The Mom’s Guide to Setting Goals You Can Actually Achieve! (+12 Natural Living Goals for the New Year!)

As a mom, it can be so hard to set goals you can actually achieve. Here’s the goal setting secret I found to help me set and achieve my goals!

It’s funny how things change as we get older, isn’t it? From high school through my early years of marriage, I relished sitting down in front of a fresh white piece of paper to write detailed, lengthly resolution/goal lists between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

Things like keeping my room clean and making the varsity soccer team evolved into organizing my entire house and finding a new job I was passionate about.

I had lots of time to focus on myself and what I wanted, and just as much time to spend achieving my goals.

Then a baby, followed by more babies, burst onto the scene over-flowing both my heart and my time, and turning my plans and goals upside down in the process.

No longer could I look forward to uninterrupted hours ticking by on the clock while I organized my sock drawer or knit myself a scarf. But, I still had big goals and dreams, and so for the first few years after having babies I continued to write out detailed resolutions at the start of the new year.

As time went on though, the blank check-boxes on my list glared back at me month after month, and even year after year, as I failed to achieve more and more of my big dream goals.

Maybe resolutions weren’t such a great idea after all! I had young kids, a home to manage, and work to do. I was just trying to make it through a day without losing my car keys, or my mind. What mom has time for such big ideas and dreams when so much of her day is spent wiping noses and butts? Could I really make a resolution just to take a shower at least every other day?!

I thought my days of setting New Year’s Resolutions were over.

Set Goals You Can Actually Achieve

And then my kids got a little older, and I started to have time to do things like go to the bathroom by myself again. And with that little extra time, I was able to start setting goals for myself again too.

When I was younger it was easier to dream big and set long term goals I could work on over the course of a year. But now that life was filled with changing diapers, keeping up with the laundry, and school carpool, I decided I needed to set shorter term goals. These goals we’re more realistic and achievable, and would eventually lead to the bigger changes I was looking for.

For me, as a busy, easily overwhelmed, working and stay-at-home mama of young kids, setting three month goals was the way I got myself back into the goal setting groove. I want to encourage you to try short term goal setting to see how it can help you to set goals you can actually achieve too!

Should you set shorter-term goals?

If you find yourself overwhelmed by long term dreaming and planning, struggling to know what you’ll make for dinner next week, much less what your life will look like 6 months from now, then short-term goal setting is for you!

Or if you have big dreams and plans, but are having trouble actually implementing those plans and achieving your goals because of your family and home responsibilities, then short-term goal planning can help you too!

3 Benefits of setting short-term goals:

1. It takes less time and mental energy than trying to plan for a whole year at a time. I can sit down with my blank piece of paper and set 3-5 goals for the next three months, in 15-20 minutes.
2. There’s more time to reach your goals then when you set monthly goals, but not so much time that you can get distracted and forget what you’re supposed to be working on.
3. You’ll stay inspired and motivated as you’re able to achieve your goals and cross them off your list, and then set new goals for the next three months!

What are your goals for this year?

I hope that one of your resolutions for this new year is to make changes toward a greener and more natural lifestyle.

I think we’d all like to be healthier and for our families to be healthier this year, and I think we’d like to know that our choices are making an impact on the world around us. We’d like to do our small part in making this world a better place.

Making the switch to green and natural living in different areas of our lives is a great way to do both of those things at the same time: live healthier and make an impact on the world!

The choices we make matter, and this can be the year that we are more intentional about the impact of the choices we make every day. In our own homes we can reduce our family’s exposure to toxins, make changes to the food that we eat, and conserve resources, all of which will also have an impact on the world that we live in.

There are always more green and natural lifestyle changes I want to make then I have time for, though!

Can you relate? 

And other times I know what change I’d like to make, but I don’t know where to begin and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.

So, I want to encourage you to set 2-3 goals, or commit to 2-3 changes, over the next three months that will move you and your family toward the greener and healthier lifestyle you’re looking for. And I have some simple ideas to help you get started.

Once you achieve those goals you’ll be excited to set more goals and pursue even more changes in the following three months!

12 Natural Living Goals for a Healthier Family

• Make your own homemade green cleaners

• Turn your thermostat down (or up) a degree or two

• Make recycling easy for your family

• Quit buying paper towels and other disposable cleaning products and replace them with cloth

• Make simple changes at the grocery store (we’ll talk more about this next week!)

• Switch from plastic to glass in your kitchen

• Start a simple compost pile

• Conserve water around your home

• Switch to non-toxic personal care products

• Start using natural remedies

• Declutter and simplify your stuff

• Reduce toxic products in your home and replace them with safer alternatives

Let’s Do This!

Decide which areas of your life are most important for you to start making changes and choose 2-3 ideas from this list to work on over the next few months.

To help you get started, I put together a quick six day green living challenge. Each day you’ll receive a new step to take toward a green and natural lifestyle. These steps are incredibly simple and easy, they’ll take you less than 15 minutes each day, and most of them are included in the list above to help give you a jump start on your goals!

By the end of the week, you will have made six important changes toward a greener home and lifestyle giving you the inspiration and motivation you need to keep going. You’ll see just how easy green and natural living really can be!

Click here to sign up for the Simple Steps to Green Your Life Challenge today, we’ll be starting on Jan. 2nd! I can’t wait to have you join us!

You’re Invited!

I also want to invite you to my first Facebook Live event on the Live Renewed Facebook page! I’m a little nervous, but also super excited to discuss how to set goals you can actually achieve and green living goals with you guys. We’ll be chatting on Tuesday, Jan. 3rd at 2pm, so mark your calendars and check it out!

If you have any questions about green goal setting, please email them to me at [email protected], so I can answer them during the Live event! I’ll try to get to as many questions as I can!

Until then, I hope you can find some alone time in a quiet place this week, preferably not the bathroom, to sit down with your fresh, white piece of paper and write down some short-term goals and resolutions for yourself! Happy New Year!