Living with Purpose

My 2014 "word" came very quickly to me.  I had been praying about a word I could focus on for this year and the Lord clearly spoke to me.

Purpose.

I love it.  But I think it is going to stretch me.  I don't think I've been living my life purposefully.  I certainly have a purpose and I think I am where God wants me to be.  Wife, Mama, friend, new business owner.  But am I doing each of these things purposefully?

One of the things I've noticed that takes up my time is what I call "busy work".  It keeps me busy for sure but it isn't work.  It's the internet.  Duh duh duh.  And as much as I want to say I don't spend too much time on it....I can't.  In fact I spend WAY too much time.  And the sad part is I've morphed from spending productive time (blogging, researching, business running) to just browsing for no reason!

So one of the biggest changes I've made is taking social media off of my phone.  I think smart phones are great but only if you are smart about how you use them.  I want my social media time to be limited so if I'm going to be on it I'll log in on the computer.  I also didn't want my kids to get used to me always having a phone in my hand.  I can already see a difference.

I'm also evaluating how I use my free time.  I want to be purposeful about the time I have to myself.  Again, it's ok for me to get on and blog or read facebook for a bit.  But I don't need to do these things all the time.  I didn't even come close to my reading goal last year (I read more books but I didn't read the books I set out to read) so I am setting new reading goals and hope to accomplish some of those during down time.

I also want to make time to exercise.  I hate exercising but I know I need to.  Because of some pelvic issues in this pregnancy the only thing I can do is swim.  So I am committed to going twice a week at least.  Gotta get some use out of that cute maternity suit!

I want to be purposeful in the activities I plan for the boys.  Play time is great.  TV time has it's place.  But I want to do more arts and crafts and just a variety of things with them.

I want to be purposeful about how I spend my money.  We stick to a budget but we have some wiggle room.  Now that we've just purchased a new vehicle we need to start saving again.  I want to be sure that the items I am purchasing have a purpose in our home.

And talking about purpose in our home.  We have too much stuff.  I've been saying this for a year now and we did a huge yardsale last year.  I still feel like we have too much stuff.  So I am still cleaning and purging and getting rid of excess.  Excess is gross in general.  Excess fat on your body is yucky.  Excess stuff in your house is yucky.  If it doesn't have a purpose in our house it is out the door.

I'm still muddling through what PURPOSE looks like for me.  It clearly not only affects me but my family too.  Because I think I can derail easily I've also committed to making weekly and monthly goals.  These will help us stay within our budget (by weekly meal planning) and also help me organize my time.

The last thing I want to do is get our non-profit off the ground by the end of the year.  I have LOVED this first six months of working from home.  We have money saved from my earnings to start helping others and as that grows I can't wait to purposefully use those funds.

Here's to 2014...and living with purpose!

What's your 2014 word??