The New Year is quickly approaching and with that comes New Year’s Resolutions! I know that for me the idea of 2021 holds a lot of potential and excitement! Every new year does! I love the idea of evaluating what I want to change or alter to improve in my life.

Here’s the way I used to approach goal-setting: I would usually start the year off by setting weight or fitness goals, organization or cleaning goals, spiritual and emotional goals, and a month or two into the year I’d forget what they were and they’d go by the wayside until the new year came around again.

As humans, we are creatures of habit. The conscious part of the brain love, love, LOVES patterns because patterns are easy and the less work the conscious brain has to do, the happier it is. Consequently, when we try to implement changes and create new habits, there is going to be a lot of resistance from the part of the brain that likes things easy. This is what comes up with all the amazing excuses that lead to giving up on goals, forgetting goals, or procrastinating getting your goals.

My whole life I have resisted things that didn’t come easily. Some goals I would set would be things I really wanted, but if they weren’t easy I usually wouldn’t obtain them. The only thing that has broken that barrier is desire. When I have a strong enough desire to have something, I can usually make it happen.

For me, there are a lot of steps to getting my goals, but the place I always start is wanting/desire, which for me means that I see a picture in my mind of what it will be like when I get my goal. How will it look? How will it feel? How will it make others feel? How will it benefit me? What will the long-term results be?

As an example, I’ll outline my goal for my current house. Curtis and I met with our builder in February of this year (2020) and he asked us what our plan was for our current house when we moved. Our plan was to sell it, but he suggested we turn it into a rental property. He said that he and his wife started with one rental property and then got more and it turned into a great business. He painted a picture in our minds of the opportunity this could be for our future and it lit a fire inside of us. We prayed about it, felt like it was the right thing for us to do, and then started thinking about all the steps we’d need to take to make it possible for it to be a rental. We got overwhelmed and for about six months we didn’t finish a single home project that I can remember. We worked on things and had a few things 98% of the way done, but nothing was finished.

In my opinion and experience step number one to get a goal is desire: have something you want and know why you want it. Think about it constantly. I have a vision board on my wall next to my bed where I post my goals and I look at them every single day. Multiple times a day. How often do you want something, but it gets pushed to the back of your mind until you forget about it? Or you simply don’t prioritize it? Having constant reminders of what the goal is and why I want it is my key to getting my goals.

Step number two is action steps. If I want to get something, I need to have a plan lined up. Knowing that we wanted to rent this house, Curt and I walked through every single room and the yard and made a list of all the things we’d like to finish or repair before we rent this house to someone. I then said that five days a week I would finish one project (he does a lot too, it’s not just me*). Breaking it down into smaller steps made my goal of making this house rentable so much more obtainable!

Step number three is accountability. I started writing on here to let you all know about my goal because I need that kind of accountability. The thing is, I’ve almost always been able to get away with “winging it”. But this time I can’t and I need you. I need to know that someone else will know if I don’t get my goal. I feel like the people who read this are people who will actually talk to me about my goal and hold me accountable. You’ll support me. That’s what I need! So thank you so much for helping me! I haven’t been perfect, but I have made so much progress. Curt and I both have. We’ve been working so hard to finish all the things we’ve started. We have a ways to go yet, but we’re actually going to get there because we have a plan!

Step number four is reporting. I was late posting last week, and I didn’t post any pictures when I did post, BUT I did it! I don’t know if you understand what a big deal that is for me. Reporting when I don’t have a perfect report is hard for me, but it’s so important! That’s what keeps me going! If I were to stop writing these posts every week I don’t know how many people would actually notice or care, but I wouldn’t feel the urge anymore to be constantly working on my house because nobody would know, right? Also, I do have people who check up on me and ask how my projects are going. It matters.

Step number five is to keep the dream alive! I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve wanted to give up and not keep working on this goal. I’ll think to myself, “It would be so easy to sell this house instead! We could do that and not have to finish everything on our list first. It would be so much easier!” But then I think about why I want to do this. I want the long-term investment payout. Curt and I have always had a desire to invest in real estate and this is a great opportunity to start! Also, I want to finish all of the things I’ve started for me. I want to show myself that I can and should finish what I start because it looks better and it feel better.

*When you’re a setting a goal and working hard to get something, it’s alright and good even to accept help from others. HOWEVER I want to clarify that just because I want something doesn’t mean that Curt wants the same thing. It’s okay for us to have different goals. My goal with this house is to finish as many projects as I can before we rent it. He has the same desire and he does what he can around his work schedule. My point with this is that I do not set goals for Curt and he does not set goals for me. We set goals together regarding our marriage, our kids, our future, trips, etc. But we do not get to choose goals for the other person. I need his help with a lot of these projects, but this “finish one project a day” goal is mine and therefore I take ownership of it. That doesn’t mean that it won’t benefit him, it just means that I recognize my part in this and I own my part.

Day 36: 12/3/2020

I posted my blog post for last week.

Day 37:12/4/2020

I assisted Curt while he replaced the old hardware on our front porch windows. I fixed the broken hinge. I also painted the hardware silver.

Day 38: 12/5/2020

We had an old bookcase that was very unstable that we’d put in a stairwell. It had been there for probably three years and on Saturday I broke it up and threw it away! Sadly, I forgot to take pictures.

Day 39: 12/6/2020

Rest day.

Day 40: 12/7/2020

I didn’t finish a project, but I did start one. We have a gorgeous enclosed front porch that gets swelteringly hot in the summertime. The windows had previously been painted shut, but my mom and I took them out this summer, gave them a face lift and reinstalled them. They look amazing and they open, but they can’t open far because the bottoms of them are too long or the window sills are too high. Either way, I started sanding down the ledges. I had thought it would take a couple of hours to sand it down and repaint it, but there’s a protective sealant a few layers underneath the top coat of paint that absolutely loves its current home, so the project has taken longer than I had anticipated.

Day 41: 12/8/2020

I worked on the porch window sills again, but this day I learned that it’s a million times faster to use a wood plane and some sanding blocks on the bottom side of the window than it is to sand down or cut through the sealant on the window sills. It went a lot faster this day and I finished sanding three of the six windows to the point where they easily open and close.

Day 42: 12/9/2020

I watched Curt replace the vent cover in William’s room and I wrote and published this blog post.