My Year of Hustle: My Goals for 2018

I debated for weeks what my goals for 2018 will be. Not because I didn’t want to set them, but because I have such a driven personality that I knew that I could easily set goals that would throw me off from my plans for the coming year. My year of hustle. 

I had to ask myself and my husband, “How do I pair having a year of expansion with goal-setting for my blog, business, and home life?” And then I had to really let myself mull over the answer for a few weeks. Several in fact. Then I finally decided that I would pick only a few small obtainable goals that would inspire, refresh, and renew me.

If you’ve known me longer than a few minutes you’ll know that I’m the master at picking goals that will challenge me as a person. In fact, I generally love nothing more than regularly having a big challenge to tackle. But this year, I’m just tired of difficulty and strife. Call it a result of our nation’s current political climate or just my angst at the end of my first true fiscal year as a working blogger, I’m a little over a great many things. Any goal that involves a challenge to my sensibilities will likely exhaust me.

I chose goals that sounded inspiring and motivating to only little ole me — while at the same time peppering my annual goal list with a few tasks that would encourage me to be more exacting and intentional in my priorities.

Now, let me be crystal clear: Sometimes it’s really good to choose goals that will challenge us to work really, really, really hard. Sometimes we need to be reminded to be in a season of hustle. 

But for those of us who need to choose much simpler and smaller goals. Tailored goals. Goals that aren’t going to make us feel like we need to work, plot, execute, and delegate from dusk to dawn when we’re already tired and worn out from the minute our feet hit the floor each day.

This past year, my biggest truth was this: I was exhausted. I needed time to decompress. To come to my senses. I’m now ready to start hustling towards fulfilling more of my personal dreams and aspirations. It’s with this in mind that I set the following goals:

Personal Goals:

• Motherhood – Continue with naturally TTC and committing to spending one-on-one, quality time with each member of my family, per week. Human and fuzzy respectfully.
• Marriage – Set aside time for a 3-hour date night with Daniel at home each week.
• Myself – End my workdays by 3 pm each day, read for 1 hour nightly, workout 3 days each week in my home gym, and drink two quarts of water per day.
• My home – Consistency maintain a working monthly meal planning schedule, morning and evening routines, zero-waste living strategies, and cash envelope usage systems.

My blog, TheLadyPrefers2Save.com:

• Post on this blog twice per week on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s. 
• Consistently send out my traditional newsletter each Tuesday morning.
• Post a digital newsletter to Facebook each Tuesday morning.
• Create and publish 1 e-book on savings.
• Create an effective media schedule each week.
• Dedicate 3 hours each weekday to blogging.
• Set aside the last Wednesday morning of each month for an administrative day.
• Find, maintain, and solidify a weekly standing within a blogging mastermind group.

Social Branding:

• Expand my presence online by live streaming (on Instagram, Periscope, or Facebook Live) 1x each channel, per week.
• Commit to a consistent YouTube uploading schedule; MWF uploads at 10 am CST. 
• Create a separate Vlogging YouTube Channel and commit to posting on this channel each Saturday.
• Create a weekly podcast by 2/2/18 and consistently record a weekly podcast.
• Be better engaged in my Facebook Groups; posting in each group each day, Monday-Friday.

And that’s it! I carefully chose each of these goals considering what would be best for our family, for this current season of life, and that would encourage me to keep my commitment to make this a year of truth.

How & Why I Chose These Goals:

People often ask me how to figure out what goals to set, and how I know exactly how to decide on priorities is often by just walking around my home and taking a temperature of how my life is working, what needs addressing, and how these changes will affect my family, and myself, in the months to come. I then base my goals based on those priorities.

My current priorities are mothering, my marriage, myself, my home, and the business. With these priorities in mind, I chose an area in each of those categories that I really want to improve in and around my current routines in those same categories. Then, I polished up my goal list by turning my list into a very specific and measurable goal. Things that could clearly define my year to come.

Truth be told, at first, I felt almost a little bit embarrassed to put it out there that I had set a personal goal to end my workday at 3 pm every day. But when I was thinking about goals, I realized this was something that would not only give me the opportunity to set the temperature of my home each day before my family returns home each afternoon at 4:30 but also to give me the downtime and self-care I desperately needed.

What I hope to gain from these goals:

While I am a small blogger, someone who will always have to create meaningful content, pertinent social media coverage, and hustle to get pitch letters to wherever and whomever they need to be sent to, I still need to have a life. After all, do any of you really believe in bloggers who aren’t living lives of truth and intentionality? I know I sure don’t.

Most importantly, are the three other goals in this subsection, my true gifts to myself: To continue working on my novel, read for 1 hour daily, workout 3 days each week, and drink two quarts of water per day.

For those who may not know, I have been toying with the idea of writing about my experiences of growing up in an LGBTQ home and the aftermath of losing one of my guardians in a highly publicized hate crime at the age of seventeen. Events that shaped my early 20’s. Events that need to be written and shared with others. And this is the year that I’m holding my own feet to the fire and sharing that part of my story. My truth. While I have not come as far as I would have hopes on this goal this past year, I’ve come farther than I thought I would. I’m proud of that fact!

While as a Christian I have long feared the backlash that may come with recanting my life, however at the end of the day I just don’t care what others feel about this matter. And it’s none of my business what others think of me as well.

More importantly, I’m tired of feeling numb. I’m exhausted by the suppression. The fear of losing readers, influence, and income. The fear of offending women of a conservative nature, women who might continue to read my blog but judge me for my upbringing, for embracing my family of choice. But I’ve also learned a valuable lesson in this regard: Those women are not my tribe. Their opinions do not define me or my blog.

In all honesty, I’ve put a lot of thought and prayer into my decision to write this story. For those who likely will not stick around to see how the details of this book will unfold, I lovingly acknowledge your position. But do note: I am my story and my story is my blog.

My personal truths mean more to me than this blog. For me, 2018 will be the year of self-discovery. Of finding my blogging groove. Of being comfortable in my hustle. Not a year of self-suppression, and that’s where I will leave this sentiment for now. 

So that’s it, friends. My 5 Goals for my Year of Hustle! I hope this list will inspire you to create your own set of goals moving into the new year. Or at least, keep you coming back to see my hustle in action. And if you would like to see more of my previous goal setting posts, check these posts out here!

Now I want to ask, what are YOUR goals for 2018? I’d love to hear! Leave a comment and let me know all about them!