How to Make Time for Your Goals this Spring – Even as a Busy Mom

Your to-do list as a mother is miles long, and the pressure to balance the seemingly endless amount of responsibilities on your plate can quickly lead to overwhelm and stress. Unfortunately, many mothers end up pushing their needs and priorities to the bottom of their list, if they aren’t totally forgotten. 

We’ve all heard the saying “you can’t pour from an empty cup”—and this is especially true for moms. When we fail to tend to our own goals and desires, we end up strung out, spread thin, and with far less bandwidth to meaningfully provide for our families and those around us. With Springtime right around the corner, now is the perfect time to circle back to ourselves and revisit our own personal priorities. The tips below can help you get back on the path of pursuing your own personal goals. 

Assess Your Priorities

Before you can commit to any specific goals, it’s important to set aside some time to figure out where your true priorities lie. If you’re like most people, you might have 20+ goals you’d love to go after—but realistically, you likely won’t be able to tackle them all at once. A critical step in setting achievable goals is narrowing them down to only those that are most critical to your success in the areas of life you care about most right now. 

To start, choose just three to five specific goals as they relate to whatever matters most to you in this season. Whether they’re rooted in your family, your health, or your career, getting clear on priorities will set you up for success. 

Start Small

There are a variety of reasons why we sometimes fail to meet the goals we set for ourselves, but a common one is setting outlandishly large goals. Not to say you shouldn’t challenge yourself—you should!—but you don’t want the challenge to be so big that you find yourself burnt out or discouraged just a few days or weeks in. 

To increase your odds of success, break your goals down into smaller, attainable goals that you know you can achieve. Don’t make them so small that you don’t feel challenged, but also take care to think about how much time and energy you can realistically devote to them day in and day out. Remember, success is a result of the small, daily actions you take that accumulate into something bigger over time. Enjoy the journey, and make sure it’s one you can keep up with! 

Be Your Own Biggest Fan

A critical ingredient to reaching your goals is adopting the right mindset. The path to success is never linear, and bumps in the road are to be expected. But if you don’t maintain awareness of your mindset along the way, it can quickly end up sabotaging you. Self criticism, comparison and doubting our own abilities will ultimately hold you back from going after what you want, and it’s important to take notice if you find yourself falling into negative thought patterns that only stall your success. 

As you make a plan for your goals, make it a point to prioritize a supportive, loving mindset along the way. Or in other words, be your own biggest fan! As good as it may feel to get our encouragement from others (and there’s nothing wrong with that), in the end, you’re the only person who can make your dreams a reality. So do yourself a favor and be kind to yourself when obstacles inevitably arise, and watch your confidence grow—even in the face of challenges. 

Track Your Progress

Keeping up with our goals can be next to impossible without tracking them in some way, especially with everything on your plate as a mother. A great way to combat this is by visually tracking your goals. Visual goal tracking creates a source of structure, accountability, and encouragement for you to lean on as you work towards your goals, and makes it easier for you to stay on track. Having a visual guide of exactly where you are and what you have left to go helps build momentum, and makes for a simple reference any time you need to check on your progress. 

To make the most of time as a mother, showing up for yourself is crucial. As tough as it may seem to find some time for yourself, it ultimately equips you to become the very best version of yourself and serve the ones you love with more love, energy and patience. To help you get started, these printable habit trackers are perfect to dive into a visual goal tracking system that can support your journey and keep you focused on what you want to achieve. 

Click the image to print your own Wellness Wheel: