2019 Goals

Happy 2019! It feels both exciting and weird to be working again after taking so much time off. To be honest, I’ve never been great at relaxing, and always itch to get back to work after about five days, and this time was no different. So instead of just relaxing, I spent a lot of time thinking about how I want this year to look on Lemon Stripes.

I want to thank the 900 amazing people who took my survey over the last two weeks. I’m almost finished reading every single comment and suggestion, and I can’t believe how helpful they’ve been. The results have shaped many of my goals below. I was also shocked and humbled by your kind words and positivity. It meant more to me than you can even know! I’m leaving it open for one more day and then will be randomly picking three winners who will each receive a $100 Amex gift card.

For the last three years now, I’ve made a list of big goals to complete by the end of the year, divided into categories. It’s a list that’s both completely achievable but also aspirational so that I feel good about completing it, but it doesn’t feel looming or stressful. Instead of resolutions, these achievable and tangible goals actually get done instead of being forgotten a few months into the year.

I keep the list in my phone under the notes app and look at it whenever I think to do so. I just looked through my 2018 goals and realized that I completed everything on the list except for one item which I’m including again below.

2019 Goals: Work

Post more recipes and wellness content. One the overarching themes that I saw over and over again in my survey results is that you want more recipes and more wellness content, which makes me so happy! I love writing that stuff and because my background is in wellness, I have a lot to say about it. I’ve also loved sharing easy weeknight recipes on my Instagram Stories, so I’ll be bringing more of those to the blog as well. My goal is to have at least one recipe and one wellness post live each month this year.

Get organized. I used to always be the most organized person on any team when I worked in an office. As a blogger, I kept my content and systems organized for years, but when I became a mom, I kept letting those systems slide and 2018 felt all over the place. I found myself writing last minute blog posts way too often, and not looking ahead in my content calendar. To battle that in 2019, I’m creating more series (like monthly recipes and quarterly workouts with Anel) that will keep me on track and give you guys things to look forward to and request!

Focus on growth. Because I felt so anxious last year, I often felt like I was struggling on a daily basis just to stay above water. Now that I’m able to step back and see the bigger picture, I want to grow my blog and social networks to connect with more women all over the world!

Figure out my next steps. People often ask me where I see myself in five years in blogging and I have no idea. For a while I really wanted to write a raw and real book about motherhood and my experiences with it, but that whole situation terrifies me so for now it’s on the back burner. Another pipe dream of mine is to create a line of striped clothing but I wouldn’t even know where to start with that. Last year I took on a couple of digital marketing clients and loved using that part of my brain again, so that’s a possibility too. I have no idea if blogging will even be a thing in five years, so I really want to focus on my five and 10 year goals, as this is the first time in my life where I don’t really know what the next step will be!

2019 Goals: Personal

Set up our last will and testament. I am embarrassed to admit that this has been on my list for two years running and I’ve yet to get to it. Anel and I were so busy setting up his new business last year, that it fell to the wayside, but we’re committed to making it happen in 2019 because it will give us both peace of mind and will protect our family and assets if anything should happen.

Continue to work on my anxiety: 2018 was the year that I tackled some pretty serious mental issues, and while I feel like I finally have a great handle on my anxiety, I will continue to go to therapy and do whatever I can to keep it at bay.

Ask for help. A while back, I wrote about emotional labor, and how hard it can be for many women to stay on top of their work, their kids, and all of the tasks around the home. Anel and I have talked a lot about how to make this more fair and came up with a system where I wrote out every single task I do around the house (from big ones like feeding our family to small ones like making the bed every morning) which we then reviewed together last week.

He went through the list and picked a few things that he could take on without me having to ask. We have it in our calendars to check in again in a month to see if he stuck to them, and if he can take on any more.

I’ve realized after many conversations with my husband, that he wants to help out more around the house but didn’t know where to start because I just handle things.

Organize our house. I’m really good at keeping my house clean and tidy 90% of the time. But Anel likes to say that I’m the dirtiest clean person he knows because he’ll open a closet or drawer and it will be a hot mess! I hired a local organizer to work on my closet and office and plan to have her back for our kitchen and other closets this year. I’ll be sharing my office and closet organization later this month and will give you tips as I get them. I’m excited to get every section of our home in order this year!

2019 Goals: Finances

Hit our yearly savings goals. This one is on my list every year, and it’s important that Anel and I keep savings goals both for Amalia’s 529 account as well as our personal savings accounts, otherwise we would never contribute to either. As we think about growing our family in the next year or two, we would like to move to a bigger home, and our personal savings goal is based on that fact.

Set a budget that we actually stick to. Anel and I are the worst at budgets. We have them for each of our companies but when it comes to personal finances, there’s no rhyme or reason to how we spend our money. We’ve committed to sitting down together this month and figuring out a budget that is realistic for our family. I’ll share the process as we go through it!

So there you have a handful of my many 2019 goals. What are some of yours?

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