How to Plan for an Intentional Year

Want to plan for an intentional year? Check out these tips and make sure to get the printable guide.

It is the time of the year when we are starting to think about the upcoming year and what we are hopeful for. I love the start of a new year. Opening a crisp planner, and thinking through rhythms and goals always is exciting for me.

As we plan for an intentional year, I wanted to share some tips to help us end this year well and prep for the upcoming year.

Make sure to download the Intentional Year Guide to help you work through these questions!

How to Plan for an Intentional Year

First, we need to take time to reflect on the past year.

There are a couple of questions you can ask yourself:

What worked well this past year?

What worked well for you? Think through rhythms you had that cared for your whole self: physically, spiritually, and emotionally.
If you are married, what worked well in your marriage?
What worked well with your kids?

What did not work well?

What did not work well for you?
What is not working well in your marriage?
What needs work on with your kids?

What was the fruit from the past year?

It is so good to take time to reflect on the good from the past year.

A helpful way to remember the good is to open your phone and go back to January 2022 in photos, then go through the photos and write down highlights from each month. We also love using the tradition of a memory jar to help us remember the good.

Second, let’s focus on preparing for the new year.

This is where you would set some intentions or goals for the year.

We are going to work through the different areas of your life.

Preparing goals for yourself

A doctor once shared with my husband and me to view ourselves as a three-leg stool.

One leg- physical
One leg- emotional/mental
One leg- spiritual

These are the three areas of your personal care that you need to focus on.

A stool with a wobbly leg won’t function well and the same goes for ourselves.

We want to be able to take care of our families so in order to do that, we must take care of ourselves.

Take time to evaluate each of these areas in your life to see how you are doing. Look back at what you had said was going well for you and not going well for you.

Then take time to make some simple goals for each area.

For Example:

Physically: Move my body every day, drink X about of water daily

Emotionally: What are things that you can to do take care of yourself emotionally? Read, time with friends, etc.

Spiritually: How will you care for yourself spiritually? Doing a Bible study or Youversion plan are some great ways.

If you choose a word for the year, this is a great time to think through that. I like to pray about what word I should choose. I usually read through some to get some ideas. Once I pick one, I find a verse of support for it.

Preparing goals for your marriage

How are you feeling about your marriage? Go back to what you wrote was working well in your marriage and what was not.

Set some simple goals for your marriage: date night, pray daily, etc, weekend away. Consider picking a verse to pray over your marriage for the year.

Preparing goals for your kids.

What is going well in parenting? Where are you struggling? Do you need to find additional support or resources? What do you hope to see grow in your child this year?

Set some simple goals for your kids. These may be things you want to do with your kids, monthly dates with your kids, etc.

Pick a Bible verse to pray over your kids this year.

Make sure to download the Intentional Year Guide!

Our final step in preparing for an intentional year is to think through family traditions.

Write down all twelve months on a sheet of paper. Under each month, add any important birthdays or events. Then add in the holidays and any traditions you want to implement each month. This piece of paper will give you a glimpse of the traditions and moments you want to make sure happen this year.

Get the printable guide to help you plan for an intentional year

Are you ready to plan for an intentional year?

We all know that the years fly by. While some days feel like bedtime will never come, in general, it feels like time is flying by. We have the great privilege of being moms. We are raising up the future generation. This is an incredible task. It can feel overwhelming and hard a lot of the time, but it also is so rewarding and fulfilling. It is so important that we take care of ourselves so that we can love our families well. Take some time to work through the questions I shared and prep for your intentional year!