New Years Resolutions to Give You 2020 Focus

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Happy New Year!! It’s a new year and a new decade! It’s crazy – the older I get, it seems like time goes by faster. I love the start of a new year! It’s so enjoyable to take time to reflect on the past year – special memories, accomplishments, and struggles. I also love setting my goals for the next year – how I can the new year even better than the past year. Read on for tips for setting New Years resolutions and my New Year resolutions for 2020.

I know not everyone is a fan of setting New Year’s Resolutions. Only 40% of Americans set New Year’s Resolutions (according to The Washington Post). I get that many people feel like they should be able to set goals whenever they want to. Or maybe they don’t like setting goals that they will most likely fail to achieve. Only about 8% of those who set resolutions actually keep them (according to Forbes). If that’s you, by all means, don’t feel like you have to make resolutions. Or don’t feel like you have to set them at the start of the new year. However, for me, they work, and they can work for you too!

What’s the point of making New Years Resolutions?

Setting goals, even if they are very big goals, gives you something to work towards.

It’s better to make goals that are higher than you’ll most likely go, rather than goals that are too low. As Normal Vincent Peale said, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss you’ll land among the stars.” When you work towards a goal, at the end of the year, even if you don’t fully achieve it, you’ll be farther along than you are today. Goals give you motivation and drive to achieve something that you desire to achieve.

Goals or resolutions are important in forming habits.

If you want to adopt some healthier habits this year, making New Year’s resolutions is a great place to start. Let’s say you want to develop a consistent exercise routine. That’s something that takes time. They say it takes an average of 66 times of performing something to form a habit. Most of us aren’t going to just start working out consistently without any sort of goal. Set a goal, like to work out 5 times a week this year or to complete a specific exercise program in January. When you set a goal and you work towards it, in the process you can form good habits. At the end of the year, you’ll have exercised so much to achieve your goal that it will become second nature to you. Hopefully then you’ll continue this healthy habit throughout the years to come.

Achieving your goals can boost your self esteem.

I know when I reach a goal, I feel great! It boosts my confidence knowing that I can do something I set out to do. It then makes me want to set higher goals and continue to push myself towards them. I use my Apple Watch to track my activity. A goal I have is to close my three rings – standing, exercising, and moving – each day. When I do close all three of my rings, I feel great and am even more prone to close them the next day.

These are just a few reasons why I believe making New Year’s resolutions are important. You can read my post on How to Make New Year’s Resolutions for more on what resolutions are, why set them, and how to set them.

My One Word for the Year

This year, I’m doing things a little differently than I have in the past. I like the idea of picking one word for the year to focus on. So I decided to give that a try this year. Remembering one word will be a whole lot easier than remembering 10+ resolutions. I chose a word, and then I added goals that relate to it.

My one word for the year is probably pretty obvious. Since it’s 2020, I thought the perfect word would be FOCUS. This year I’m resolving to focus my time and energy on my top priorities – God, Family, Health, and Work. In each area of my life, I want to focus on what I can improve on. And I want to be 100% focused in each thing I’m doing – free from unnecessary distractions.

So when it’s family time, I plan on putting my phone down (except to take pictures occasionally), being focused on my family, and in-the-moment with them.

When it’s time for me to work on this blog – I plan to give it 100%. This one can be a hard one. As a stay-at-home mom and a blogger, it’s hard to balance the two. Obviously being a mom comes first, and I will take care of my boys as best I can. But I don’t have to clean the house or cook during prime blogging hours. I plan on adjusting my schedule to have optimal hours set aside for blogging. That will probably be first thing in the morning after taking my son to school or at night after I put the boys to bed. So during those hours, I won’t fold laundry, wash dishes, watch TV, or scroll endlessly through Facebook or Instagram.

My 2020 New Years Resolutions

I broke my resolutions into 4 categories and then chose 5 resolutions under each category. 20 Resolutions for 2020 (an idea I got from Gretchen Rubin on the Happier with Gretchen Rubin Podcast)! I’m not going to share ALL my resolutions, but here are SOME of my resolutions for 2020. Feel free to use this framework and use my resolutions to inspire your own.

Focus on God:

Have daily devotions. In 2019 one of my goals was to read through the Bible. I was successful in doing that and even finished early for the first time! However, this year I don’t want to be focused on the quantity that I’m reading. Instead, I’m going to focus on the quality of my devotional time. I’m going to set aside 30 minutes first thing in the morning to spend with the Lord. I have some devotionals picked out that I’ll start with in January, and choose the next one as the Lord leads me. Last year, I felt like devotions became just a thing I needed to check off on my list. This year I want to make sure that I’m doing them for the right reason – to grow closer to the Lord.
Have daily family devotions. This is something we do off and on. We read and discuss the Bible with the boys and pray with them before bed, but not consistently and not often enough. So I want to get into the habit of doing that everyday so they can also learn more about the Lord and grow closer to him.
Pray with my husband each night. This is something we did when we first got married, and just kind of got out of the habit of doing. So, I want to get back into the habit of taking turns praying and lifting others, our marriage, our family, and our jobs up to the Lord and thank Him for all He’s done for us.

After sharing the word “focus” with my family, my dad (who is a chaplain in the Army and was previously a pastor), took it a step further and came up with an acronym to help us remember to stay focused on Christ this year.

