Happy New Year readers! Instead of starting this month with my typical post about my latest bullet journal spread, I’m excited to share my goals with you for 2017. I keep telling people (perhaps for accountability’s sake more than anything) that 2017 is going to be the year that I finally and fully embrace what I’ve always wanted to become: a minimalist.

Why Harboring So Many Interests Is Hurting You

Operation Minimalist. It seems from the dawn of the idea in my mind, the implementation of minimalism has either eluded me or I’ve made every excuse to keep clinging to every unnecessary thing in my life. Despite being a minimalist at heart, I somehow still struggle with wanting to do and be all things to all people. Perhaps you know the feeling: wanting to wear every style, cook every food, read every book, do every project, or keep every thing.

It’s good to be adventurous and eager to try things, but, in a way, it’s a betrayal to ourselves–to stretch ourselves so thin into so many territories. With limited energy, it only leaves us disorganized, directionless, and still asking ourselves the ultimate question: who am I?

Why Embracing Minimalism Will Help

When you begin to adopt a minimalist mind set, you are forced to ask yourself the tough questions: what truly makes me happy? What is really essential? How do I really want to spend my time? What is most important to me? Then why am I doing all these other things?

Minimalism acts as a vector. A vector is a physics term that means “a quantity having direction as well as magnitude.” Minimalist is your quantity (a small one teehee!). Adopting a minimalist mindset means you will begin to see a clear direction as well as magnitude in your efforts! For example:

I have always enjoyed fashion. However, I’ve made the mistake my whole life of trying to like and wear every style–feminine, boho, grunge, preppy, you name it! I had a sprinkle of everything in my closet. What I found out: more does not equal more. My outfits, while aplenty, were all over the place! I barely knew who I was. Many mornings, I would wake up and not know who I felt like dressing as. Was I in the mood to be posh? Or mod? Did I even have everything necessary to create a mod look? Did I even LIKE the mod look!? The end result was that I always threw on the same five shirts and jeans because I didn’t know what I wanted.

It hit me some time ago what I was doing wrong. Several years ago I noticed one of my friends almost always wore the same type of outfits, yet she always looked completely fabulous. Why? Because she knew what she liked and she stuck to it. She never floundered around trying to be other people or like other things. She was herself, she dressed like herself, and she owned it. She had a direction and her style had magnitude. Years later, I still found myself resisting this idea.

Until now.

Now, just think if you applied this one idea to every area of your life–what you eat, your daily tasks, your schedule, your marriage, your possessions, the way you organize your hall closet.

Are you ready to create direction and magnitude in your life? Maybe 2017 is the year you are ready to embrace a minimalist mindset. Below are my 2017 Minimalist Goals. I hope you will find inspiration for your own journey into a simpler life.

My 2017 Minimalist Goals

Career

Purge devices. Get rid of all the apps, documents, music, photos, emails, and anything else that’s cluttering up my digital life or serving no purpose.

Work ahead & peck away. Make blogging, writing, and other work tasks easier by working ahead of schedule and pecking away at seemingly insurmountable projects–even a little chip every day will bring you closer to achieving your goals!

Marriage

Date my husband. Make dating a priority again–just the two of us!

Pray for my husband. Pray for my husband (and son) daily.

Minimize requests. Try to only ask of my husband what is necessary–don’t nag or present honey-do lists. In fact, do everything I can do myself without complaining.

Friends & Family

Remember birthdays & keep gifts simple. Show them you care, but don’t set the bar so high that it’s always stressful just trying to buy a gift!

Plan weekly play dates. Spend time with other mom friends instead of sitting around the house every day.

Get Jonas on a schedule. Get my son on a sleeping, eating, playing, and learning schedule–no more struggle-busing through nap time!

Home

Implement storage solutions. Invest in good storage solutions to get the house organized.

Purge excess. In fact, don’t keep so much stuff that needs organizing in the first place!

Define & implement my decorating style. Visualize and make a decorating plan for each room and work towards achieving those.

Health

Make meals simpler. Get back to eating whole foods and less complicated recipes.

Exercise daily. Just move. Stop making excuses and just start moving.

Rest well. Go to bed early, get essential rest, and take Sundays off to recharge for the week ahead.

Finances

Save 5-10% each month. Spend mindfully and save more mindfully.

Set up an Ebay account to monetize excess. Don’t just throw all that excess out–make a buck or two!

Shop the sales & waste less. Start making an effort to shop the weekly fliers and plan meals around what’s on sale; waste less food.

Fun

Plan family outings. Again, get out of the house more often instead of sitting at home day in and day out.

Entertain friends. Invite friends over each month and have a good meal.

Do something I love. Spend at least a few minutes a day just doing something I enjoy.

Faith

Rise early & sit at God’s feet. Get up at the crack of dawn (carpe diem!) and spend quiet mornings with God.

Build a War Binder. Buy the supplies necessary to make a “war binder” and use it for all things faith: long-hand prayers, prayer requests, Bible study notes, sermon notes, etc.

Personal

Detox my wardrobe & define my style. Wear what I like and stop trying to like everything else.

Plant a garden. And enjoy the fruits of our labor!

Do only what is essential. After all, we’ve only got a small quantity of time. Why not spend it with direction and magnitude?