Mid-year goals review

If there’s one thing my PowerSheets have taught me, it’s that visibility is key to progress. It’s not usually hard to do the things I want to do, it’s just that life gets in the way. There will always be something louder or more urgent than organizing photos, taking evening walks, or celebrating a Sabbath. Writing things down, checking in on my PowerSheets throughout the month, and sharing my goals here – each of those actions are a reminder to move forward, a little prod to take action.

And as you’ll see below, the little by little adds up…

Goal no. 1: Finish organizing our family photos, and create our first two albums.
Progress I’ve made: This feels like the never-ending project (a year and a half and counting), but friends, THE END IS IN SIGHT! In addition to all the steps I took last year, this year I have backed-up, culled, edited, and sorted ALL of my iPhone photos from 2017-2012 (and cleaned my phone off as I went!).
What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: I need to cull and sort my iPhone photos from 2011, 2010, and 2009 (those will be easy) as well as the photos from 2018 and the first half of 2019 (those will be hard). Then, I need to copy relevant photos from Facebook into my external hard drive sorting system, and then I will be ready to create my first album!! (I’ll likely use Artifact Uprising!) I’m planning to include five years in each album; the first one will cover 2005-2009.

Many of you have asked for more details about the steps I’m taking. I am happily planning to share in the next few months!

Goal no. 2: Ride bikes as a family, and complete the MS ride in New Bern.
Progress I’ve made: We took our road bikes to the shop for a tune-up, acquired two bike seats (for free!), figured out we can’t attach the seats to our road bikes (boo), bought a used trailer off Facebook Marketplace (earlier this week!), and as of last night, took our first bike ride as a family of four!!
What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: This goal was on hold for most of this year as we waited for Shep to grow :) Now that we have the okay from our pediatrician, we are excited to ramp up in a big way to get ready for the MS Ride we have in our sights. Honestly, it seems slightly hard to believe that we’ll actually pull off a 100-mile ride from today’s vantage point, when we’ve taken exactly one ride for the entire year, but we have all the motivation we need: John’s cousin was hit with a sudden and devastating onset of MS in March. There are a lot harder and more impossible things than riding our bikes for a few miles.

Goal no. 3: Rest in the Lord as we carve out weekly Sabbaths.
Progress I’ve made: I have read much of what the Bible has to say about a Sabbath (and collected my notes in a Google doc). I gathered ideas from episode 002 of Nancy’s podcast. I’m a few pages into this book, which has been recommended by many. We’ve worshipped in church *almost* every week this year.
What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: Much! I’d like to come to a shared understanding with John of what Sabbath means for our family, then work backwards to identify the steps it will take to make it happen each week. And then I want to live it out, piece by piece!

Goal no. 4: Give my best to our church.
Progress I’ve made: The creative team I helped spearhead is off and running! We helped add life and color to Easter services and we’ve firmed up messaging across several different platforms.
What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: The last piece I’ve been asked about but haven’t touched is auditing and improving the church’s web presence.

Goal no. 5: Move my body throughout the day, every day.
Progress I’ve made: At the beginning of the year, I introduced this as “the goal I really don’t want to set but know I need to.” Friends, it’s been slow going. We have picked back up with evening walks, but I’ve fallen out of many of the habits I began at the beginning of the year (a mini walk midway through the day, standing for the first hour) as my workload has picked up.
What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: I just reactivated my mini walk alarms on my phone. I have a goal this month to jury-rig a standing desk upstairs for days I’m at home. I’d like to hit 10k steps more days than not each week.

Goal no. 6: Connect more deeply in our neighborhood.
Progress I’ve made: Katie and I enjoyed ten successful weeks of our meal exchange before their move. I have gotten to know our across-the-street neighbors. I read this book. I’m actively looking for potential friends each time we go to the pool :)
What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: I have a bead on a new friend prospect who actually reached out to me via our neighborhood Facebook group… planning to be bold and invite her to do something soon!!

Goal no. 7: Complete our family room.
Progress I’ve made: We hung a mirror over our fireplace, refreshed our gallery wall and refreshed a few frames in it, found an ottoman for our big chair, added a lamp and a plant, printed and framed a few photos for our mantel, came up with a garland system (more about that soon!), installed a new rug and sold our old one, and switched out a few pillows.
What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: I would love to make a final decision on our coffee table, add a floor lamp behind one of our chairs, switch out our throw blanket, replace our bar stools, and maybe add curtains??

Goal no. 8: Kick off The Years of Making Magic.
Progress I’ve made: Done!
What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: I’m considering this goal complete! Now I just get to enjoy checking things off for the next few years :)

How about you, friends? Are your goals for the year still going strong, or have they changed?

P.S. If you’re looking for help with goal setting and achieving, the PowerSheets I use are on sale this week for $29. A little birdie told me there are only a few left, and at the rate they’re selling, that stock won’t last long!