As a Christian, I hold my plans loosely because ultimately it’s what God wants so if I feel I need to pivot, I will. When I set goals, I’m prayerful and try to discern if they are something that comes from me, the world and others or they come from God.
I try to be intentional in my life and setting goals helps me live that way.
My goal in preparing my heart for planning and decision making is to remain in a state Ignatius of Loyola referred to as indifference. By indifference, he does not mean apathy but the will of God. Ignatius taught that the degree to which we are open to any outcome or answer from God is the degree to which we are ready to really hear what God has to say. If we are clutching or overly attached to one outcome versus another, we won’t hear God clearly. Our spiritual ears will be deafened by the racket of our disordered loves, fears, and attachments. In such a state, it is almost a forgone conclusion that we will confuse our will with God’s will.
-Peter Scazzero
There was a study that came out and it talked about how most people quit their goals by February 13th and just writing down your goals makes you 42% more likely to achieve them.
One thing I love about Powersheets is that you review your goals monthly and quarterly so you can stay motivated but also tweak if necessary.
I wrote about this last year but I always choose a word to define or set the tone for the year. Last year my word was “Discipleship” and it was super evident in our youth programs.
Recap on 2018 Personal Goals
The Good
TIME MANAGEMENT
- Kept up with bullet journaling
- Quit Instagram for business which saved me a ton of time
HEALTH
- Lost weight, finally! Three years since my hysterectomy and just now starting to lose the weight I gained. Still have more to go.
- No serious illnesses and fibromyalgia only bad a few times during the year (like on Christmas—-yikes).
- Joined a life coaching program for my birthday and love it!
HOME
- Decluttered my closet once and for all thanks to Shira Gill’s program!
- Making progress on getting rid of clutter. It’s still a HUGE struggle for me and one I will continue to battle again in 2019.
FUN
- Traveled a ton which was fun. Hawaii, California 4x, Denmark, Germany, (quick stop in UK and Iceland), Philadelphia, Chicago 2x, New York, Mexico.
FINANCES
- Tried to be more intentional with giving.
FAMILY
- Spent more quality time with my daughter and got to travel to Europe with my son.
SPIRITUAL
- Consistently journaled after bible study each morning.
- Morning “Quiet Time” has become longer and more meaningful.
- I didn’t take a Sabbath rest every single week but for the most part, I did pretty well.
- Did several fasts throughout the year.
The Bad
TIME MANAGEMENT
- Addicted to checking email!
- Too many bullet journals—need to consolidate so I have them all together when I need them.
- Bad habit of answering texts when I’m with my kids/husband.
- Reading phone while eating and while sitting at red lights (horrible).
- Didn’t follow through on batch working.
HEALTH
- Exercised sporadically (boo!).
- Didn’t meal plan, ever. Not once.
- Failed at taking vitamins/supplements.
HOME
- Our pantry was clean and now it’s a mess again.
- Never cleaned out the playroom closet.
FUN
- Worked more than I anticipated but as a start-up, it’s to be expected.
FAMILY
- Didn’t do anything with family photos or scrapbooking.
FINANCES
- Totally overspent and have little to show for it.
Disclaimer: Some of it was gifts for other people and then, who knows what else I spent it on. One of my goals last year was to know where every dollar is spent. Ha!
For beLydia it’s easy because we don’t spend that much and our account is seen by four different people to verify each expense. And when I was working in Interior Design, I always stayed on budget and was super careful with other people’s money. But for me, with my credit card. Oy. #willdobetterin2019
SPIRITUAL
- Continuously was in the Word and did several bible studies but didn’t read through the Bible.
Reflecting back on 2018 for Work
Ups of 2018:
- Open Hearts Conference exceeded my expectations. We are making a few changes: this year we are only having high school girls. I think it was hard to have such a broad age group (8th-college senior) which is why this year we are just focusing on high school girls. We will also have a retreat versus a conference
Dates of Open Hearts 2019: April 26th-28th. Registration will open up February 1st.
- Our Gala was a smashing success. While planning it, we were under so much stress it’s a miracle none of us had a heart attack or stroke. Sincerely, I was hoping to a) never have to do it again or b) do it every other year. The good news is that we made way more money than I anticipated! The bad news is now we have to do it again!
It is a lot of work and we didn’t have enough help. Honestly, we didn’t know what we were doing so we didn’t know what we needed. Now we know what needs to be done, how many people need to help and it should go way smoother next time.
- Focus on the Family’s article on us was amazing and it prompted us to launch our Home Awareness Program (ready or not). We had women from all over the country sign up (Hi, North Carolina! You had the most Hosts!).
Home Awareness: We are simplifying it and making some changes but still believe in using hospitality to prevent child sex trafficking!
Awareness is still the best way to make a difference and because hospitality is something we all need to be doing anyway (as a biblical mandate), it just makes sense to put them together.
- Featured in Tribeza Magazine which is exciting!
- The Turquoise Table podcast-fun!
- Several speaking engagements with a wide variety of groups!
We had the opportunity to speak to a couple different schools, all different grade levels-one hilarious time we had high school students laying down on a sidewalk in front of us with their hoodies covering their faces.
