Over the last few years, we’ve started to set goals together as a couple.

We have a list of questions we always ask and love to record each other answering them. The first year is interesting, but the magic comes after year two! It’s so fun to watch the video from the prior years and see how much you’ve changed. Or how something was important to you last year and your priorities shifted.

It has been one of the best growth mechanisms we’ve incorporated into our lives so far.

Melissa’s 2021 year in review is here and Ryan’s is here.

After we recorded these videos, we talked about our goals for the upcoming year, divided into important categories in our lives.

Relationship

We’ve noticed how much more fun we have in our relationship when we actually date. It’s so easy to fall into a rut and just hangout at home, but we want to prioritize dates again this year.

Goal – go on 1 date per week Thursday nights at varying price points.

We want to buy a house this year so in an effort to still date but also save money we aligned on doing a free date, $10 date, $20 date, and $50 date.

Financial

We have historically managed our money in different bank accounts to make it easy to not have to think about what we spend money on. But this year we’ve aligned to a goal that we’ve never done before.

Goal – buy a house by the end of our current rental term by aligning on a budget and increasing our cash to close.

We noticed the way we managed our money was helpful in removing any thought about money, but it created excess in certain categories or accounts that we felt could be better allocated.

Dare we say everyone’s favorite word. We need to create and align on a budget.

Family

We moved across the country from Arizona to Tennessee in June 2021. We knew no one and have no family near us.

We’re noticing that we are starting to feel like we want family around us more. So we created a stretch goal here.

Goal – convince our families to move to Tennessee. Or at least have one holiday in TN. At the very least, we want to make it a point to call home once per week.

We don’t feel as good at this as we want to be.

Health

This is one of the hardest categories for Melissa.

She just doesn’t enjoy working out so it is really a struggle for her to find the motivation to workout.

Goal – sweat 3 times per week on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings through 2 workout classes and 1 yoga class.

The struggle is real finding the motivation to workout. We’re open to any and all tips here!

Self and Mindset

As we age more, we’ve noticed how important it is to create time for ourselves. We have a fear in losing our identities in what we do and are focused on making sure we keep some self growth and fun in our lives.

Ryan is a crazy man here and has a goal of getting cold on purpose every day.
Goal – learn to play the saxophone when we get a house.

Business

We want to build out our body of work more. With that, we need to learn how to write.

So we signed up for a course called Ship 30 for 30 where we write on our Twitter account every day for the 30 days of the course.

Aside from that, we had a goal of creating this website which we’re happy to have accomplished!

The biggest struggle for us has been maintaining the Etsy shop.

Goal – build a website and maintain the Etsy shop with new products.

Word of the Year

To sum up all of our goals we each pick a word of the year that is a guiding theme throughout the year.

Ryan’s word of the year is Impact. He wants to create an impact in all that he does this year.

Melissa’s word of the year is Intention. She wants to be more intentional with her time, be deliberate about scrolling, and continue to grow in intentional ways.

We can’t wait to see what this year has in store!

TLRD: Watch on Youtube