Fellowship – having devotions and spending time with the Lord
Obedience – being obedient to God’s Word
Commitment – whatever personal commitment we’re making (those include the 3 above)
Understanding – growing in our understanding of God and His will for us as we read His Word and pray
Service – serving the Lord and others

Focus on Family:

Spend AT LEAST 30 minutes a day 100% focused on family. Like I said earlier, I want to do a better job of spending QUALITY time with my family each day, without the distraction of my phone, the TV, or anything else.
Have family game night once a week. We have so many games, and we don’t spend enough time playing them. I want to set aside one night a week for playing games together. With my husband’s firefighter schedule it’s hard to make a set weekly schedule (he works different 24 hour days each week), and therefore it can be hard to create family habits that we stick to. But I’m thinking family game nights will be Friday nights when he’s home, or else Saturday nights.
Go on dates with my husband AT LEAST once a month. Really, we’d like to have them once a week, but that can’t always happen. We’ll start with making sure to go out just ourselves once a month, and go from there. Having time to ourselves, without the boys, is so important in nurturing our relationship.

Focus on Health:

Become free of pain & fatigue. 2019 was a tough one for me health-wise. You may have caught that if you follow me on Instagram. I’ve had chest, back, and abdominal pain, leg weakness and numbness, and fatigue much of the year. I’ve been working with a Naturopathic Doctor and a chiropractor and have gotten SO much better. But I want to get my health fully back in 2020 and feel my best. I like my New Years resolutions to be actionable, and I know this one is not. But I have several things I’m currently doing and will continue going into the new year. I will continue to take the advice from my ND to help get me towards this goal.
Exercise three times a week. Last year I set the goal to be more active, and unfortunately the opposite of that happened. I became fatigued and worked out less. I believe it’s important to listen to your body. I’m not going to push myself to workout when I know I don’t have the energy and it will just make me even more fatigued. I put this health goal one after #1 on purpose. When I don’t have fatigue, I am more able to workout. And I won’t workout so much that I cause fatigue again. I plan on doing HIIT type workouts three times a week. I’ll do lower intensity activities the other four days a week, like yoga and walking, to stay active and work on my flexibility.
Create a better morning routine. Becoming a work-from-home mom this year and also dealing with fatigue, I’ve gotten into the habit of sleeping later than I should and then rushing to get ready, get the boys ready, and get my oldest to school on time. I plan on starting my day by waking up earlier, going outside to get some sunshine (important for circadian rhythm) and have my devotions, getting ready, getting the boys ready, and eating breakfast without being rushed.
Create a better nighttime routine. This goes along with #3. I can’t have a good morning routine routine if I don’t set myself up for success by having a good nighttime routine. I plan on going to my room earlier, washing my face and doing the necessary things to get ready for bed. I’ll plug my phone in away from my bed to keep me from scrolling through social media and also to make myself get out of bed when my alarm goes off in the morning. I’ll also do some reading before bed and go to sleep earlier than I have been.

Focus on Work Goals:

Be CONSISTENT with publishing blog posts twice a week. When I started this blog earlier this year I was teaching full-time. My goal was to write one post a week for you all. I decided to take a break from teaching this year. So, I thought I’d be able to post more. But then I didn’t feel well for much of the year. So, unfortunately, my posting has not been very consistent. Now that I’m on my way to feeling great, I want to give you guys more quality content to help you create happy and healthy homes. So I plan on publishing posts on Mondays & Wednesdays each week.
Start a health coach program. I am passionate about health and wellness and helping moms (mainly) keep their families healthy and well. I’ve read books, researched online, and listened to many podcasts related to health and wellness. However, I would love to become certified as a health coach to give me more knowledge in this area and the credentials to back me up. I’ve narrowed it down to two programs I’m deciding between and plan to enroll in one in 2020.
Start a YouTube Channel. This goal is the most intimidating to me. Taking videos of myslef will be very much out of my comfort zone. However, I think it’s a good thing to go beyond your comfort zone. Most people that are successful probably didn’t get there by being “comfortable.” I’ll be posting videos on YouTube and will also link to several here on my blog. I think filming how I deep clean and organize my home, meal prep, cook meals, etc. may be easier for people to follow than reading about it on the blog. Just like with posting blog posts, I want to be consistent in posting YouTube videos. So Mondays will be when I will publish YouTube videos.

Keeping Track of Your Resolutions

I love using my Erin Condren Life Planner to help me keep track of my New Year’s resolutions! In the front of this planner there is a section to write your goals down. I don’t just write my goals down and that’s it though.

I break my resolutions up into actionable steps. At the beginning of each month there is a page where you can write your Monthly Goals down. When I use my Life Planner at the beginning of each week to plan my days, I look back at my monthly goals and make sure I am taking actions to achieve those goals. And then I get so much satisfaction when I can put a check mark next to those goals when I achieve them.

Have you set your New Years Resolutions yet? I’d love to hear if you picked a word for the year and, if so, what it is, or what your resolutions for the year are. If you haven’t yet, I encourage you to take an hour or so here at the beginning of the year to set your goals and intentions for this year. Write them down and share them with someone that can help hold you accountable. Let’s make this the best year yet!

Update:

Reading this after 2020? Well, how’d that turn out? Well I was really excited for this new year. As you know, it didn’t turn out to be the best year ever. There were some ups, and there were lots of downs. But we got through it. Hopefully you had some good times and there’s some things you can be thankful for from 2020. Watch the video below to see my reflections on 2020 and how well I did with sticking to these goals. Obviously I did accomplish that last goal!