2023 Goals & Intentions

Well here we are again, the beginning of a new year and I’ve got some goals to get. Without further ado, here are my 2023 Goals & Intentions.

So the first thing I do when planning out my goals for a new year is to do an audit on life categories based on the year before. I score them from 1 – 10. 10 means I feel like I accomplished all my goals and feel really good about this life category. 1 means I’m struggling in this life category, or I want to achieve certain things I haven’t yet tackled or it’s important to improve this life category. So here is how I scored my life categories in 2022.

Life Category Audit for 2022

Based on this audit, I know that I’ll want to focus on Travel and Leisure first in 2023. From there I looked at all the categories I ranked as a 6 and then prioritized them just based on a gut feeling of where I wanted to focus. I’ll start with Career, Couple, Friendships, Health, Fitness, and then Spiritual/Stress Management. And then to round out the remainder of my life category focus in 2023 I have Nutrition, Home, Family, and then Financial.

My Intentions for 2023

The next step I do is to decide how I want to feel in different areas of my life. I choose 4-5 words and these become my core desired feelings for the year. I search on Pinterest for “Core Desired Feelings Library” and look through the different images there. When words stick out to me I write them down beside a life category on a blank sheet of paper. From there I circled a few that really resonated with me. And these 4 words stuck out to me this year. Wonder, Connected, Energized, and Enriched.

Wonder – when I was looking at my life categories and scoring how I felt about them in 2022, travel scored the lowest. This makes sense as I was landlocked to Canada for a while and it just wasn’t a priority with young kids. It’ll be a top focus for me in 2023 so I want to feel WONDER wherever I travel next year AND in how I approach my hobbies and self-development.

Energized – When it comes to my health, fitness, stress management, and nutrition I want to feel ENERGIZED. From the ways that I move my body, to what goals I’m tackling to optimize my health to how I’m nourishing my body. This also applies to how I approach my career, how I tackle stress management and my spiritual relationship with God.

Enriched – When it comes to relationships I want to feel ENRICHED by them. From friendships that I’m nurturing to the people, we surround ourselves with. My husband and I sat down and wrote out a value statement about community together. We want to feel safe & ENRICHED by the families we surround ourselves with. They are focused on wellness, curiosity & being heart-led. They are living an active outdoor lifestyle where everyone prioritizes play, feeling connected, and supporting one another.

Connected – When it comes to my family and my husband I want to feel CONNECTED. I want us to always feel present with each other. I value being present & connected through monthly & weekly planning, date nights, daily walks, and family time.

2023 Goals By Life Category

So after I decide on my core desired feelings for the year, I plan out my 2023 goals by life category.

I organize my life category goals in the order that I outlined above. After I look at my goals, I map the ones that are time bound to a calendar and then fill in the gaps based on the short or long-term goals I’ve set for the year. This allows me to see if everything is doable or if I’ve bitten off more than I can chew. Finally, I’ll reverse engineer the larger goals in Asana like I’m project managing a marketing campaign at work 🙂

Travel

Pre-kids, I had set a goal to always take 2 trips a year. I’ve always loved taking one adventure-based trip and one relaxing trip a year. This past year, on a retreat I took in October, we did a values reset program and wrote values statements for different areas of our lives. As I was writing down all the things that were important for travel and couple, I wrote down that I would really value going on a trip with Mike every year. I announced loudly to the group that I didn’t understand why honeymoons are reserved for only after a wedding so I decided Mike and I deserve a honeymoon trip every year. This goal is now built into my couple value statement.

So here are the trips we’re thinking of taking or have already booked:

1 Adventure Trip – we want to go back to Vancouver Island with the babes (traveling with the twins is an adventure) and this time maybe I’ll be able to go surfing in Tofino (which I haven’t done for years!) So traveling with kids and a sport combines two types of adventures.

1 Relaxing Trip – There are a few Web3 events in Lisbon later in the year so I’m thinking of drawing a work trip out and bringing Mike so we can do a relaxing trip in Portugal and then maybe Spain where a girlfriend of mine owns a house.

