Fresh Start...

Source: pinkofperfection.com via jennifer on Pinterest

Happy New Year!  I hope you all rang in the new year just the way you wanted.  We spent ours with good friends eating apps, playing board games in our comfy clothes.  It was awesome!

Yesterday, I found myself getting a little sentimental about 2012.  It will forever be one of my favorite years, I'm sure of it.  When I look at the ways God blessed us during the last year, I am overwhelmed with gratitude.  It was a good year.

That being said, I'm not sure I've ever entered in to a new year with as much excitement as this one.  2013 holds so much promise to be just as good, or better than 2012.  I'm beyond excited to experience it!

In recent years, I've stopped making resolutions, and started setting goals.  I try to set my goals with the following in mind:

1.  Make them attainable, but challenging.  I have a tendency to want to hold back a little, to make my goals a little easier to accomplish.  However, I've found that if I set my sights on things that feel just a little out of reach, it helps me get out of my comfort zone and stretch myself to levels I didn't know possible.  For example, a couple years ago when I set my goal to run a half marathon.  I was more than a little nervous to set my sights on that one, but I did it, and it will always be one of my proudest accomplishments.

2. Write them down!  It's not real unless you commit to it in writing!  It also helps to keep them someplace where you will see them regularly.  {this I completely failed at in 2012...I have no idea where my list went! Whoops!}

3. Be specific.  I find that saying things like "Work out 5 days a week" is way more likely to happen than if I say "Get in Shape".  I need specific actions to strive for.

I'm not going to share all my goals here.  Some of them aren't ready for the world yet, but I will tell you that one of my goals is to get back to blogging regularly.  I've missed it.  It was never that I wanted to slow down, but life just got in the way!  I'm determined to make room for blogging, because I love having a record of my life, and now that Isaac is here, I don't want to forget a single day!

I'll be sharing other snippets of my goals as they start to unfold...stay tuned!

Are you a goal setter?  Or do you make resolutions?  Tell me what you're striving for in 2013!

If you want to get excited about goal setting, go read Nancy Ray's post.  It got me all fired up, and I think it will you too.