My New Year’s Intentions and Goals

Here are my intentions and goals for the New Year.

Every year since I started Inspiralized, I’ve set goals, resolutions, intentions, and even challenges for the New Year. It’s great to look back for two reasons. One, it shows you how quickly time flies! And two, it shows how much you’ve grown. My resolutions have evolved so much, and although I set intentions and goals all year long, I really love the cathartic process of starting “fresh” in the New Year.

So this year, I have some practices that I want to do more of in the New Year, and parts of my life that I want to improve upon. Here they are…

Last Year’s Resolutions

So, I never made any! I was knee deep in baby poop, diapers, and spit up! My resolution to myself (although I never articulated it in a post) was to just be a good mother and be kind to myself. And I think I succeeded! I’ve loved motherhood (not every single second of it, but most of it!) and I thank my lucky stars everyday that I have Luca in my life.

If you’re curious, you can check out my goals for year  201420152016, and 2017.

My New Year’s Intentions and Goals

This year, I’m dividing my intentions and goals up between personal and professional.

Professional
  • New, better website. I am already working on this and I can’t wait to see this project from start to finish. I want my content to be more discoverable, in a beautiful way!
  • Make more of Mondays. I used to be really great with Mondays. I’d set myself up on a Friday so that Mondays would start off focused and productive. As a mother, that all changed, because the nanny leaves early on Fridays, I spent a lot of it meal planning for the following week and trying to cram a lot into the day, that I don’t make my game plan and then Monday comes and half the day is wasted on building a to do list and organizing the week. So, 2019 is going to be the year to seize (back) my Mondays!
  • Be more organized. I actually have a professional organizer (the same one I’ve used for other areas of my home, Horderly) to come back and organize my office in the second week of January so I can truly stick to this goal and start the year off right. I find myself constantly cluttered, and it affects my day to day work efficiency. I was given the great advice that if you aren’t organized, hire help who are, so that’s my plan! 2019 is going to be the year of ORGANIZED ALI. I want to time block a lot more.
  • Post more new recipes. I want to post THREE new recipes a week instead of two in 2019. It’s a countable goal and I’m going for it!
  • Grow Inspiralized Kids. I am so passionate about helping others make healthy meals for their families, and I have so many ideas for IK. Hopefully, by being more organized in general, I will be able to make more room for growing this part of my brand.
  • Say yes to more events. 2018 was the year of the hermit for me. I’ll talk about it more later and on Inspiralized Ali, but I really flaked on a lot of work events. It was hard with nursing Luca, being attached to him, and struggling to find a balance. And being exhausted come event time, haha. But in 2019, I want to get myself out more – my best partnerships, best work memories, and most valuable work moments have been at events!
Personal

So, if you missed the announcement, we’re expecting our second baby in June 2019! You can read all about my first trimester here and follow along to this journey on @inspiralizedali, if you’re interested. I have a lot of goals related to my second pregnancy and second baby which I’ll be posting all about over there! There are a few things I’d like to do differently, and those will be part of my 2019 goals!

  • Take more time for myself. I did a really bad job of this in 2018. I think I was so worried about being a good wife and mother, that I forgot about myself. I literally did not take one day off for myself all year. Any day that I took off was for the baby. And if I did take time off for me, it wasn’t necessarily stuff FOR me, it was like grocery shopping, errands, and necessary to-dos. In 2019, I want to focus on giving myself more time. This doesn’t mean it has to be a whole day, but maybe even just start shutting the door to the bedroom and reading in bed or getting a late massage after dinner (the massage place is open until 9pm!) And I need to be really better about this on the weekends. If I do take time away from Lu and Luca, it’s for time with friends, but never myself. Like, I have not been clothes shopping on my own since before the baby was born. I’d like to do that! You get the point.
  • Get out of the house more. It’s a common issue with those who work from home, to get stuck in your bubble. I was really, really bad about this in 2018. I felt like the whole summer went by and I barely left the apartment. It’s partially because I have a lot of work, I was still nursing, and I just became a total hermit homebody. I think this is very normal as a new mother, but I want to improve on this in 2019, especially before Baby Girl comes!
  • Make monthly dates with friends. I just went out with a friend who I haven’t seen in almost a year. We communicate mostly via text and social media. And then (almost) a year went by and we never saw each other. We got together and I had so much fun, I missed her so much, and I said to her, “That’s it! We are making a monthly date. Each time we hang out, bring your calendar, and we’ll set a date for the next hang out!”
  • Start using babysitters. I did not use ONE babysitter for the past 15 months. My parents or my sister babysat. Luca is now at the age where he goes to bed at 7pm and doesn’t wake up until 7am, so I can confidently go on a date with Lu or out with friends and not worry. He used to wake up here and there from 7pm-11pm and then of course, in the middle of the night, he would wake up and we’d co-sleep. Now, he’s 7pm to 7am and I am ready to start using babysitters to take advantage of this before the second baby arrives!
  • Read more. I think this goes along with “taking more time for myself.” I’m just happy with an hour to read to myself in a room different than my apartment! I have been reading about a book a month (give or take a week or so) and I am very proud of that! I need to find Lu some good books so he can read with me – any suggestions?

