My 23 for 2023 List – Let's Live and Learn

This is my year of being intentional.

I’m tired of letting my life fly by year after year without doing all the things that I’ve been meaning to do for years.

Things like: playing and creating more, treating my body well, spending quality time with my family, spending less time on my phone and more time in the present.

No more holding myself back- this is the year that I intentionally learn to live a life I love.

This post is sharing my 23 goals for 2023. A few notes:

1. I likely won’t do this ALL, but I like to think of goals like a road map– even if I don’t reach the destination, I often end up closer than if I didn’t start the car 😉

2. I like using sticky notes for my goals because SO much can change in one year. Pandemics can happen, pregnancies, illnesses, moves, etc. Sticky notes allow me the flexibility to change my mind. In fact, this year I even added a page of “plan b” goals that I can switch around as necessary.

Here are the rest of my 23 for 2023 goals, a little about them if they need an explanation & how I will keep track of them, if applicable.

Family & home related goals:

Monthly dates: This year we gifted our kids with a family adventure for each month. Additionally, I’d love to go on 12 one on one dates with each of my boys, including my husband 😉 Some of the dates with my husband may have to be at home dates, but I’m looking forward to spending intentional time together either way.

Start four traditions: I’m not naturally “traditionally minded”, but I want to establish a few special traditions that my kids can look forward to every year and can eventually look back on with fond memories.

Doodle a day: This is a way to memory keep that I first saw from Nicole (@beginathome). Each day she had her son write or draw a favorite part of their day on a calendar. It makes a fun keepsake and is a great way to focus on making memories. We started doing it in February 2020, but we all know what happened the following month…I’m excited to restart now that he is a little bit older.

Visit 23 new parks: We just moved to a new (much bigger!) city and are excited to explore all the parks and playgrounds!

Record 12 “Day in the Life” videos: I don’t know if I will necessarily post them to social media, but I’d love to have ordinary days documented for my own sake. I did one several years ago and I still like looking back on it.

House to Haven: I am making a new House to Haven notebook and want to do one small project or task each week to care for our home.

Daily processing: This idea comes from @minnethriftco. She shares almost daily the things entering and leaving her home and I love watching what an intentional gatekeeper she is. I plan on using this tracker, which was inspired by another IG friend Sarah (@sarah_ellen_bbgr).

Health related goals:

52 week Peloton streak: I want to ride the Peloton a minimum of one day a week…but every week this year! The Peloton app will keep track of this for me.

Work up to an average of 10K steps a day: I think that walking is one of the most underrated ways to be active. It’s low impact, easy to for all ability levels and is sustainable for the long run! I’ll use my Garmin watch to track this.

2 or less rest days in a row: I want to make fitness a consistent part of my life again this year. To help build this habit I’m going to aim for no more than two days “off” in a row. I’ll use this yearly habit tracker:

SSSSS: SSSSS stands for: soup, smoothie, salad, scramble or sandwich. I want to eat healthier this year, which means more fruits and veggies. These are five ways that are easy to add in a bunch of produce. I’m going to aim to eat at least one a day and pack it full of as much good stuff as possible 😉 I’ll be tracking it on the other side of my yearly habit tracker.

Lose 23 pounds: self explanatory 😉 (I know talking about weightloss is kind of taboo these days and it’s not that I dislike my body or think that being bigger is bad…it’s that I know I have NOT been making any sort of healthy decisions lately and that I am about 40 pounds heavier than my “normal” weight as a result.) I have some free weight loss trackers that I’ll be using.

Practice intuitive eating: I know I just talked about losing weight, but I really want to try and do it WITHOUT going on a diet. I’ve done a lot of diets in my lifetime and 0 of them have worked longterm. I’m ready to relearn how to listen to, and trust, my body.

100 foods: I heard of the idea of introducing “100 foods before 1” in a Facebook group and thought it might be fun to try with my last baby. Feeding babies isn’t my favorite part of parenthood and honestly I’m hoping it might make it a little more fun. I also had the idea of turning it into a friendly “competition” and encouraging her big brothers to join in. One of them in particular is a VERY selective eater, so maybe this will help expand his palette? I printed off these basic 100 charts and they will get a sticker with every food tried.

Cook & bake 23 new recipes: With a newborn and our big move, we have been eating out (or eating quick convenience meals like frozen pizza) more than I ever have in my life. I’m hoping this will encourage me to get back into the kitchen.

Goals for me:

2023 unplugged hours: I’m tired of wasting so much time aimlessly scrolling on my phone. I’m hoping that this will challenge me to break the bad habit.

23 blog posts: I really enjoy blogging but it has fallen on the back burner with so much happening in our life (and the world) these past few years. I want to get back to posting regularly.

Make a new friend: Like I said, we just moved and I’m hoping to find a great new friend or two in our new city.

23 in 2023: I originally heard of this idea from Paige (@stylethislife)- the idea is to only buy 23 items of clothing for the year, which encourages you to make intentional and thoughtful purchases. I tried (& failed miserably last year). Turns out pregnancy and postpartum wasn’t the time to try a challenge like this. But I’m feeling ready to take it on this year!

Read 23 books (that I already own): I’ve read about 45 books the last few years BUT my bookshelf is still FULL of books that I haven’t read (like 90% of them…) So this year I want to really limit the books I buy and read the ones I already have.

Journal consistently: Journaling is something that really brings me joy and I’ve loved doing since I could write. Lately the fear of imperfection has kept me from showing up.

Complete 12 projects: I’m notorious for coming up with lots of great ideas…and then never doing them. This year I want to do the dang things. Big or small, I’m going to aim for one project a month.