DECEMBER GOALS

Dashing through the snow… okay, so there is no snow right now in Minnesota, but it is officially the most wonderful time of the year! It’s full on the Christmas season! And as my grandma Beilke would say if she was still around “Yipppeee!” followed by an “Oh Martha” as she thought about everything she would have had to do this time of year.

Do you feel that way to? Do you feel like there are so many things you are saying “yes” to because you genuinely want to do them, but at the same time it’s all just getting to be too much as you think about everything going on the rest of this month?

I’m a firm believer that you can have too much of a good thing and when you have too much, it can make you feel in some cases sick physically or mentally. Friends, that’s exactly how I was feeling last week as December was approaching. I was feeling sick. So sick. I was feeling sick because of all the mental swirling I was doing about all the things I wanted to schedule for clients or scheduling time with family and friends and it was completely exhausting me. I just felt like I couldn’t get a grasp on all the areas of my life and it was out of control.

And after reading through all of these monthly goals I had for November and my daily habits I had the intention of doing, I got overwhelmed a bit again just reading through them. I must have been feeling really great and really ambitious when I first came up with this list because I know for December, I definitely want to simplify it and focus in more deeply on my major priorities during my favorite time of the whole year!

Did you know this is my favorite time of the year? I love every single thing about this Christmas season! I love all the festive activities, I love decorating, I love listening to Christmas music, I love seeing more family & friends than usual, I love volunteering, I love spending time at church, I love picking out thoughtful gifts and wrapping presents. I love all the cheesy Hallmark movies and watching Home Alone more than 4 times in the last 2 weeks…yes, that actually has happened. I just love it all!

So with making time for all those things I love, I’m giving myself permission to slow down in December. To plan. To focus. To intentionally take in every single evergreen scent & cup of hot cocoa. And with that, here are my goals for this festive month of December.

DECEMBER 2017 GOALS

Finish decorating my home for Christmas. I want to fully embrace the Christmas season and not be stressed out by all the to-dos so I’m going to have my home decorated in November so when December rolls around I can simply be present and enjoy every minute of it.
I want to finish Christmas shopping and wrapping all my presents by December 17^th. I want to do this so that I can fully enjoy the week leading up to Christmas without having to worry about one more thing to finish on my to-do list. Christmas is so much more than gifts and I want to intentionally embrace everything that makes Christmas so magical.
Write my Christmas letters, order pictures, and send out my Christmas cards by December 9^th. I absolutely LOVE this tradition. My dad started it with writing the most creative Christmas letters since I was in diapers and I like to write them to my family & friends as well. My original November goal was to get these out by the end of November, but I hit a couple creative road blocks in my writing so December 9^th is the new day! Sometimes you have to just take a step back and pivot when things don’t go as originally planned. I’m totally, completely #perfectlyimperfect .
Finish reading Braving the Wildnerness by Brene Brown. If you remember this was my goal last month and I’m almost finished, but not quite. And honestly, I don’t know if I want to finish this book in December. It’s good, but I just haven’t been in the mood to read the rest of it. I have too many other books I want to dig into like our new book club book, The Artist’s Way. If you are in Minnesota, come join us at book club this month on December 16th! Here are the details.
Plan Christmas Eve Dinner at home and the cute Pinterest recipes I will make for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, & our family Christmas later that week. Some of you may remember I have a pretty big immediate family with my 6 older brothers and their families. But some of them can’t make it home for Christmas and most of them won’t be home until after the holiday so that means it’s just my brother, Nate, and my parents and I celebrating on Christmas Eve & Christmas Day. I love the quietness of these two days now, although it did take some getting used to the last 2 years. But I always like to think about how we can make these two days extra special with our little small group of family. We’ll definitely be playing euchre, having festive drinks, and we still have to plan Christmas Eve dinner so send me any of your favorite family traditions. I am fully accepting fun new ideas to adopt as our own!
Fill up my 1 on 1 open coaching spots with clients for January. I only have a few of these spots open and I know they will go fast as soon as I share the info. My prayer is that the women I work with have a sincere and ambitious heart to take action towards what they most want!
Do more writing. Fun fact: I love writing. I never thought that would be something that I would truly love as much as I do, but it’s my way to express myself. Now, am I good at it? That’s debatable, but the Huffington Post seems to like it so I just keep doing me and sharing my heart with you. So I want to do more writing for my blog & give you more insight to your own life and do some more writing for our church newsletter and other outlets as well.
Plan, Plan, Plan. Can you tell I love planning and do it with everything?! In January I am hosting a big workshop that went great last year called New Year, New You. More details to come, but for December I have a lot of planning to do with my big priority of getting all my speakers lined up and the other details solidified for this amazing evening! Join our Insider’s Email list to get all the details.
I also want to read one book during the month of December. There are so many books I’m dying to read and I just got a few great deals on Half Priced Books during Cyber Monday because I love highlighting and taking notes in my books as I read through them! Right now I’m planning on reading Lara Casey’s Make It Happen & The Four Agreements.
Stay faithful in my Advent study which has me digging into His word and refocusing every day on what really matters during this holiday season. #reasonfortheseason
Do a charity project I want to do during the month of December. I have a soft spot in my heart for ones that have to do with children and with homeless people. If you have any great ideas send them my way, please! I have one in mind, but then today I had an idea of helping out a family I stayed with years ago in Ukraine so this isn’t quite solidified yet!

DECEMBER HABITS TRACKER

As for my habit tracking this month, I want to keep things very similar to the month of November because honestly, I still haven’t mastered some of these yet and I have more work to do. These habits all support my bigger goals for December and for the overall year so I definitely want to continue making these part of my daily practice.

Did you start using this super cute habits tracker that I shared with you last month from Danielle LaPorte that supports your Core Desired Feelings way of living? This is something she teaches in The Desire Map that I have adopted into my own life and have genuinely loved and felt such a noticeable difference in my life from it. You can grab your own free copy HERE.

Read my Bible after dinner each night or at least each evening. I really want to dig into His Word and promises more deeply.
Pick and read out loud my daily mantra this helps me center back in to my energy
Track my food in my food app each day
Start using my oil diffuser with my new holiday/winter scented essential oils each evening when I’m working
Go for a 45 minute walk each day
Start each morning with reviewing my life purpose statement and my core desired feelings
Cultivate one thing each day that makes me feel Hygge. Don’t know what hygge is? Check it out here. I have a part Danish heritage and absolutely adore this way of living.
Text/email/call one friend each day to see how they are doing & catch up
Listen to some form of Personal Development material each day through YouTube or podcasts
Meditate 5 days a week. This is so important to create the energy that moves me forward in the direction of my dreams

Okie Dokie! Well, that’s a wrap. It’s alot for the holiday season, but I did take the time to narrow it down and I genuinely want to cultivate these habits into my life and make these goals happen. But more than anything this month, I want to center in on the main reason for this very special season, Jesus and His Birthday.

How do you like to track your goals and intentions? If you ever want to talk more about goals or need someone to hold you accountable, send me an email. I would love to chat with you more about it!

I hope each of you reading this have a very Merry Christmas!!

Sending you a big hug & more love,

Amanda

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About Amanda

Hi Darlings! I'm Amanda! I'm all about intentionally creating a life worth falling in love with. I am a life design coach based in the heart of Minnesota embracing life with my mini doxie named Boots.

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