1 Honeymoon – We’ve got a week booked at a resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic at the end of February so we can escape the winter and get some sun therapy. We’re going back to a resort that I’ve already been to. Mike and I actually haven’t been to a resort on our own so I’m excited.

Other than those planned trips there is one work trip that I’m thinking of taking to Austin, Texas for the Consensus convention.

Leisure

In 2022, I created a self-reliance challenge for myself. I loved learning one new self-reliant skill a month so I’m continuing this challenge into 2023. I’ve put it under my leisure life category because it encompasses a few hobbies as well. I’ll share more in a post about the challenge but here are the skills or things I’m thinking of learning this year or continuing to learn.

Self-Development

In addition, to the self-reliance challenge which is also a form of self-development, I’m also challenging myself to a resilience challenge.

Resilience Definition: The capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.

And while I believe myself to be a very resilient person, having endured several tough life moments. I also recognize that I struggled with stress management in the last few years. And while I’m giving myself grace, I thought I could challenge myself to one thing a month to build physical and emotional resilience.

Here are some of the things I’m thinking about doing:

I’ll of course share more in a separate post and document both challenges on my Instagram.

Career

I definitely have diversified interests when it comes to earning an income.

In 2022, I started a full-time contract role with a US Web3 marketing agency and product studio. I’m really lucky in the role that I have and I’m hoping to continue my web3 knowledge and marketing skills. I’d also like to explore taking on at least 1 client as a fractional CMO in my “spare time” outside of a 9-5 to diversify my income further.

As a side hustle, I’ve loved building my dōTERRA business for the past 6 years and will continue to build this business. Over the past few years, I’ve had a few business partners and customers churn so I’ve set a goal for myself to rebuild my business to the level that I experienced previously as a Premier and then Silver.

My husband and I also incorporated a business in 2021 but we haven’t gotten it off the ground running yet. We have been looking for the perfect property to make it happen on. We’ll hold off property searching in the winter and resume the search this spring.

As a published author I think I’m ready to publish my next book. An idea that popped into my head this past year was a jointly published book with several authors. I’d like to publish a book all about Autoimmune Thrivers and showcase their stories of diagnosis, healing, and thriving.

Additionally, I’ve always wanted to publish my own planner. I’ve been dreaming up formats and I think I’m ready to bring this project to fruition in 2023.

And last but not least, I’m ready to monetize my writing. So I’m hosting a substack newsletter focused on documenting my resilience and self-reliance challenges.

Couple

I’d like to re-focus on scheduling a weekly date night because it’s important for me to connect with Mike on a consistent basis. I also want to create the space for us to plan our months and weeks in a way where we feel supported and aligned in taking care of our family.

Because I use Asana daily I’ve been experimenting with using it more and more for my personal life. I’ve scheduled several monthly recurring tasks for myself on the 1st of every month. When it comes to Mike and me the tasks include:

• Schedule Weekly Date Nights
• Schedule Monthly & Weekly Planning Meetings

Friendships

It’s important to me to plan time on a monthly basis to connect with key friendships to kindle connection and mutual support.

When I was building the eBook for my Meta Healing Program I included this image from dōTERRA’s MetaPWR launch materials. These are 5 things we can do to improve our metabolic health. And while I am doing a great job in the healthy eating, daily movement, and smart supplementation areas of my life I know I need to improve upon stress management and healthy connections. So this is where monthly friendship dates play a role.

In addition to improving my metabolic health, it’s a value of mine to feel enriched by the relationships and people around me. So here’s to more consistent friend dates in 2023. I’ve also incorporated into the resilience challenge, one month where I’ll be booking weekly friend dates. However, over the course of the year, I’ll be prioritizing getting one friendship date on the calendar every month.

I’ve also set a monthly recurring task for myself in Asana to “Schedule Monthly Friendship Date” on the 1st of the month.

Health

I took some time this month to reflect on my “health goals” or the things that I’m working on healing in my health or things I’m looking to optimize. I’m conscious of language and how some verbiage can be triggering to some. I’ve been working with a Naturopath, an Ayurveda Practitioner, and a Nutritionist over the past year. I love understanding different modalities and taking tips and tricks from each to take care of myself holistically.

