New year, new me! Kidding, well kind of. Some people hate new years resolutions but like I said in my last post–I like to look back on the year and see what things went well and what are some things I could improve upon! Also, I like to take this time to look at the year ahead and see what some of my new goals may be.

-Get organized! So, this became something I really had to focus on towards the end of last year and definitely need to continue with. I’m never one to use a planner but towards the end of last year I had to purchase one because I felt like I couldn’t keep up with my work schedule at the hospital, collaboration deadlines, creating content, etc. I even bought a giant dry erase board calendar in order to better plan my content. All of these tools really help me stay more on top of things, but there is still definitely room for improvement so that is something I hope to continue to work on!

Another goal regarding organization is actually creating a clean (decluttered) and functional apartment/work space! Just a few days before the year ended, Stephen and I finally put the finishing touches on our second bedroom/office space. This (photo above) is what our new desk space looks like and I love it!  Now I just need the rest of the apartment to follow suit. Over the years I’ve accumulated so much stuff from excess clothing, birthday cards, miscellaneous items, etc. And while it’s hard to get rid of some of that, I have to look at it like, when was the last time I actually looked at this/used it? So yeah, I need to clean out my closest and de-clutter ASAP! (Also for those that have asked, these framed photos are from Desenio and you can use “claireguentz” for 25% off their site 🙂 )

-YouTube videos. Dun, dun, dun. Okay, so! Last year I wanted to branch more into YouTube and I did for a hot minute haha, but I discovered that it is a lot of work to put videos up consistently (duh, Claire). I honestly didn’t have the time and overcommitted myself. But! This year will  be different. Stephen and I are both starting a channel together so he will be handling the editing portion of the videos so that frees up some time for me to work on other stuff. Plus, now that we’re diving into projects together it is helpful to have someone else hold you accountable.

–Start a podcast. So if you didn’t know that Stephen and I are starting a podcast–now you do! We’re still ironing out the details but we overall have nailed down our concept. I will share it with you guys ASAP once things are a little more concrete. But this is one of our big goals this year as we’ve been talking about doing it for the last couple months and just getting everything together for it. I think you guys will find it entertaining (we will always make you laugh–I hope!), and valuable. We hope to have it up and running within the next couple months. Stephen thinks it will be sooner but I know how these things work and I think the end of February is a realistic date for launching. So, stay tuned!

-Blog posts 2x a week. Midway through last year I really started focusing on my blog more, and I’ve loved diving into topics deeper with you guys. IG is great, but I love that we can connect on another level on the blog. I feel like I was fairly consistent last year with blog posts, but I want to make sure that this year I get in at least two blog posts each week.

–Read 5 books this year. Okay, five might sound a little dismal haha, but I don’t want to overcommit here! I love reading but unfortunately a lot of times when I’m at home I have to choose work over doing something leisurely. But, I feel like 1 book every 2 months is a realistic goal that I can set. The first one on my list is The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines. You may be familiar with them from HGTV’s show Fixer Upper. My sister-in-law recommended this book to Stephen and I since we’re going to be working together more. So I’m excited to start reading it. I guess I should go ahead and start already since it’s already January 3rd 😉 Any other good books you guys would recommend? I also love suspense and mysteries!

-Continue to live a truly balanced lifestyle. I felt like last year I really started to adopt an actually balanced mindset. You hear people preaching all the time about living a balanced lifestyle but then it’s followed up with justifying why it’s okay that they ate a donut, why it’s okay that they missed a workout, etc. I honestly just find that annoying–just do it and don’t continually talk about it. Anyway! Through last year I felt like I was able to set physical progress goals for myself but not be evaluating my progress each day or week. Essentially, I learned to stop scrutinizing my body and just work towards my goals without stressing out if life happened and things weren’t perfect 😉 Working out became much more about the mental benefits than just the physical. I hope to continue with that mindset this year and I don’t see any reason why I won’t be able to 🙂

–Travel. So, I know that this is kind of general but since all of Stephen’s classes are online this year we definitely have more flexibility with our schedules. With that said, we really want to take the opportunity to travel as much as possible. We already have like 5 weddings for this year which is crazy! So we will be traveling out of state for 4 of those, but then we also want to take other trips whenever possible. They don’t have to be to any crazy, exotic destinations–but even just taking weekend getaways every now and then. Our first trip this year though will be to Colorado! We leave next week and plan to go skiing in Breckenridge. And by skiing I mean, I ski for a day and then sit by a fire and drink wine for the rest 😉

What are some goals that you guys want to accomplish this year? xx C