This may seem a little early to come out but I recently took a day off work to reflect on the previous year and plan for the upcoming one. If you have been following along for a while, you’ll know that I use the Powersheets from Cultivate each year to plan out my Word of the Year as well as my goals for the upcoming year.
At the beginning of 2022, I shared that my word of the year was Rooted. I had four goals within the year – to be rooted in faith, rooted in legacy, rooted in relationships, and rooted in rhythms. While there’s still about 2 weeks left in the year and I will continue to make a bit more progress in certain areas, I will share below what progress was made on each of the goals with a percentage as well as how I did in each area.
Rooted in Faith (90%)
- Reading the Bible in 90 days. I want to start off the year getting to know God even more deeply. Completed – took about 5 months and was a challenge but I learned so much about God. Highly recommend doing The Bible Recap along with reading each day.
- Rooted in Grace online course that is 66 days long and helps focus on 10 ways to deepen my relationship with the Lord. Finished this in November. I didn’t do it 66 days straight but was able to get a lot of good wisdom from the course.
- Daily devotional which I do regularly already so just solidifying this habit even more (especially weekends). I’m starting with the Radiate devotional. Completed. I did this about 90% of the days this year.
- Going through the Rooted in Him bible study from DailyGraceCo that will go through the book of Colossians. Also completed.
- Prayer even more frequently. This ebbs and flows for me so finding ways to incorporate it even more in my day like after a habit I already have so I can habit stack or with an alarm on my phone will be helpful. This was an area where the beginning of the year and the end of the year were great but the summer and early fall time were not great. I would often go days without praying. I felt least connected to God when I prayed the least. Which is a reminder that when I want to feel close to him I actually need to set aside time for him. Overall I would say I’m about 50% in this area for the year.
Rooted in Relationships (76%)
- Weekly date night with Teddy as well as cooking together when we’re home. We were really intentional about that this year. We had some type of date night either staying in or out 85% of the weeks of the year.
- Sitting down to eat at the table together without distractions. This is something I want to prioritize for all meals with others. Whether at home or out to eat, removing phones and TV and whatever else to focus on conversation will be important. I’ve also gotten much better at this. I will leave my phone in another room or in my bag. While there’s times I get distracted, it is far less than it’s been in the past.
- Having regular standing dates with friends to catch up and grab coffee or dinner or just visit. While this is harder in pandemic times even just checking in regularly via technology can be helpful. Same with family – making plans in advance to get together increases chances of it happening. This was great in portions of the year and not as good in others. I feel good about what I was able to do, but also think there were some missed opportunities.
- Doing one kind thing for someone else daily. This is already a box that’s in my daily planner by the creator so the intention is to name something to do for someone else daily. This is another way I plan to incorporate investing time in relationships. I did this the majority of the time as well. Sometimes there would be an unplanned opportunity I was able to serve someone else, and other times it was something planned at the beginning of the week.
- Planning a trip quarterly with Teddy to go somewhere. We absolutely love to travel together and laugh so much, so doing this every few months is good for us. We were able to go to the Southwest during winter, the beach for a weekend in the summer, and then camping and a roadtrip out west in the fall. We missed doing something in the spring, but we still were very blessed in how much we got to experience and see this year.
- Traveling with a friend somewhere this year somewhere fun. I loved my girls trip last year to Texas as well as my trips through PA, Vermont, and Montana with friends so I’d love to do it again. This one was planned but due to an illness and then family happenings, we weren’t able to go when we had planned. But we are going to reschedule.
- Host a dinner at my house. Non fancy, but a time to open my home and enjoy food and laughter with friends and family. We were able to do this 4+ times during the year for friends and family and both. And Teddy on numerous occasions was able to make delicious meat on the smoker which made the event even better.
Rooted in Rhythms (71%)
- Consistent morning routine. When I have a great routine and get up early I feel like a 5/5 every morning. When I don’t, which has been the last few months I’m a 3 or 4/5 in the mornings and that’s just not my best self. I’m not saying I will get up super early every day, but about 2 hours before work starts is my sweet spot. Then I have time for a workout, breakfast, reading, devotional, and a Bible study. And to let the pup out and feed her. Welp, we got a second dog in January of 2022. I feel like I spent most of 2022 figuring out what my new morning routine was going to look like with a puppy and an adult dog. Toward the end of the year, the rhythm of the mornings started to feel a bit more normal again but overall this one didn’t go as well as I planned.