You’ll hear in the wellness industry to avoid language around “fixing” oneself as it then implies that we see our body as broken. I like to think about it as something that we need to oil before it breaks. My body is not broken but it sure is yelling at me. Things are squeaky and need attention.

Here are 7 things I’m looking to heal / optimize / or whatever language is appropriate and doesn’t trigger a wellness practitioner to DM me 😉

1. Reduce Iron Overload
2. Rebalance Minerals
3. Lower Oxidative Stress
4. Keep Liver Enzymes Low
5. Rebalance Hormones (Estrogen Dominance & Low Progesterone)
6. Heal Facial Acne

So many things are interwoven. I received multiple iron transfusions after the birth of the twins in 2020 which led to high liver enzymes which has steamrolled into an iron overload (that I was probably already dealing with pre-pregnancy). After doing multiple tests in 2022 from a DUTCH test to a hair mineral analysis to a full monty blood panel we discovered mineral imbalances, high oxidative stress markers, and a hormone imbalance.

So with smart supplementation, lifestyle changes, and nutrition, I’ll be continuing to support my body in optimizing my health this year. I will share more on this in-depth as I work through the healing.

Fitness

I want to continue to be consistent with at least 4 workouts a week. And potentially upgrade to 5 workouts a week if that feels good for my body. I will continue with weekly yoga classes and daily walks with Mike and the dogs.

I’ve also scheduled a weekly recurring task in Asana to schedule my weekly workouts and book my weekly yoga class on Sunday nights. I already have 4 weekly workouts scheduled in my calendar for 5:30 am 4 days a week but on Sunday I’ll figure out which workout I’m going to do so I don’t have to think about it at 5 am in the morning.

Spiritual / Stress Management

I’ve got a really good stress management toolkit. However, as with most things if I’m not consistent with my tools how I react to external stress takes a toll on me. I rated this category a 6 in 2022 because I struggled to maintain consistency. I prioritized extra sleep in the morning or scrolling Instagram before my morning workouts instead of quiet time for myself. So here are 5 things I’m prioritizing in 2023.

Here are two things I will do on a daily basis:

• Morning Meditation
• Journaling

And here are two things I will do a few times a week:

• Epsom Salts Baths
• Infrared Sauna

And here is one thing I’m committed to doing once a week:

• Weekly Group Therapy

Nutrition

When it comes to nutrition and food, Mike and I wrote out a shared value statement. We value that at least 90% of our meals are farm-to-table. I love being able to purchase and support local farmers directly. We also value giving our kids treats so they don’t feel restricted in our way of eating. We are really proud of how we nourish our family.

And because of this, I want to work on creating a farm connection event or farm connection community where customers can easily connect with and learn how to support local farmers in a sustainable way for their lifestyles. This might include a map with a clear indication of what products are available locally for purchase, what days farms are open to in-person buying, what farmer’s markets they attend, and when and potentially even a way for consumers to trade volunteer time for produce. Lots to think about here but my wheels are turning on this one.

Home

There is not much more to do to make our house a home. I only have a few items left on the honey-do list. Mike should be happy to read that. The main one I’d really love to have completed this coming year is to have living room built-ins installed.

And I want to finally outsource cleaning our home. For me, having a clean and tidy home is in direct support of my stress management. So I’m going to prioritize that financially this year.

Family

When it comes to our family, we value making memories through seasonal bucket lists. We spend time together eating, learning, playing, adventuring, and in quiet moments together. We grow relationships individually within the family.

So for 2023, we’ll create a winter bucket list to tackle and then a summer one. We’ll also prioritize, at least twice a month, a mommy-son date / daddy-daughter date and then a mommy-daughter date / daddy-son date. This is important to us so that our kids get dedicated time with one parent as our attention is always pulled in different directions constantly when we’re all together.

Financial

Financially we are doing really well so I’d like to focus on at least 6% annual growth in our investments. And then plan for a few projects or purchases that require a sizeable investment like purchasing a generator for the home as a part of the self-reliant challenge. Mike is also working towards his pilot’s license so I want to ensure he has the financial means and support to achieve that.

I have also scheduled a recurring task monthly to review our investments as I could do a much better job at looking at them more frequently.

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What are some of your 2023 goals?