On a live vlog with my husband, I said I hadn’t worked on my goals for 2024. I realized that wasn’t true at all. I had them all swirling around in my head, and it is time to get them down on paper. Here is your gentle reminder to think through your goals for 2024 and to write them down. Writing them down will help them to be more concrete.

First, let us all reflect on 2023. How was the year for you? What were your favorite and least favorite moments? What did you achieve? What did you not quite achieve or didn’t get to that you want to do in 2024?

My reflection on 2023:

  • Started 2023 with a bang with my first Whinypaluza Summit. Continued a successful blog, vlog and podcast and focused on enriching content.
  • I helped my son Max learn to drive and get his license. This was big.
  • I discontinued Girl Scouts. This was a goal I have had for a while.
  • I was a wonderful mom taxi for a lot of activities and attended a ton of wonderful activities for my children.
  • I planned a bunch of school events and fundraisers and had a successful year as PTSA President. Working on Ella’s 8th grade graduation was a school highlight for me.
  • Made a lot of precious family and friend plans.
  • Took a trip to Disney World and Discovery cove. I’ve always wanted to swim with dolphins. Goal achieved.
  • Put in a pool. Long time goal of mine achieved.
  • I got the car I’ve been dreaming of for a few years.
  • We got our son a car.
  • Decluttered the playroom and donated and sold a lot of toys.

An excellent way to reflect on 2023 is to go through your camera roll. I just took a dive into a year of my photos and am so happy to see all the wonderful memories we created. I accomplished a lot, and I enjoyed the year.

As we dive into our goals for 2024, I want to encourage us all to be realistic and to think about what we want to prioritize. Let’s focus on 3 or 4 goals. We don’t need to write down 10 goals. As you achieve the 3 or 4 goals, you can always move to the next 3.

When I was doing family therapy, we focused on helping the families to make SMART goals:

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Realistic

Timely

I love that my husband and daughter both want to be able to run 5 miles this year. They can already run one mile, so they are building up. We don’t want to say that we will go run a marathon tomorrow if we haven’t been running at all. Let us all be realistic and kind to ourselves.

As we create goals, let’s think about categories:

Work, family, recreation, hobbies, organization, money, parenting, marriage, health, and community are some areas we can focus on when making our goals for the year.

I want to focus on my health this year. I am already making progress in 2024 and I want to share. I want to break this down more than just saying health. That isn’t specific or measurable.

Goal 1: I am focusing on my health this year by:

  • I am focusing on appointments for myself. This benefits me physically and mentally. I already went to a NET session with a wonderful chiropractor that was amazing and life changing. If you don’t know what NET is, I recommend looking it up. I also made myself an eye appointment and a primary care appointment. I chose a new primary doctor which has been big on my list for a few years. This is huge for me because I have been good at making appointments for my kids but not for myself. A lot of moms can relate to that. Massages, nail appointments, hair appointments, doctor appointments, chiropractic appointments will be a focus for this year. I will write out a specific monthly plan for this. I want to take good care of myself.
  • Rejoining the YMCA with a family membership and going at least a few times a week. Bringing my family to the YMCA and working out together.
  • Continued daily walks with my dog.
  • Take time out of my days to make myself a healthy breakfast, lunch and dinner.
  • More on this coming.

Goal 2: Tour a list of colleges with my son and help him to apply and choose a college.

  • We already booked a few appointments to see a few colleges, so we are already making progress.
  • This is a very specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely goal. We may not know where he is going by the end of 2024, but we will have toured and helped him apply to a bunch of colleges. I would like Max to apply to at least 10 colleges.
  • This goal is not specific to me but is a family goal that I am very involved in and invested in.

Goal 3: Declutter and organize the basement.

  • Aim to bring up a box a day from the basement.
  • Look through the box and donate, throw out or save the contents.
  • Have shelves built for the basement boxes.

Notes of more goals I have in mind:

Read at least four books a month and mix fun fiction with self help books.

House goals – painting the house and buying a new fence.

Continued growth and focus on all things Whinypaluza – already have a new newsletter.

Planning a family vacation.

Next steps:

I hope I have inspired you to reflect on 2023 and to write a few goals for 2024. I hope that this is going to be a year for you full of growth and grace. If you notice that you aren’t doing something, that is not a signal to beat yourself up. Keep evaluating your goals throughout the year. Are you working on them? Are you making small steps forward? Do you need to take smaller steps to have more success? Always remember that we can restart and reset every day as many times as we want to.

I am looking forward to a year first and foremost filled with my family and friends. My relationships are most important to me, and I will focus on time spent with loved ones. I also see a year full of health, college choices and decluttering.

I would love to hear about your goals or help you with your goals. I wish you so much success in 2024.

 

Laughing, Learning, Loving,

Rebecca Greene, LCSW-R

 

Check out my :

www.Linktr.ee/whinypaluzamom

Whinypaluza Notes:

Whinypaluza Mom Group:

If you are looking for a supportive community, come join the free Whinypaluza Mom Facebook group.  I created this as I wanted us to have a place where we can talk about tips, strengths and challenges we are having.  It is another step I took to help everyone to know that you are not alone. The January New Year challenge was a lot of fun. Come join in the group and bring a friend with you! I love to give away prizes. This group is private so please find me on Facebook at Whinypaluza or Rebecca Greene and message me to ask for an invite. I’m also on Instagram @becgreene5 and @whinypaluza_mom. I am also on Tik tok @whinypaluzamom.

The Whinypaluza Schedule:

Whinypaluza Wednesdays: My weekly blog comes out every Wednesday.  I am always open to your topic requests.  A new Vlog (video blog) also comes out every Wednesday night on Facebook and You Tube live at 9:00 PM Eastern time to discuss the blog.  If you would rather listen to a podcast than watch a Vlog, you can wait for the following Wednesday and the Vlog is released on my Podcast.

Family Fridays: Every Friday morning a new Podcast is released.  Most of my episodes on Fridays are me discussing parenting and marriage with experts on the topic.  If you would rather watch the Podcast instead of listen, you can watch it on You Tube.  If you would like to be on my Podcast or know someone who would like to please message me on Facebook or Instagram or at whinypaluzamom@gmail.com

I would so greatly appreciate it if you would subscribe, rate my Podcast and leave me a five-star review.  This leads to it being shown to more people that we can help. I appreciate it when you share my blogs, vlogs and podcasts with a friend so that we can build our community and help people one mama at a time. Every time you like and/or comment on a post it helps and is so appreciated!

Please feel free to email me with suggestions for topics that you would like me to cover. I would also love to hear about any lessons or takeaways that you learned from blogs, vlogs or podcasts that Whinypaluza releases. I hope that you are finding all this helpful and seeing that you are never alone. We are in this parenting and marriage ride together. xoxo