My 2022 Goals

Welcome to Val’s annual goal series! We’re releasing a new goals-related blog post each day. And don’t miss Val’s class on how to use our prayer journals and overcome common obstacles. Sign up to get the replay here!

I just looked through my goals posts for the last 9 years (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021), and woah! What a walk down memory lane! It was fun to see things that I made goals for years ago, even semi-gave up on, and have accomplished since then! Give up soda. Do pilates. Lost weight. And then some things I’m still working on. 

It’s hard not to see God’s gracious hand at work in my life and simultaneously see my humanity and how I have limitations and struggles. I am nowhere close to perfect but so grateful God works in my life and that I am a noticeably different person than I was 9 years ago! 

So today, I’m sharing my 8 goals for 2022. I, of course, used my Powersheets to narrow down these goals! But this year I embraced a few more techniques too! 

After reading The Lazy Genius by Kendra Adachi, I attempted to see how each of her Lazy Genius principles applied to each of my goals. It really helped me to look at a goal from lots of different angles and to almost troubleshoot before the month started!

Ok, now here are my goals for 2022!

1. Create a strong family culture

Between reading Jefferson Bethke’s book Take Back Your Family and God slowly shifting my heart, I feel like I’m most excited to put my energy into this goal next year! To be honest, work often gets my most creative ideas and laser-like focus but I’ve prayed a lot for God to give me the same motivation I feel in my work in creating a home environment for our family that is more intentional. Here are a few main ways I’m planning to implement this in practical ways this year. 

• Teach boundaries – I am reading Boundaries with Kids by Henry Cloud and John Townsend and they cover 10 principles to teach kids and they are blowing my mind by, both how necessary and seemingly obvious they are, but also how I don’t actually know how to teach them to my kids. So each month, I will be taking one of the principles and focusing on teaching that to our girls.
• 3 weekly hangtimes – Ideally, we’d do this every day but we haven’t been consistent at all so I’m starting small. This was a concept from the Positive Parenting Solutions course and when we consistently do this we see a noticeable improvement in our girls! It’s basically 10 minutes in the afternoon where Tyler and I have one-on-one time with one girl and then switch. They get to pick what we do and as I said, it makes such an impact with honestly not a huge investment of time. 
• Read Hold on To Your Kids by Gabor Mate

2. Be Tyler’s best friend

This might sound weird. I mean we are, obviously, best friends, but I do feel like it’s so easy to get comfortable wanting time to myself when the girls go to bed or just talking logistics (what’s for dinner? Or even work stuff. He edits our podcast! 🙂 ) I know so many empty-nesters talk about how weird it is when the kids leave and it’s just the husband and wife again, and I want that to be a sweet time even though I know it won’t be easy altogether!

• Do the Flirtation Experiment with Lisa Jacobson and Phylicia Masonheimer that starts in January 
• Weekly meetings – I’d love to get back to this so when we do have time together in the evenings it’s fewer logistics because we’ve already discussed at the beginning of the week
• Bedtime routine – Share one good thing about our day and pray together

3. Complete the Christian Mindset Makeover (and put it into practice)

I already mentioned in the 2021 Lifechangers post about this course. It really has been so good and has brought me so much hope that I can change some of the negative thought patterns that plague me. 

• Finish the course videos and homework – I’ve stayed pretty consistent with this even with the holidays! It’s been so good! 
• Practice the 66 days of brain priming 
• Continue to use the tools I’m learning

4. Improve my heart rate variability (HRV)

As I’ve done research this year to figure out my health issues, I’ve learned about the importance of having a good HRV and I currently don’t have a great one! Low HRV is even linked to depression and anxiety. Our HRV affects so many things so I’m excited to work on it this year and even more excited that it’s so measurable. I will be able to measure this at the beginning of the year and see how my number improves. I plan to do more research but will start with the things below that I know will affect it. 

• Get tracker (any recommendations besides Oura ring and Apple Watch?) 
• Get daily sunshine 
• Focus on getting a good night’s sleep
• Cold showers 
• Controlled breathing

5. Live more offline

Yes, I’m off social for the most part but I still get on my phone too much sometimes! 😉 And if anything, being off has made me realize how nice it is being away from the noise so I desire that even more! I want to practice what Cal Newport shares about just being with my phone less. Leaving it at home when I go places, especially church, walks around the neighborhood or when I’m out with the family and Tyler still has his phone. 

• More walks around the neighborhood
• More time with my phone left on the charger in our laundry room

6. Lead a group through Pray Confidently and Consistently

I’m excited to be leading a group at my church through the book! I am equally nervous because it feels a little weird leading a group about your own book but I felt led to do it and mostly that I didn’t let my own discomfort or pride stand in the way of doing it. 

• Prepare for the group to start (pray for who will join, get books together, plan easy go-to refreshments for each week )
• Pray weekly before meeting

7. Promote Pray Confidently and Consistently as perennial seller

We forgoed pushing it really hard with our October launch in favor of focusing on how we will promote the book long-term! 

• Quarterly project or idea to promote the book
• Social media content

8. Grow healthy hair 

This will sound silly to some but I’ve already shared several times about my hair loss over the last 4 months. I can’t control it completely if it stops falling out but I can do a few things to support it.

• Daily hair, skin, nails vitamin
• Nightly head massage and Vegamour Gro+ oil 
• Air dry hair before styling
• Quarterly haircut (already scheduled these out through summer!)

There you have it! My goals for 2022! I’d love to hear in the comments what a goal you have for next year is! And if you share a blog post with your goals, definitely leave a link for us goal nerds to go check out! 🙂

COMING UP NEXT: 2022 Word of the Year

MISSED THESE?:
2021 Answered Prayers
2021 Goals Recap
2021 Reads
2021 Lifechangers