First off lets start with a Happy New Year!  What's January without talking about goals right?  I am really into goals and am always setting and working towards something. I don't always reach them but I am working hard (and aim to continue to do this in 2015) at never giving up on those goals that I both really important to me and AND really difficult to achieve.  One of the big things that I am reminding myself of throughout the year ahead is to not expect perfection, but instead look for progress.  I expect a lot from myself but over the past few months, I have been reminding myself of God's grace and its place in my life.

Earlier this week I wrote a post about my overall goals for 2015 which you can find here. One of the actions that I have decided on doing to help keep me accountable and focused on this list is breaking them down by month and then sharing them and my progress here.

This is what January looks like for me:

1. Reach my daily Fitbit steps goal 25 times this month.   I have done a lot of thinking about this one and I have come to the conclusion that in order to succeed I need to start where I am. I currently work from home a lot or travel far distances for work so unless I go to Zumba, my daily steps are between 1,400 and 2,800.  For January my goal is to do 5,000 steps.  From there I will increase it monthly depending on how things go.  I plan to track this particular goal in my planner which I am hoping to share with you all in a post later on in this month.

2. Decide on a garden layout and put together a list of requirements for quotes. I moved into my first owned house in Aug 2013 and as yet I haven't had a chance to do something to the back garden.  It needs work doing to it - badly! So this month I want to make a final decision on how I want it to look and then I want to prepare the requirements so that I can begin to get quotes in the following months.

3. Complete One Little Word Prompt. While this goal is definitely not taxing, I want my 2015 goals to include some fun and enjoyment. Hence this and the next goal too. I haven't yet decided how I want to share my One Little Word journey with you all but there is no rush to decide on that right now.

4. Complete Project Life Monthly Pages. This will be my first year doing Project Life and I am so excited about it. A post about what I aim to be doing will be up shortly.

5. Lose 7 lbs. I have some exciting things planned for 2015 and in order to experience and enjoy them as much as I can, I need to be as healthy as I can.  My goal, and I do appreciate that it is rather loft, is to lose 7lbs each month.  We will see how this goes.

6. Budget and remember to include a savings plan. 2014 I kept my first basic budget. It was alright and definitely got me into a routine of budgeting each month, however it only included my bills and didn't take into account any day to day spending or what I call fun spending such as crafts, clothing, hair cuts etc. This year I want to have a better understanding of where my money is going and the only way to do that is to budget in more detail. In addition to my budget, I also want to start saying 10% of my salary for the future. Not to be spent on holidays, clothes or art supplies.       

I am excited for the month ahead and very expectant of what's to come. I hope you have a great 2015 and a brilliant first month of the year.