And those are my intentions and goals for the New Year! What are some of yours? Leave a comment on this post and we can check back in with each other and keep motivated all year long!

Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year to you and yours. Wishing you all the merriment, and see you in 2019!

with love, Ali

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comments

  • On your very last note, my all-time favorite new years resolution was to read at least 1 book a year that my husband has just finished reading. It is a great way to have something to talk about that isn't the hustle and bustle of daily of life. Depends on what Lu likes, if he is a history buff "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand" is a good one. We've kept this tradition alive for 8 years since we 1st made it.
    • LOVE this! I'll talk to my husband about it! Great idea. Happy New Year!
    • As a mom with a full time job I feel every single goal here. It’s soooo hard doing stuff that’s just for you! The mom guilt is so deeply internalized. I hope you post about this stuff throughout the year as a reminder to all of us that it’s okay to still be a person!!! Also, as an English teacher, I really appreciate your writer’s voice.
  • My 2019 intention for you Ali, don’t be too hard on yourself - with two young babies in diapers and all that goes along with that, you can only do so much. Your loyal fan club will stick around if three new recipes a week turn to one or none. Be kind to yourself, remember Bells Palsey and cold sores on lips. Family First and the rest will fall into place.
  • This is a very inspirational list. I love the idea of monthly dates and setting the date while you're there. I also love the idea of time blocking and have tried to do it, but in an office like mine I'm interrupted constantly. Open floor plan.. remote boss who video calls whenever he wants.. not ideal! Wish I could come and babysit - you could pay me in leftovers :) Also that first picture is great! You look so gorgeous, glowing and relaxed!
    • Thanks so much, Hillary! Time blocking is definitely tough! I try to build 10-15 minute buffers in just for this reason. So, say I know a task will only take me 30 minutes, I'll time block 40-45 minutes, for little interruptions that may be unplanned like that. Happy new year!
      • Great tip - thanks!
  • Love the post! This encouraged me to plan & organize for 2019 too, I feel so much better now. Being a mom to 20 month old, I can relate to everything you shared, Thank you for being so open.
  • I use goodreads to discover new books to read! You and Lu should make your own accounts so that you can both find things that you like to read. You can also set a challenge for how many books you want to finish in a year!
  • Great intentions and goals! Years ago my friends and I decided that we would go to dinner the 1st Thursday of each month (4 of us). Whoever is available goes. We do our best to keep that date open, but if only 2 people are available then only 2 go. Sometimes we move it by a day or week if we all agree on a different date. If someone has a new baby (there are many kids between my friends!) then we might have pizza at their house one month so that we can still be together.... but we really try to make it a night out of the house. Last year I set a goal to read 10 books and I met that goal with 3 weeks to spare. I'm going to challenge myself to 12 books for 2019. Someone else posted about Goodreads - definitely use it. It's like Facebook for books. You'll get a lot of ideas!
  • Thank you for sharing! You’re always such an inspiration! ❤️
  • When my baby girl started sleeping through the night (at 18 months!) I started booking a weekly massage for myself at 8pm, because they're open until 9. Best gift to myself ever!! It's literally one of the only times I relax during the week, because working from home with kids is super stressful most days. If I get out of my house early after bedtime, I'll even go shopping by myself before the massage. I might end up working later that night to catch-up on the never-ending to-do list, but taking that time for self care is sometimes the only "me time" I get the whole week. You should definitely enjoy it when you can! (And search around for good prenatal massages-- the first few I got were awful until I found a good fit.) So excited for you and the upcoming year!
  • OMG! He's so cute.
  • Awesome Post I have seen ever. I have searching over and over for a comprehensive review on the best baby diaper in the market and finally, I have found this diaper review. Would you confirm that it's a really great review?