We were standing on a hill overlooking them while speaking and they covered their faces!
Hard to describe but it would have been awkward even if we weren’t talking about sex trafficking. I thought for sure none were listening (and I told Christina that I never want to do talk to students again!) but their teacher later told us they couldn’t stop talking about what we had shared. So we did make an impact!
Spoke to several different community groups and even though I walk away every single time thinking I totally bombed, they all reached out afterwards and are helping us spread awareness.
- I absolutely love and adore the women that I’m working with. I cannot even imagine not having them around. Each of them has a different strength and different passion so it’s fun to see God working in all of us.
- We have a new office that is less expensive than our old office but way bigger and I absolutely am over the moon grateful we have it! It’s a 1929 bungalow in the most perfect location. Yay, God!
- I closed our Instagram account. Not totally sure that’s a win for us but it felt like RELIEF when I did it. It still feels like the right thing to do and now saves me so much time because I don’t have to even think about it. Hallelujah!
Downs of 2018:
- Coming off the success of the Gala, I had a horrible spiritual attack starting the night of the Gala (after it was over). It lasted pretty much all of November and really made me want to take a break from doing any of this. I even contemplated giving all the money back. I know spiritual attacks often happen after you’ve accomplished something that clearly had God’s hand in it but this one was bad! I’ll write more on it later but I’m still trying to process what happened.
- Did not blog and wasn’t intentional about social media. I had plans to be organized and have posts written two months in advance and then didn’t even write one.
- Not being consistent with sending out newsletters. Ugh, totally my fault. I am making changes for that this year—we will send out a simple monthly newsletter to those that sign up on our website and then the beLydia Backers will get a more robust newsletter. That way, as a financial supporter, they can follow along on the Luminaries progress.
- We created a Youth Program, called Be:3, and while I loved parts of it, I’m not sure we will keep doing it. It was much harder than I anticipated and I think it’s better for a specific age group (and we had a whole range of ages that we were working with). It felt like we were swimming upstream which is not a great feeling. So that is on the back burner for now.
- We had a few health issues that we had to deal with but as always, God is in control and those storms are opportunities for us to strengthen our faith.
All in all: a FULL year with amazing accomplishments that we could not have done without God. He gets all the glory for sure!
Ok, now for 2019! Here we go!
My word for 2019: FOUNDATION
Foundation in my personal life to me means being rooted and grounded in the Lord. Having a strong foundation in my spiritual life by spending more time in prayer, reading Scripture, memorizing, practicing spiritual disciplines so that I’m a stronger mother, wife, friend, mentor.
What does “foundation” mean for my business? This year, so much of what I feel like needs to be done is simplify and lay a strong foundation. We have grown so fast which is great but now we need to really make sure our roots grow thick and sturdy.
BUILD A STRONG FOUNDATION IN 2019
Actionable items:
- Making sure our systems work for us.
- Simplify programs.
- Communication needs to be a priority.
- Better structure in meetings.
- Each of us taking a Sabbath rest during the week.
The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance and advantage, But everyone who acts in haste comes surely to poverty. (AMP)
Proverbs 21:5
PERSONAL GOALS FOR 2019
TIME MANAGEMENT: Simplify to be more productive
- Only check email twice a day. I’m addicted to picking up my phone out of habit, and it’s ridiculous.
- Manage my time by batching my work.
HEALTH: To be in the best health of my life for my kids and grandkids
- Tabata 6x a week.
- Choose whole foods 80% of the time.
HOME: Peace, calm and rest
- Maintain clutter-free closet.
- Maintain a clean pantry/fridge.
- Declutter playroom, storage closet, home office.
FUN: Find the joy in life and share it
- Do the splits!
- Girls trip with my friends.
FAMILY: Make each moment matter
- Travel with each child during the year.
- 2016-2018 Scrapbooks!
- Throw a birthday party for my husband.
FINANCES: Be a good steward and live for the Kingdom, not the world
- Stick to a budget (which is crazy low, Lord help me) and be content in NOT buying.
SPIRITUAL: Grow closer to the Lord
- Read the Bible in a year with my family. I’ve read the Bible in 90 days before which was challenging so this should be much easier.
- Continue to journal my prayers every day.
- Follow the disciplines of a Spiritual Life.
- Fast -weekly and then longer fasts once a quarter.
- 52 Sabbath Delights! If I only accomplish one goal, let it be this one.
WORK GOALS FOR 2019
Individually, each of the members of the beLydia team have different goals because we each work in different areas but these are some of mine:
- 52 blog posts not only written but posted!
- 256 beLydia Backers signed up at $10 a month or more!
- Keep my weekly work/batching schedule!
- Diligent about newsletters!
- Luminary Program – launched and meeting the individual goals of the Luminaries!
- Financially successful Gala!
- Spirit-led Open Hearts Retreat!
Longest post ever! If you’ve read this incredibly long post, you’re a trooper (or a glutton for punishment)!
I plan to update each month with a progress report. These posts won’t be as long, promise!
What are some of your goals for 2019?
I love the idea of setting our goals prayerfully. I feel it’s fundamental to how well we do in realising those goals as children of God.
I agree! Thanks so much, Edith!