If you know me at all, you know I’m a planner. I like to cross things off of a to-do list, to be in control, and to set big goals at the beginning of each year. (You can see my optimistic goals for 2020 here).

This year, when I sat down to lay out my goals for 2021, I went blank. I felt completely unmotivated to commit to anything more than “make 2021 better than 2020.”

I’m sure some of that is exhaustion from surviving last year – something I wasn’t always sure we would do. I’ll be honest, as a family, we really struggled. A complete loss of childcare for 5+ months, the uneasiness of the political environment in our country, cancellations of all plans, the stress of the pandemic, worrying about our parents, rescheduling dozens of weddings and sessions, questioning our usually-stable income flow, etc. put a lot of stress on us. Thankfully we are doing much better now, and are in a much healthier place than we were. Still, we remember how difficult it was!

Some of my hesitations are probably based on the uncertainty of what 2021 holds. When will this be over? Will one of us catch Covid before then? Should we send Jack to school? Will my clients be okay? Can we go to XYZ? Is it safe? Can we afford to do this or that? Is it safe to plan a trip then? Questions we ALL have, I’m sure.

So instead of committing to anything huge or ground-breaking, I decided to keep my goals for the year simple.

Here are a few of the things I’m hoping to achieve in 2021.

• Move my body
• Clean out the clutter in our house
• Hug friends (once it’s safe to do so)
• Get vaccinated
• Reserve Sundays as family days
• Remember that if we can make it through 2020, we can make it through anything
• Say no to things that don’t bring me joy
• Try to read more books
• Shoot more film because I love it and it fills my CUP
• DATE NIGHTS (once it’s safe again to do so)

What about you? Are you setting big goals this year, or just keeping things simple?

Photos by Erin Wilson, a dear and talented friend.