, and no more shared walls!
• We have some big decisions to make with Anna old enough to start kindergarten and Emma most likely homeschooling for sixth grade.
• I have a couple of ideas for ebooks/print books that I would like to get done. This was actually a sort-of goal for 2016. Hopefully my writing it down will make it happen in 2017!
• I want to catch up on family photo editing. I have picture from April that need to be edited!

Setting Goals for January 2017

Here are my goals for January 2017:

• Enjoy time with Mike’s family. Gratitude.
• Learn about new technologies while attending CES (as press!) Learning.
• Explore new creative options while attending Creativation (also as press!) Learning.
• Read through the novel I wrote during NaNoWriMo and figure out what I can salvage from it. Learning.
• Help the kids edit the stories they wrote during NaNoWriMo’s Young Writer’s Program and get them into some sort of published form. Learning.
• Participate in STORYSTORM. The kids are going to help me with this one. Learning.
• Focus on spending time with the kids. They grow up way too quickly! Mindful Living.
• Plan more fun dates with Mike. We build LEGO Creator sets at home, but we are trying to get out more. Mindful living and gratitude.
• Put the back on Lily’s quilt and at least start to quilt it. Learning.

What are you hoping to accomplish in 2017? How about January? Are you looking for more inspiration for setting goals? These might help:

• Monthly goals AND a free 2017 printable calendar from 3 Dinosaurs
• Refreshing Your Family, Home, & Heart for a New Year from Crayon Freckles
• January Goals from Freshly Planted
• The Secret to Accomplishing Your Goals for 2017 from Hot Drinks and Conversation
• January Monthly Crafts from Kitchen Floor Crafts
• A year of goals printable pack (not free, but inexpensive and well done) from The Dating Divas

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MaryAnne Kochenderfer

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