Goals for the New Year

I'm sure you've all heard that writing down your goals increases the statical chance that you will actually accomplish them. I'm a firm believer in this method, and in an effort to encourage all of you to make and write down your goals, I thought I would share some of mine. These are just a few of my personal and blogging goals for 2010.

* Strengthen My Relationship with the Lord - I am always striving to grow in my walk with the Lord, and this year (as every year) that goal tops the list! I am determined to stick to a regiment of daily devotions, increased time in prayer, and working to humble myself before my God.

* Write more often - this goal applies to both blogging and my own personal writing. I was an English major in college, but over the last few years, I have busied myself with other efforts (like raising my two daughters), but this year, I want to resume my passion for writing. To make this goal more tangible, I've set a goal to write one completed work per month. No, I'm not planning to write 12 novels this year, but something completed, even if it is short. My goal is to resume the habit of writing, not win a Nobel Prize ... though I would never decline the award =).

* Change the blog's appearance - I want to change the appearance of the blog to make it more easy to read and a bit less "cluttered". I'm sure all of you whole-heartedly support me in this one! Of course, this goal requires some team work - the husband's expert knowledge in computer software will be greatly used.

* Map out monthly goals for myself - as I look out over the course of 12 months, the idea of writing out all of the things I want to accomplish just seems daunting, so I've decided that one of my yearly goals will be to map out monthly goals as each month approaches. This month, my goals include competing one written work, writing a poem for my oldest daughter, and creating one painted work for each child. All of these are things I keep telling myself I want to do, but have never made the time to actually finish.

* Track our overall "coupon" savings - our family follows the Dave Ramsey plan when it comes to our finances. This means making a monthly budget, sticking to it, paying down our debt first, always having "emergency savings" put away, and moving through the remaining steps as we come to them. This year, in addition to this, I want to keep track of the money we save exclusively from the use of coupons, promotional codes, deeply discounted sales, etc. I would love to blog about these efforts, but first I need to be able to track them.

* Network More - We started this blog a few months ago in the hopes that we could help other families like ours save more money and be better stewards of all their resources. We have been humbled by the support we received in this endeavor. I would love to see this blog grow in the new year. I'm hoping to connect more with other bloggers and gleam knowledge from their experiences and wisdom. We can only benefit from a more connected approach to saving! If you're a fellow blogger, and would like to join me in this effort, please contact me at savingsandstewardship@gmail.com!

I'll try to keep you all informed on how I'm doing with each of these goals. Feel free to comment and share a few of your own goals for this new year!