January 10, 2025 was Quitter’s Day. This is the day when traditionally people give up on their New Year’s resolutions. We’ve already noticed the crowd decreasing at the gym. But in this house, we aren’t quitters, we are intentional about setting big, but attainable goals and we are determined to make them happen.
My husband and I have been discussing our 2025 goals for months already, so that is one way to make your goal setting effective. We joked about wanting to be big losers, but flipping that to a positive statement, we are going to make some great gains happen.
The first area where we are working to make gains is in the depth of our spiritual lives. We are pursuing God at a new level this year. We’ve started with the 40 Day Sugar Fast, not just to detox after the holidays but to see spiritual transformation as we seek God to satisfy that need for sweetness in our lives. We have been developing new quiet time habits of individual time with God in the mornings, and ending the day together with devotions and prayer. Studying the Bible and taking in sound Biblical teaching as well as engaging in worship in our daily lives is already showing benefits after a short time. God has very good things in store!
Our second area to make great gains is financially. No, we probably won’t get rich enough to retire this year, but we are going to finish paying our last debt in the next few months and then start racking up savings for our future. I turned 60 years old in 2024 and we are ready to retire to work more in ministry as well as spend more time with family and friends. To accomplish this goal to gain financial freedom we have taken on the no buy year challenge. We’ve set our guidelines, and I’m using my Happy Planner for visual tracking and motivation. So far, it’s going great, and I’ll dive into those guidelines in my next post.
The next area to make great gains is in our weight health and physical strength. I’ve been on the WW program for over 11 years, and my husband for about 8 months (officially). With my recovery from surgery and the holidays, this was paused somewhat, but we are back working the program and seeing results already. During recovery I spent some time looking at new recipes in the WW app and in my many cookbooks to give us some variety and new flavours to enjoy. I am happy to be back in the kitchen for short spurts of time in a day and able to do some meal prep. My husband does the grocery shopping and most of the chopping. Working the program together makes us stronger.
My husband joined Planet Fitness in December, before Christmas and with his membership, I can accompany him as a guest for no charge. I don’t have access to all the amenities but we are staying in our no buy guidelines. Again, we get to go together, which we both enjoy. I’m starting slow as I’m just regaining strength I’ve lost, but we want to ensure we are healthy and strong as we age.
The final 2025 goal we are going after is gaining space and peace in our home by decreasing our possessions. We are looking to decrease by one-third to one-half of our belongings in various areas. There are things that don’t serve us any more that can serve someone else. There is so much paper that can be recycled. Lots of donations have left the house already and I will summarize our success at the end of the month. Some decisions have been really hard, but once made, we have no regrets.
One of the huge benefits in this is for our marriage. We’ve been blessed with a great marriage and we love to spend time together. We work for the same organization, we minister in our church together, we go to the gym and attend WW workshops together. Making goals and implementing the steps to achieve them together makes us even stronger. In the past few months as we’ve been planning this out, God has blessed us with an amazing season in our marriage, so we know we are on the right track.
So don’t give up on your 2025 goals. Even if you succumbed to Quitter’s Day, or have started talking negatively to yourself about your potential to succeed, jump in again, where you are. Just because we are in mid-January doesn’t mean that the time to set and pursue goals has expired. It is a new day, and a great day to make some gains in your life!
I’ll be posting updates along the way, whether successes or setbacks. We are real people and life happens to us too. It won’t be perfect and definitely not easy to achieve all our goals, but with God’s help and guidance, we will get there!
Seasons with Grace 