A new year feels like starting over, like a fresh new page.

It always gives me hope and excitement!

There’s so much possibility, things I can’t wait to do, learn, travel to, sign my family up for and more.

In January, I sat down to think about what I wanted for this year, for my family, my boys, my business, and my health.

Here’s the thing friend, if you aren’t doing this, and you read and follow my blog, I want you to do this. It doesn’t have to be a month-long exercise or even a day. Just an hour, or during your walk or even now as you are reading my blog.

This is a scary fact, but more than 80% of people don’t think about our goals, and even less write down one single thing you want to accomplish or see happen.

So if this isn’t your habit, I’d love for you to read this article and leave a comment at the end.

As I started writing down what I wanted to accomplish, I realized I had not even looked back at what I did in 2019!

I was just charging full speed ahead into the “next thing” like I usually do.

Last year, in 2019 I invested in this snazzy software that helped map out all our goals, tasks and to-dos.

So in an effort to see what worked and what didn’t, I took a look at my last year’s goals.

There was amazing news, and then some really bad news.

The great news – I accomplished A LOT of things on my list! More than half!

Especially the ones that were related to family, organizing, travel and making my business serve more incredible clients such as yourselves.

I wished I had looked at this in December and celebrated, because it was a lot!

So what was the bad news?

Here’s where I totally bombed.

I completely abandoned other goals that were on my list. Meaning, I didn’t even touch them or start them, forget about finishing them.

Some of these affected our family’s income, so I was really disappointed in myself.

The one that upset my hubby the most was I didn’t “finish” our own home.

“Just finish it, select what you want, don’t worry about the budget”, said no husband ever! Except mine did last year to get me going.

I’m like the cobbler, and his kids with no shoes.

The last thing I wanted to do when I got home was design more!

I’m sure if you’ve gone through a renovation, a new build, or rebuild after something like Harvey you can relate, you get project fatigue!

It was on my list of projects to accomplish, so why didn’t I accomplish it? Apart from the house fatigue?

This was my BIG mistake, where I really bombed and what I’m changing in 2020.

I committed to too many projects.

While it felt amazing to see I had accomplished so much, it felt equally bad to see I had not even started other goals.

So I went over my list with a planning expert, and here was her feedback.

I had committed to too many projects. No matter how big a family, or company there are only so many things everyone can focus on.

Last year, I started 10 different projects, all of which were pretty huge. There were over 585+ to dos under those projects!

What should I have done?

Committed to 3 maybe up to 5 goals (at the most) for the year.

The second lesson I can share with you, after writing it down is to commit to no more than 3 projects in a year.

If you like Hercules (like me ) 5 is the max!

Here is where the b-word, balance came in and took over last year. In my heart of hearts, I want to enjoy my work, enjoy my family time, not be distracted by texts and emails, enjoy creating, enjoy time with friends and family, enjoy travel time and more.

So that inner desire pushed out the extra stuff old Amitha would have forged on through.

With the help of that inner voice, not having the time to do it all, and guidance from a coach I’m cutting back on my big dreams and committing to 3-4 BIG goals this year.

How can you use this same tip?

An easy way to do this is to take on one big project a quarter. For instance this quarter, which is from January – March, you can work on organizing your pantry or your holiday decor.

Next quarter, you might finish a guest room design.

The following quarter, might be to spruce up your dining room so it’s ready for the fall.

Last quarter – arrange holiday photos, travel, decor, and thoughtful gifts.

Does this make sense?

Tip 3:

A third tip I can share with you while your creative juices are flowing is to put down your goals as it relates to the different parts of your life. So I wrote down goals in these categories:

Mom

Wife

Entrepreneur

Daughter

Friend

I could see when I did this, I had to cut down, or rather push some things out in the Entrepreneur category because it would have taken over the other categories.

Tip 4:

The last thing I did was to write out my goals, both personal and work in a column with the months listed out.

This immediately helped me see my busy months, and my slower months so I could move things around to actually accomplish them.

For example, there’s no way I can finish a home renovation starting in November when that is our busiest time at Village Antiques!

Being a very visual person, this was a super helpful tool for me!

So how about you friend? Are there 4 things that you want to accomplish this year?

If not 4, how about one?

Leave a comment in our comments section and let us know.

I always say, if it’s not written down, it’s not real.

I will be very honest, I know it’s hard to declare your goals and intentions, they may just come true. So I’ll start and then you can go too.

Amitha’s Goals

Goal 1: Finish renovating our Old Home.

For those of you that don’t know, hubby Bobby and our boys Rohan, and Dayven, live in a 69 year old home. Imagine a classic colonial style home, that’s us.

Rohan 11, Hubby Bobby, Myself, and Dayven 9

The trend in town is to tear down these old homes and build a new one, but for some reason hubby and I just can’t do it. We love this old home.

This home has taught us so many lessons on authenticity, passion, determination, love, family and friendship, we just can’t bear to destroy it. Although it already looks old, I want to make it look and feel even older, and add even more comfort and warmth into this home.

After one of the floods, I went all in on colors and finishes that inspired our family. It was a start, and I want to do even more of that with unique fabrics, art and wallpaper.

Only I ran out of energy and never finished my own renovation. I feel terrible.

I didn’t finish two bathrooms and many small but needed additions such as lighting, mirrors in the bathrooms (yes, shame on me), landscaping, a playroom, the design for my boys room, lamps, bedding, artwork and more.

So I’m publicly declaring I will finish this project, or get 80% closer to finishing in 2020.

Goal 2: Continue to serve even more amazing clients such yourself. Learning more about what you need, and broaden our product offering to help you finish your home, including more and different types of furniture and home decor products, and launch additional DIY home makeover paint products. Make these amazing products available to people all over the United States. Become the national brand we want to be, be published in leading design publications, and appear regularly on nationwide television with award winning quality work.

Goal 3: Share much more of my projects with you, behind the scenes and tips, especially in video format! I heard your feedback, and know you love the videos (thank you for that!)

This is where I should stop but I can’t help but have an extra wishful goal.

This is not a top priority because I’m sticking to 3 projects, that was one of my lessons learned in 2019.

Not a top priority but gearing my mind towards this, if and only if I have spare time:

Goal 4: Start writing a book to share with you the journey of renovating my home and the amazing lessons I learned from it.

Phew, that was kind of tough but also exciting!

This is a first for me, publicly sharing all our goals. I hope if anything it inspires you to find something you want to reach this year.

Now, I’m accountable!Ask me every time you see me!

I can’t wait to see what you want to do this year.

Till the next time we meet, keep making your home amazing with your design skills, just do from the heart.

With love,

Amitha