Yesterday I went over how we can learn from our mistakes of 2011 and use them to make 2012 a much more productive and exciting year!
Today though, I wanted to take a minute and share some of my goals for 2012 with you. I also am including a worksheet at the end of this post that you can print and use to create action plans for your own goals!
Personal Goals for 2012:
Lose weight and take better care of myself: How cliche right? I purposefully did not start off the New Year on a diet. I’m convinced diets are a big part of why I am overweight. Diets aren’t long term and when I go off of the diet (because longterm they make me kind of batty) I immediately gain back all the weight and then some.
Action Plan: This year I am going to focus on healthy eating, portion control and moving my body. I’m hoping that by focusing on things that enhance my life rather then something that deprives me (like a diet) it will be something that will *stick* long term and as a result, I’ll find my way to a healthy weight.
Go on more dates with my husband: Seriously, we never date. I want to have at least 2 dates a month with him, even if we have to pay for a babysitter. In the past, family has always watched our children when we would go out on dates, but everyone is so busy in their own lives. It’s not good for our relationship to go months without getting some time away together.
Action Plan: We need to start looking around for a babysitter we can trust that has good availability. Relying on family when they are available is great (and of course, family watching our kids is ALWAYS our preference), but we always feel like we are imposing.
Make more memories with my kids: We’re pretty good about going places with kids but this year now that they are a bit older, I want to broaden their horizons more and venture out to do some new and different things!
Action Plan: We have several small getaways planned for 2012! I also am going to be more proactive in looking into local events and activities for us to do together as a family.
Grow closer to God: My goodness, this past year was a rough one. To say I had my faith tested would be a gross understatement. It was put to the test on a regular basis! I’m proud to say that it never weakened, but I definitely don’t feel like I grew closer to God last year. Rather, I kind of maintained the relationship. This year, I want to proactively seek Him out.
Action Plan: I am going to start the Bible Reading plan I abandoned last year. It is the Life Journal plan that my church follows along with. It is a one year plan and I can also access it on my phone through the YouVersion app.
Business/Blog Goals for 2012:
Guest Post more: I really slacked on guest posting the second half of 2011! Guest posting is excellent for gaining new readers and for making new friendships!
Action Plan: Write ONE Guest Post per month in 2012. I’m not saying I’ll get a guest post published or even accepted once a month, but I’m going to write one at least once a month!
Work more on building up my list of email subscribers: Email subscribers are the most loyal blog readers of all! They allow you into their inbox each and every day. I focused on Facebook almost exclusively in 2011. That turned out to be a pretty big mistake! While I adore the community that has grown over there, Facebook changed their algorithm and now only a small percentage of those readers I worked so hard to reach don’t even see my updates.
Action Plan: Tell my readers about my FREE newsletter often, re-vamp my free ebook with email subscription, offer more subscriber appreciation giveaways.
Do MORE for my readers: Find more deals/giveaways/freebies for my readers. Write MORE money saving advice articles. DEFINITELY more tutorials, recipes,etc. ALSO get into video! I want my YouTube channel to be HOPPING by 2013.
Action Plan: This is going to take prioritizing my time and the continued delegation of tasks so I can pursue the more creative aspects of running this blog. It might mean I have to hire someone specifically to seek out deals (is that you? 😉 ) so that I can focus less time on finding deals and more time on creating content that makes all of your lives infinitely more awesome.
Keep better records for tax time: My biggest headache right now is that I didn’t really take this stuff (meaning: business) seriously until about August of 2011. Which means that my records prior to that point leave a LOT to be desired. This year, anything I even THINK could be a deduction will be logged.
Action Plan: Like I said, all receipts will be kept and I will start thinking a bit more like a business woman this year rather then a mom with a hobby 😉 .
Learn more about the “tech” side of blogging: Yesterday my blog disappeared from the internet for a few hours. Apparently my database and traffic were too much for my shared server and my hosting company put a temporary block on my site until I optimized my database. I called to see what was going on and was given some advice on what I needed to do. For the next 90 minutes I banged my head against a brick wall because I couldn’t even get past STEP 1. Finally I called them back and found out that even though they had said they whitelisted my IP address so I could work on my site behind the scenes, they actually hadn’t. Once they finally whitelisted my site, I had things up and running in 10 minutes. This would NOT have happened if I knew more about the tech side of things!
Action Plan: I am going to sit down and actually read all those wonderful CSS and PHP books I purchased. I am going to start with the basics and work my way up. Nothing makes you feel more helpless then seeing a year and a half’s year of work disappear in a second. I’m going to educate myself so that kind of thing never happens again.
What are your goals for 2012? Have you written them down yet? Tell me in the comments!
I created a PDF that you can print out and write out your own goals and your own action plans! Be sure to check it out (just click the pic below):
Click to print
Also, if you haven’t yet printed out the printable 2011 Goals Wrapped Up PDF, you can get that PDF here.
Have you looked into the paleo diet at all? I’ve been eating this way for awhile and feel so much better. More energy, less health issues. I’ve also lost some weight! 🙂
I have a few friends that have done the paleo diet and it’s definitely a way of eating that I do feel better on, but it’s something I definitely think I’d need to ease into.