NEW YEAR, NEW GOALS: Looking Toward 2024

Happy end-of-the-year, Taylor Lately fam. If you’ve been around since 2015, you will have noticed a decline in my blog posting over the last four years (mainly due to the birth of my 3 children) and this year took the biggest hit. I think my last published blog post was in October and I’m so sorry for the unintentional hiatus. 3 babies in 4 years has been kicking my butt. 😉 When I sat down to write this and began going over my goals from this year and what I actually accomplished professionally…it hurt a little bit. This has been my slowest, least professionally productive year I’ve ever had in the 9 years I’ve been on the internet. But, in complete transparency, I needed this break and I am so freaking excited to come back in 2024 with new, fresh content. Let’s dive into this years recap.

NEW YEAR, NEW GOALS: Looking Toward 2024

Every year, I choose a new word of the year. In 2022, it was align. In 2023, it was purpose. And for 2024? My word is: clarity.

Clarity

noun: clar·i·ty | /ˈklerədē/

1. the quality of being certain or definite.

This year, I spent the majority year pregnant after finding out we were expecting our third child in January, and then the rest of the year postpartum with Alice and I really lost my work drive in lieu of settling into my life as a young mother of three kids under four. That said – I miss working. It’s SUCH a huge part of who I am and I miss regularly creating content for you guys and my brain WILL NOT stop swimming with ideas for the new year. Clarity really stood out to me this year as I navigate life working, creating and mothering.

Let’s go back to last year’s goals and see how we did:

1. Hit our savings account goal. This unfortunately did not happen. We had some bigger expenses come up, as well as a high risk pregnancy with extensive monitoring, so while we did increase our savings account, we didn’t hit our overall goal.
2. Begin the hunt for a new house – and potentially purchase! Ooof. We dropped this goal this past spring. We simply didn’t have the bandwidth with a new baby on the way to also add a move in to the year. Plus, we wanted to get our bank account ready for all the extra expenses that come along with it.
3. Read 8 books / month. I ALMOST hit this – but I ended up averaging about 7 books a month vs 8. But I did end up hitting my overall book goal, so I’m going to count this one.
4. Increase overall business revenue. This…this ended up being my lowest year in the 9 years of me running my business. It was VERY humbling to say the least. I want so badly to tell you that I thrived being pregnant and postpartum with our third and increased my business revenue at the same time, but I didn’t. I took the time off instead.
5. Get pregnant with our third (+ final) baby. Alice Catherine Mobley completed our family in September. We are so lucky and obsessed with her.
6. Create a better and more consistent work routine. Welp. Nope on this one. If anything, it was my least consistent work year so far. Maybe next year!

Hear are my goals for 2024:

1. Make consistent income again in 2024. My passive income actually increased last year, but the bulk of my income went waaaay down due to being pregnant and delivering my daughter. This year, there will be no pregnancy or newborn in my future so consistency should be something I can put back on my plate.
2. Hit our savings account goal. This is our third year in a row of a certain savings account goal for us. We don’t feel comfortable upgrading into a new house until we hit that number so we are really hopeful to make this happen for us!!
3. Read 85 books. I hit this pretty easily this year, and it seemed like a good amount of reading that didn’t feel overwhelming.
4. Consistent work and childcare routine.
5. Workout 3-4 times a week.