Happy New Year everyone! Like most people, I have welcomed 2021 with open arms. I’m ready to leave all the craziness of the past year, and move on.

Today I want to share with you the goals that I have for this new year, and the word that will be my guide along the way.

 

Why a word of the year?

It is a long held tradition for people to set goals at the beginning of a new year. With three hundred and sixty five days ahead, starting anew is a natural inclination.

While I used to set specific and measurable new year goals, I found myself getting frustrated the minute things started to head off course. My ‘all or nothing’ perfectionist personality held me captive to the specifics of the goals. This made me to give up when things got tough. For example, if a goal was set to exercise every day, once a single day was missed I would stop exercising altogether, and consider that goal a failure. Most years, I would find myself a couple months into the new year feeling defeated.

Then, a few years ago, a friend mentioned that she chose a word for the year, instead of setting specific goals. I had never heard of the concept, but the idea that a single word could help me refocus throughout the year caught my attention. Doing a bit of research, I decided to adopt the practice as well.

 

 

My word of the year

Last year my word was ‘clear’. Little did I know, going into 2020, how appropriate that simple word would be. A cleared out calendar definitely gives a person a clear mind! Moving into the new year, I had time to really think about which word could help guide me in 2021.

The word I have chosen for this year is Progress. More specifically, ‘progress over perfection.’

Many times, when I attempt to make progress with something in my life, I get hung up on trying to do things perfectly. As I mentioned, even new year goals tend to be that way for me!

Progress. The word encourages me to put one foot in front of the other, without knowing necessarily where the path might lead me. It allows me to be more gentle on myself, knowing that perfection doesn’t need to be met in order for a goal to be satisfied. I feel ready for progress.

 

Setting Goals for the New Year

My goals are a bit vague, with the understanding that they are all encompassed under the word progress. Each little step in the direction of these more broad categories can be considered a win to me.

 

Documentation of house building + projects

First, I have plans to go back to the footage that was taken during the building of our house. Though we did film much of the process, life was much too hectic at the time to put together polished videos or blog posts. However, I truly want to be able to document that exciting chapter of our lives.

And so, going back to formally document what happened is considered progress in my eyes.

Our home hasn’t changed much since I gave the new build tour. Moving forward, I see us taking our blank slate cottage and adding a lot of personal touches. I have many ideas for ways to get this place feeling more homey. Accent walls, painting projects, and furniture refinishing are all in our future.

My inclination is to wait until each room is perfectly finished and polished before sharing. However, it could be years before rooms in the cottage might be considered finished. I have found that, personally, I enjoy following along with people who share the changes to their homes as they make them. This raw and real approach to documenting will be a stretch for my personality, but one that I hope to make progress with.

 

 

Health + well being

Many people set new year goals for themselves is in the area of health and well being. For me, I hope to make progress in learning how to grow and prepare healthy food options.

Last summer, I used the extra homebound time to plant my very first garden. I genuinely enjoyed the process far more than I had anticipated. Although we made mistakes and the gardening system was far from perfect, there was success – which prompts me to take the garden a step further this year. Progress in gardening this year will give me encouragement to keep fine tuning the techniques until I find a system that works best for me.

In turn, using fresh homegrown produce, I plan to create healthy meals for my family.

I plan to share all the gardening journey as well as healthy recipes right here on the blog, so be sure to check in often!

 

Personal Passions

I have mentioned before that my college degree is in the field of architecture. While I did work in an office setting for a few years, once our oldest son was born I became a full time stay at home mom. That was fourteen years ago. During my time at home,  I remained involved with various architectural firms, on a project by project basis. I have found, based on the different types of projects I have worked on, that my true passions lie with residential design. More specifically, I enjoy designing small and simple homes.

When I started this blog, it was a way for me to share the process of how an idea can be turned into reality. It has truly been one of the greatest blessings of my life to have been able to design and build a home for our family. There have been several people who have reached out to me, since the completion of our cottage, asking for custom home design services.

While I don’t see myself taking on custom design projects, I would like to feature more design content here on the blog. That will probably look like a series of blog posts and videos dedicated to home design ideas. I would love to offer home plan sketches featuring simple home design concepts.

Though I’m not fully sure yet how to make this goal a reality, I want to jump in. I might try a few different approaches to determine which resonates best with my followers. This is one aspect of 2021 that I am quite excited about!

 

 

Choose a Word of the Year for yourself

Do you like the idea of choosing a word guide to steer you in a positive direction this new year? Not sure how to come up with one?

The goal chaser website has an entire list of over 100 word of the year options – which is a great resource!

If you don’t feel like searching through an entire list, check out this quiz by Dayspring. It will walk you through a series of reflective questions, geared at fine tuning which word of the year is right for you!

 

Watch me explain my New Years goals + word

I hope that you will join me this year, as I seek progress over perfection. If you decide to choose a word this year, instead of making specific goals, I would love to hear about it in the comments below!