I hope to reflect on my one little word throughout the year. As I mentioned in a previous post, my one little word for 2014 is intentional.

So far, I have been more intentional with how I spend my time. I’m doing a better job of balancing the running around with the sitting still, and my sitting still time is spent on much more rewarding activities.

I barely watch television anymore, and I’ve pretty much abandoned online shopping (gasp!). I have seriously limited wardrobe space, so my online shopping mostly consisted of window-shopping as a way to unwind at the end of the day. I would open a tab with my teacher email account, then window-shop as I waited for emails.

Now that I’ve gotten more involved in the She Reads Truth community and started taking classes through the Influence Network, I’m making my time online much more worthwhile and rewarding. I’m finding real inspiration, and I love that. Last week, I attended the Influence Network class “So You Want to Quit the Internet?” with Heather Boersma, and it helped me see different ways to take control of my online life–what websites I use, how I use them, and even how to filter out the negative and focus on the positive. It was such a great class!

Being more intentional has also helped me with an important resolution of mine: leaving work at work. At the end of the school day, I look forward to coming home and decompressing by spending a limited amount of time online (and knowing that time is well spent). I no longer open that teacher email tab. My school’s policy is to respond to emails within 48 hours, so I don’t know why I was so intent on responding within 5 minutes! Instead, I get to school a little earlier than I used to, and I respond to emails from the night before during that time. It’s so much better for helping me leave work at work.

I’d still like to be more intentional with my weekend time. I’m struggling with not planning every minute so that I have some time to relax but also not feeling guilty if I get lost in a book for 3 hours and don’t get every load of laundry done.

Right now, I’m working on taking my list of resolutions and using it to help me create goals and a vision statement for the year. Last week, I attended another Influence Network class called “Casting Vision for Your Best Year Yet” by Hayley Morgan, and it was great inspiration for this. I spent Saturday morning at Starbucks with my Bible, my Lara Casey PowerSheets, and my notes from Hayley’s class. I also referred to Katie’s book An Inspired Life about a million times–especially chapter 5! It was a wonderful morning of thinking and praying about setting my goals for this year while listening for His guidance.

Creating goals and writing a vision statement has helped me take my resolutions to a new level. They now have a greater purpose than simply helping me to be more organized or timely. Don’t get me wrong; those are great reasons to have resolutions! Who doesn’t want to be more organized or timely? I just feel like I need something with a bit more weight to help motivate me, and I think having a vision statement that I’ve really put time, thought, and prayer into is great for this. I plan to post my vision statement soon, so stay tuned!

How are you doing with your one little word? Any vision statements or goals out there? I’d love to hear about your visions for 2014!