I know how it can be at the beginning of every year with New Year’s resolutions and goal setting. Feeling overwhelmed about how to get started! I also know that it is towards the end of the first month of 2023 and it may seem a little bit late to have a post like this. However, hear me out. If you have been beating yourself up about not making a vision board or that it is only January and you’ve already “fallen off” the wagon for the changes you wanted to make for the year…don’t! Don’t give yourself a hard time and think of “failings.” There is no right or wrong day to start a new habit and any positive changes you plan on making can be made right now. You don’t have to worry that you didn’t start on January 1—guess what, my family got a serious stomach bug the first week of January so my plans didn’t pan out the way I thought they would. I’m writing this because I needed to hear everything I am about to say and so I thought maybe you did too.

I hold myself to a high standard. I can get a little obsessive about things. As far as having a “to do list” I want to make sure I get to mark everything off. Setting goals for myself and then conquering those goals, I’ll think to myself, well if I was able to do that, then maybe I can add this too. The fact is, we all have our quirks and one of my main goals this year is to give myself some grace. I had prided myself on not missing a workout since I started the Lexi J Wellness program almost two years ago. The first week of December I got a respiratory illness that lasted all month (inhaler needed and all). I think I got covid somewhere in there as well because I lost my taste and smell (covid test never came back positive). Then the first week of January, with all my goals made on my vision board and the energy of a three-year-old who just had hot chocolate, our household got a stomach bug. Picture this, I had just meal prepped for a whole week…hence one of my new goals—meal prepping…and shortly after I get everything in the fridge, kid 1 pukes all over. Give it about an hour and kid 2 pukes. Then six lovely hours later, I am down for the count hugging the porcelain bowl as well! With all my good intentions, I couldn’t start the new year off the way I was hoping. I was laying on the couch telling myself it was so disappointing to not be able to get started the way I wanted and how much I was going to have to make up to have my “perfect” record still intact. Then I thought—hello! You have made so much progress from where you started this health journey, this author journey, this reaching for the stars—sky is the limit journey…how about good job! Good job, Katie, look how far you’ve come! What about showing yourself the same grace you show everyone else and taking a moment to pause. So, that’s what I did. I took a day off so to speak and I didn’t really do anything except soak up the cuddles, watch way more tv than I should have and went to bed early.

But now, I’m ready to hit the ground running. So, if you need to take your moment of pause and give yourself some grace…do it, but when you are ready, get started! Take that first step because it is always the hardest and think about what you would like to achieve this year. What are you going to do to reach those goals, to change those habits? I made a vision board last year and when I was making a new one for 2023, it was awesome to compare the two. I’m going to share how I made my board last year vs. this year as well as some of my current goals. I hope you’ll share some of your goals with me in the comments below so I can cheer you on too!

Last year I took a piece of poster board and cut magazine images out to glue on the board. I would cover each goal with a post-it if I reached the goal through the course of the year. I have listed some of those goals below. They can be anything from career goals, family or financial goals, personal/fitness/health goals. This year I used images from Google or Pinterest and put them in a word doc to print off. I have to say—much easier that way than cutting and pasting from a magazine (who has a bunch of magazines to cut anyways). I am laughing while I write that last sentence because my mother-in-law reads my blogs religiously and she is the queen of having stacks of magazines to pass along to me! I hope you got a little chuckle from that one, Beth. Below are the goals I made for myself for 2022 and 2023. I’ve italicized the ones I completed in 2022.

2022 Goals:

·       Start a vision board for our dream home

·       Publish my first children’s book

·       Pay off the rest of my student loan

·       New couch for basement

·       Go on more dates with my husband

·       Do yoga twice a week

·       Make 1 new recipe a week that I haven’t tried before

·       Run a 5k

I feel pretty good about the progress I made in 2022. Now, remember I started this whole journey by saying “why not” so, this year, I am reaching a little higher…

2023 Goals: sky is the limit, right?

·       LJW work out first thing in the morning instead of at night/10,000 steps a day/yoga once a week

·       Email 5 agents a week

·       Write every day

·       T-Rex and Tuck Cartoon series

·       20 school visits by 2024

·       Planning our dream home

·       Read 1 non-fiction book a month

·       European Vacation by 40

·       Meal Plan

·       Win a book award for T-Rex and Tuck Explore Outer Space

·       500 Email subscribers

·       Publish 2 books this year

·       Bigger vehicle

·       Get ready every day

I’m sure some of you saw that last one and thought, what do you mean get ready every day? Well, there are those days when I don’t get dressed until almost noon. That doesn’t mean I am sitting down doing nothing until noon, but I do feel better when I am dressed and have a touch of makeup on—more productive. Like I am winning the day. Or maybe you saw the dream of turning T-Rex and Tuck into a cartoon series and thought, Katie—you have only published 1 book, now you want a cartoon series?! And to you, I say, the sky is the limit so—why not! I hope you will join me in spreading positivity and not putting a limit on the goals you have for your year or even your life! Happy reading, my friends.

I’ve linked some items below that I am loving to help me reach my goals, maybe they will speak to you as well. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Lounge Set

Weights

Yoga Mat

Workout leg bands

Atomic Habits

The Slight Edge