Dreaming Again With God in the Little Years
“Plan your year before others plan it for you.” I heard this phrase and it stuck with me. A few years ago I realized that so many times I let others plan my year before I even got a say because I failed to plan.
We are called to be good stewards of our time and that includes planning our year. I believe when we prayerfully plan, we partner with God. Here is how I have been doing this the past few years. It hasn’t been perfect by any means, especially with small kids, but I wholeheartedly believe that I have been able to receive clarity on dreams and ideas that otherwise I wouldn’t have had the discipline to execute.
Note: if you are in a postpartum season or a season of lots of small children, this is going to look different for you. Please don’t compare yourself to people who have older children. Every season looks different and people will have different capacities. For instance—if you are getting broken sleep all night vs someone whose kids sleep all night, your capacity can be so different.
Before you start:
If you’re like me, you can do this in chunks and stages during nap time or over the course of a few days or weeks. 😊 This doesn’t have to be done on January 1 and it doesn’t have to be a quiet or an ideal setting. Just start.
-Get a notebook and pen or use the note app in your phone
Stage 1—Reflection, Gratitude, & Prayer
- Reflect and Evaluate—Start by taking some time reflecting on your past year. If you set any goals/plans, look at those and see what you were able to follow through with and why. This isn’t a time to beat yourself up, it’s a time to evaluate. What worked, what didn’t?
- Celebrate and Thank God—Celebrate the things you DID do well and all of the obstacles you overcame. Thank God for everything He brought you through and for the blessings in your life. Really take a few minutes to write down any wins from the year. Look back at photos. Write things down that went well.
- Get Quiet—spend some time in prayer. Ask God about your next year. I know some people get words for the year. Some get direction. Just write down anything you might be hearing from the Lord.
Stage 2–Write It Down & Make Your Vision Clear
- Write things down—take a sheet of paper and write down the following categories if applicable:
These are Goals you really want to accomplish. I made 4 categories under my Goals to keep it simple.
Personal–this included my health & fitness goals, the things I felt like God wanted me to work on like this blog, etc.
Spiritual–this included what I felt like I should study and focus on, a short prayer list, and our church’s word of the year.
Home–this included things I wanted to focus on in our home–like gardening, decluttering.
Family–here I put things like “I want to aim to do a family dinner every night” or “I want to complete the 1000 hours outside”.
These next categories aren’t necessarily your goals, but things that enrich your life.
- TRIPS—Where do you want to go and how can you start preparing for that?
- BOOKS—What books do you want to read? Who do you want to learn from?
- PEOPLE—Who do you want to spend more time with? Your time is valuable and there’s only so much of you that you can give to others. Who do you need to be around more either for them or for you? Who is ahead of you who you can learn from? Who is in a season behind you that you can encourage?
- SERVING & GIVING-How can you make sure you are serving others and giving this year? Do you have anything in place for this
2. Fill out a yearly calendar–We are planning the year before others plan our year for us. You’ll be surprised how much of your calendar is filled before your year even begins. This is a good time to look over your priorities. What is taking the most of your time and are you happy with that? If not, can it be changed? What can you add more of? Less of? This is the stage that my husband and I come together, pray, and talk things over and plan together.
3. Make a Canva vision board—I’ve done this for the past few years and I can’t tell you what a difference it’s made. I make it on Canva and I put it as my screen saver. It doesn’t have my exact goals listed, but it has photos and words that represent my goals. This is my vision board from 2024–it was a year that I was pregnant, so that was my big focus of the year. I didn’t accomplish everything that was listed, but it helped me accomplish so much more than I ever would have. I believe seeing photos of your goals daily is powerful.
Stage 3–Execute
- HOUSEKEEPING—I like to start with this step. It may seem a little strange, but if your space or mind is cluttered, it will be hard to keep up with anything extra.
-I really love to take down all my Christmas decor before the New Year
-Clean my home
-Order fresh groceries before the New Year begins
-Clean out my closet and take out any clothes that don’t fit or that I don’t love anymore
-Declutter some old toys
-Do some media cleanup—like deleting emails or old contacts
This doesn’t have to take long, a little goes a long way. These things help your brain get momentum going. - FOLLOW-THROUGH: If you are a low-follow through person like the majority of people are, what I have found to be the most helpful things are:
–Always have my goals in front of me–on my phone screen saver, and in the notes in my phone app.
–Have the mentality that 10% done is better than none. This is something I have recently been implementing in the last month and it is SO helpful for me. For example, sometimes this scenerio happens–I’m on a roll with working out. Then a kiddo gets sick and I’m not sleeping well. I start my workout with the mentality of “It doesn’t have to be perfect, and doing 10% of this is better than nothing. It keeps it as a habit/lifestyle instead of being something that I have to give up when I’m not operating at my best.
–I don’t give up if I miss a week or two or longer. I jump back in and don’t let myself feel guilty. Any progress is better than none when something is important to you.
I pray this is helpful for you in acheieving the goals and dreams that God has placed on your heart! I’ll leave you with this thought as you are beginning to plan your year.
Instead of: “What do I want to accomplish?”
Ask:
“Lord, what are You inviting me into this year?”
-Nicole