- Make and eat meals that fuel me. I am much better feeling when I eat vegetables. I try to hide them in my shakes in the morning. So when I don’t have a shake, I often have much less veggies. This is also the making 4 meals a week thing so I can save money but also know what I’m consuming. We cooked a lot more this year and prepped food ahead of time. Still trying to get more vegetables in, but overall okay.
- Weekly Sabbath. I’ve done this pretty consistently but want it to be a true non negotiable this year. 24 hours of delight and worship. While I tried to keep Sabbath to the same day each week, sometimes we did it on a Saturday and sometimes on a Sunday or sometimes for half of a day. This is an area that went okay but could have been more of a rhythm.
- Weekly date night. I mentioned this above already but the fact I can have the same rhythm to focus on relationships and habits is a win. This one was great.
- Weekly planning. This means meals, schedules, workouts, whatever needs planned. More decisions up front means less decision fatigue later. Did this very well this year usually on Sundays.
- Quarterly trip. Also mentioned above, but is a rhythm I have found to be so good for me, and even better when Teddy and I can travel together. Again, also went well.
- Journaling. I usually do in the am but my new journal is Pm too so working that into my evening routine. TBH Journaling in the beginning of the year felt like a chore and annoying. I like to journal in bullet points just with what’s on my mind or what I’m grateful for or excited about or confused about. So when I tried to stop following these specific journal prompts and just kind of brain dump, this was much more successful for me.
- Making a recipe a week from my mom/grandmas recipe box. It’s a fun way to connect with them but also to share their recipes with others. I ended up making a new recipe almost every week but not as much from the recipe box. I did some of those and then found some other recipes that we liked.
- Writing each week. Specifically for my blog. Toward the second half of the year, working up to writing daily. I’m not fully writing every single day, but I am a good portion of the days. I wrote about 66,000 words this year across 75 blog posts.
Rooted in Legacy (74%)
- Read 1 chapter from a book daily. When I think about legacy, it’s the things you do every day that make you who you are and who others remember you to be. I am a reader and learner. I want part of my legacy to be to inspire others to read on their own to learn and also to read to their kids and instill a joy of learning in them. This happened most days this year as well. Either I would physically read or listen to a book on audible.
- This goes with one above again, but working up to writing daily. I think it’s selfish for me to keep all the things I’m learning and resources I love to myself. So finding ways to share my learning with you all is moving toward legacy. I want people to share their knowledge with others in whatever format works for them. Mine happens to be through writing and conversation. Also went well this year. Exciting things to come in 2023 that goes along with this goal.
- Planting a garden. This one may seem odd but growing up we always had a garden and I loved picking asparagus and my grandma helping make it into cream of asparagus on toast. (I was a weird kid, I know.) The waiting of gardening is such a great lesson as is the lesson of seasons. So while I’m exited to have a garden again for food, I also want to do it as a reminder to myself of the seasons and God in those seasons. That there’s a time for planning (winter), sewing (spring), cultivating (summer) and harvest (fall) and you cannot rush a season. I want part of my legacy to be remind others and show them how we live seasonally. That for everything there is a season. Both in the garden and in our lives. We can’t have harvest all the time. Each season has a purpose. I did absolutely no version of a garden this year. Out of this entire post, this is the thing I absolutely made 0% progress on and I’m very okay with that.
- The Contentment Challenge from Nancy Ray is a 90 day no spending on non essentials. I’m doing this during Q1 of this year. I did this before and it was so good for me. I’m doing it alongside my Bible in 90 days reading to remind myself of my contentment in Jesus rather than things. I want to live a life that’s content in Christ and what he’s provided rather than the things money can buy. I also did this at the beginning of the year and plan to do this again at the beginning of 2023 for the third time. This is such a good experience for me.
I realize that taking the average of averages is probably not the best math, but it will do for this blog post. Overall, I was able to make progress on about 78% of my goals for the year. THAT IS A WIN! Looking back at the things I intended and only seeing one that I just chose to eliminate is great. Especially then seeing that the rest had a good amount of progress made. Progress > perfection so this is truly a win. What felt like a bit of a chaotic year with a puppy and figuring out life with two dogs and then getting engaged and planning a wedding for next year – I’m very proud of the progress that was made.
In the next few weeks, I will be sharing my 2023 word of the year as well as my goals for the upcoming year that align with my word. I will share that. I only have 3 goals for next year, but similar to this year, there are quite a few different things that I want to make progress on under each one. So stay tuned for that post!
