2017 Resolutions Recap and New 2018 Resolutions

It's New Year's Eve and I'm ready for 2018! I love the chance each year to evaluate the progress I made and set goals for areas I want to improve. I know that through the power of Jesus Christ's Atonement, we have the power to change. We have the power to make choices that lead to whatever outcome we desire. I want to be a Christ-like, joyful woman and setting goals each year empowers me and gives me hope for a brighter future.

This year was much better for resolutions - Brandon and I were able to settle into more of a routine and I was able to get back to focusing on some of the things that took a back seat to more pressing things last year.

My overall goal last year was to focus more on Christ in an effort to feel more joy and peace in my life. I would say that has been the case this year. I have more growth to make, and it's my focus again this year, but I'm grateful for the improvements I've made personally and the growth we've made as a family.

Here were my goals last year:

Spiritual
1. Family history once a month. Done! Having this on my resolutions list helps remind me to stay on top of it. We have so many names to do now that we've been working on Brandon's family history. It's been very helpful to have Brandon endowed and able to do more of the ordinances.
2. Attend the temple twice a month. Done! I'm so glad I set this goal. It was definitely an effort a few times - just this past week I drove up to the temple in the middle of a snow storm to reach my goal - but it's paid off each time.
3. Read the scriptures every day. Done! (Almost). I think I may have missed a day or two throughout the year, but overall this was MUCH better than the previous year and back on par with my previous habits.
4. Do a service project every month. Partially. I did get a service project in I think 9 out of 12 months. I've reworked this goal for the coming year, though, so it'll be revisited.

Personal
1. Read a new book every other month. Done! I actually ended up reading more than one a month, but it was a good motivation to push my way through books that I've started.

Financial
1. Pay off credit card. DONE!!! I can't even begin to describe how good this feels. Back in February we started going to a Financial Peace University class and implementing Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps. We're still on baby step 2 (paying off debt), but are now about halfway through our debt. Our financial situation has done a 180 this year, and I'm so grateful for the structure and guidance this program has given us. We're hoping to be completely debt-free by this summer, including vehicles and student loans.

Physical
1. Reach goal weight. Uh. No. Quite the opposite. I'll be revisiting this goal this year.

Now for 2018!

I'm focusing on joy through Christ again this year. My quote of the year is "Joy is powerful, and focusing on joy brings God's power into our lives." -Russell M. Nelson

Here are the new goals for 2018:

Spiritual
1. Indexing once a month. We have so many names to do already that it feels overwhelming to add more, so I'll be doing indexing so other people can find their family names.
2. Attend the temple twice a month. This is a repeat, but it helps keep me accountable. Brandon and I have a sub-goal to go together once a month.
3. Memorize The Living Christ. I'm really scared of this goal. I've felt like I should do it for a while but I reeeeeally hate memorizing things. So I've got it split into weeks and I plan to work on it every week.
4. Do an act of kindness/service every month. During the most recent stake conference and general conference, I felt impressed that I need to be kinder and incorporate Christ-like service into my life more naturally. I often just don't know what to do, though, so I'll be compiling a list of acts of kindness and service so I can refer to it often to think of things to do. If you have suggestions, please send them my way - anything and everything!

Personal
1. Read all the books on my nightstand. My parents recently got rid of several boxes of books, and I kept 12 of them. So rather than going to the library, I'll just be focusing on getting through those 12 books this year. That's going to take some focus, because it's probably 4 or 5 books more than what I read this past year.
2. Blog twice a month. As is quite obvious, this blog is terribly out-of-date. My plan for it was to use it as a virtual scrapbook because it's cheaper and faster than actually scrapbooking, which I do about twice a year, but I haven't been doing well. I will catch up this year!

Financial
1. Pay off debt and fund emergency savings account. Now that we've got the credit cards paid off, our other debts should go quickly (through the debt snowball method, we pay minimum payments on everything and throw everything extra on one debt at a time, then roll all of that over to the next debt. We'll be paying over $1500 a month on my car next month). Once the debt is paid off, it's on to baby step 3: funding an emergency account of 3-6 months' expenses. We're on track to get there by December of 2018.

Physical
1. Lose 30 pounds. I've been steadily gaining weight since we got married a year and a half ago, but I was recently reminiscing about birthdays and Christmases past when I was skinny, and I realized they were all 3 years apart - my weight gain/loss cycle is 3 years. And 2018 is a weight-loss year, according to my cycle! I'm ready for it - none of my clothes fit and I'm so sick of feeling gross. This 30 pounds won't get me to my ultimate goal weight but it'll do a lot to getting me to a point where I feel comfortable in my skin again.

Happy New Year!