Cultivated Goals

Hi Friends. Happy New Year! Are you ready for the hustle of the new year to begin? There's something so refreshing about this time of year. Something I absolutely adore because I am reminded to just be still and enjoy the season I'm in while I focus on goals and dreams I want to chase in the new year. I don't just like setting typical goals like lose 10 pounds, I like to set intentional goals. Typical goals like loosing 10 pounds are great but they're the kind of things I loose interest in when i'm not seeing fast results, that's why I like setting more intentional goals that are a great base to build off of.



Through the group Wit & Wisdom i've recently found Lara Casey and am participating in her 2018 Goal Setting Series. We're only on Part One of the series but i'm already getting so much out of it. She is teaching us how to set Cultivated Goals. Ummm, what are cultivated goals, you might ask? They are goals that are intentional and life-giving (her words-not mine.) Cultivated goals help us grow and bring to life what we already have.

Check out her post here

Here is how i've worked through the first few steps.

Step 1
Check in with yourself and ask yourself the question: How am I? Like REALLY. How am I? Look at all aspects and areas of life.
Give each area a rating of 1-10, 1 being the lowest of low and 10 being nothing is greater.

-Health
-Friends
-Family (including significant other)
-Finances
-Spiritual + Personal Growth
-Work
-Recreation

Health 5
This is a goal I really want and need to work on in 2018. My eating healthy pretty much stinks and exercise has pretty much become non-existent. Overall, I feel tired and blah 99% of the time, I want 2018 to be the year I get pregnant and my husband & I welcome another baby into ur family. There's so much I need to do to prepare myself and my body for that and it begins with my health.

Friends 4
I admit this is another struggle area for me because I am such a homebody. I've done more with friends in the last week than I have in the last year and if it's shown me anything it's that I feel happier, more fulfilled and inspired when I'm with friends.

Family 9
I'm pretty please with my family life right now. We're with my parents 4-6 days a week. I would like to spend more time with my brother, sister in law and nephew though.

Spouse 9
I'm pretty happy in this area, too. I do want to add more date nights in and less time just sitting in front of the t.v. at night. It's how we un-wind but I want to find more intentional ways to un-wind together, too.

Finances 7
We've got a few things holding us back financially right now but once those are taken care of then I think this number will move up because they're easy fixes and we have plans in the works right now.

Spiritual + Personal Growth 10
This has been a huge focus of mine in the last few months and I truly feel like i'm really slaying it in this area. I read my devotional every morning, The Lipstick Gospel Devotional + Prayer Journal daily and Emily Ley's Grace Not Perfection a few times a week. Even when i'm not reading these books, I am putting to practice the things i've read and learned in them and practicing being kinder and more mindful.

Work 8
I'm still trying to find that magical unicorn balance but I think once I learn how to pre plan content for my blog in bulk, that will go up, too.

Recreation 9
My recreation and work kind of tie together because I enjoy doing what I do whether it's working on blog content, shooting photos for Instagram of filling vinyl orders. I kind of think of it as recreation because it's my passion but I am getting better about taking days off to go to lunch with a friend or shopping with my mom or just go out and browse my favorite stores. I always take weekends off to spend time with my husband, too so I truly feel like this is an area I really am doing good in.


Step 2
What have you been chasing lately? Do you feel like you've been chasing something that you're never truly going to reach? Yeah, me too. Lately i've been chasing balance. It's a magical unicorn that does not exist yet I truly want it to appear to me like some kind of pre-written "how to" book. Life doesn't come with manuals but if it did it would be in this form, I am convinced.

Identify what you're chasing and how it makes you feel. To name what you've been chasing is to destroy it and not let it control you.

I've been chasing balance and it has left me feeling defeated and exhausted. We all know that chasing something that isn't real sets us up for defeat. That's exactly where i've been so as we head into the new year I'm destroying my idea of balance and just letting go. Somedays may be full of hustling for my blog and others may be spent on the couch binge watching Netflix until time to pick my son up from school. That's true balance, just letting go and letting life take you where it will. That's not to say that I don't have goals and tasks that i'll be working on daily because I do but finding peace is more important than finding balance for me.

Step 3
Look back at what good things happened in 2017? What worked well? What didn't? What are you most grateful for over the last twelve months?

For the first year ever, I actually took some time to look back over what went well and what didn't then I made a
Best of 2017 post for my blog. I honestly haven't looked at what did the worst on Peaches and Willow because my focus is always on the good and how to keep growing from that.

When it comes to my blog, i'm most grateful for the friendships i've cultivated, the tribe i've built and the brands and companies that I have collaborated with. I definitely want to focus on that more in 2018. Working with brands was so far out of my comfort zone at first but I grew more comfortable with it and every time a company would say yes I was in heaven. It's such an amazing feeling to know that you are stepping out of your comfort zone and seeing success.

Let me cheer you on in 2018. What went well for you? What didn't? What goals are you working towards in 2018?