Over the past several weeks, Caleb and I have been talking on and off about our goals for 2017. We quickly realized a common trend as we were talking about the upcoming year — the majority of our goals are personal goals. We have done some exciting things in our business over the past four years and feel like this year is a year to focus on everything that happens behind the scenes (this is the foundation of the business after all!). 2017, we welcome you with open arms and a different kind of goal-setting this year.

1. Having a Structured Schedule 

This goal for the New Year really feels like the foundation of them all. If we don’t focus on really “nailing” this goal, it’s hard to believe that the others will come to fruition as well! One of our biggest struggles as business owners is maintaining a structured daily schedule … I mean, no one is forcing us to work on their terms, so it feels easy to make the hours up as we go and “work when we want.” While this can be a perk of entrepreneurship in a lot of ways, we have also realized that our personalities CRAVE structure (… and that study after study after study shows that structured schedules often align with overall success and happiness).

The two most basic goals we have to begin with are:

1. Getting up and going to bed at the same time every day
2. Stop working at the same time every day

 

2. Carving out more time for our marriage

We’ve definitely talked about this before on the blog, but working together can quickly lead to the lie of believing that you’re “spending so much time together!” While we are spending SO much time together, a LOT of this time is working/as business partners. Another HUGE goal for 2017 is to carve out time for us as HUSBAND and WIFE! : ) Our hope is for this time to be:

1. Uninterrupted
2. Intentionally set aside as time for us
3. A minimum of one (scheduled in advance) date night per month!

 

3. Pursue our desire to encourage other couples in their marriages 

We’re not sure exactly what this looks like yet, but one thing we know is that we both feel a strong pull to encourage other couples in their marriage journeys! We are really excited about the idea of pursuing this passion more and seeing what comes out of it!

 

4. Continue maintaining a healthy lifestyle

Let’s be honest, we would even love to live a healthIER life! For the upcoming year ahead, our two biggest goals are:

1. To continue eating a Whole30 Diet at home (with a focus on the never-ending task of learning to like vegetables …) ; )
2. Scheduling in workouts 2x per week (minimum!) but also choosing to be active in someway everyday/keeping active-ness top of mind (trail walks with the dog, taking the steps, using our weights at home, etc.!)

 

5. A refocus on our spiritual life and individual relationships with God

It’s funny how when life gets busy, the things that mean the most to you seem to take a back burner. As our marriage counselor always tells us, it’s because those things are in the infamous “third quadrant” of our lives — the quadrant labeled important but not necessarily urgent. For us, our individual relationships with God fall into this category and if we’re being honest, aren’t the top of our priority list on a daily basis. While we cherish our prayer time as a couple each morning, the pursuit of Christ often ends there and our individual needs as Maison and as Caleb aren’t being attended to.

Our biggest goal for the year in this category is:

1. To Love this Book. For 2017, our church has launched a year long reading plan in hopes to encourage us to not just read through the Bible in a year (just to, you know, say you did it or something), but rather to help us to re-fall-in-LOVE with the overall STORY of the Bible and to learn to love the book : ) Caleb and I are obsessed with their mission and vision and cannot wait to each dive in on our own and see what God has in store for us uniquely (that we can then bring to our marriage!) as we dig in to this plan!

 

And while we’re at it, our biggest/main BUSINESS goal for 2017 is to further our education. To pursue the things we’re aren’t the greatest at business-wise and to learn new skills that will better the overall quality of our experience, our photos, and all that nitty-gritty business stuff : )

Here’s to an incredible 2017!