I love setting goals. I love writing them down, I love working through them, and I love talking about them. But even more than all of that, I love knowing the why behind my goals.

I took almost the entire month of December to work through a goal setting process and I’m finally ready to share them with you! For 2016, I am working through Lara Casey’s Make It Happen Powersheets workbook. This process is magical, ya’ll. I’d tell you to run out and buy it, but it is sold out! This isn’t a sponsored post, although my affiliate links to amazon are present. Her powersheets are available for a spring preorder, or you can get her book, Make It Happen (that also outlines a lot of the process). Going through her goal setting process has really helped me discover who I am and who I want to become.

Make it happen. How I set my 2016 word of the year.

I’m not going to lie, there is a lot of heart searching and prep work involved. But the end result is amazing.

Here is a photo from my workbook. She encourages us to get messy with it, and boy did I!

Make It Happen 1

What came out of all of this mess are 10 goals I have for 2016. These goals are defined either as portion or purpose goals. If you remember, those are my 2016 words of the year.  They are not specfic and actionable in the way most “successful” goal setting people will tell you they should be. However, each goal has steps and actions that I’ll add to my monthly goal list.

Portion Goals: 

1. Honor the body God has given me by taking care of it and treating it well. This is the one and only body I’ll ever have, and I want to have it for a long time. Actions: drink 80 oz of water daily, move my body for 30 minutes a day, schedule doctor appointments, dive into God’s word daily and eat in a way that honors Him.

2. Seek the Lord with all that I have, grow my faith- loving Him is the most important thing of all. Actions: read God’s word and pray daily, cultivate a gratitude list, write thank you letters to my heroes of faith and memorize scripture.

3. Cultivate joy and gratitude, which come from deeply knowing God and walking closely with Him. Actions: learn a new hobby/skill, read 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp, study joy in the Bible, start a gratitude journal.

Purpose Goals 

4. Flip the switch on relationships and take them offline instead of relying on social media for connection. Social media has it’s place, but the most meaningful interactions happen offline. Actions: write snail mail, identify and cultivate friendships locally that I want to invest more in, call my grandparents regularly, have coffee and dinner dates with friends, organize family play dates.

5. Become a keeper of memories for my family so we can remember all of the sweet times we had together. Actions: journal daily, take, print & display photographs, ask grandparents for their stories, and record family history.

6. Cultivate a home that is welcoming and encourages rest, this is where my family spends the most of their time and I want a home that is welcoming and a soft landing spot for my family and friends. Actions: set up and follow a cleaning schedule, hang photos on the walls, develop a signature dessert (and always have the ingredients on hand to make it), invite friends over for dinner and let my friends know that they are welcome to drop by.

7. Serve my local community through my blog + share God’s love on my blog. Cultivate an intentional brand for A Cookie Before Dinner that serves both my local community and encourages women to pursue a sweet life well lived. Actions: redesign my blog so it can highlight more local events (DONE!), write more openly about my faith and provide more Christ centered resources for women, write more locally focused content and keep a heart position of service.

Portion and Purpose Goals: 

8. Love my husband well and pursue a Christ centered marriage with him. Actions: pray with my husband (and for my husband), attend a marriage retreat, pursue hobbies together, have monthly date nights both just the two of us and with other couples.

9. Save more money, eliminate debt and give more away. Actions: plan our meals and each at home instead of going out, use a cash budget system, create and stick to an aggressive savings plan.

10. Cultivate a family team mindset and be a team who loves God and loves others. Seek the Lord as a family, invest in each other first and then invest in relationships and friendships. Actions: write a family mission statement, pray and read the Bible together, choose a family verse and a life verse for each of the kids, start saving to go to family camp together in 2017, find ways to serve others together as a family, and make family list of people we want to encourage.