Speaker 1: Hi. I'm Laura Vanderkamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist,
Speaker 1: and speaker.
Speaker 2: And I'm Sarah hart Hunger, a mother of three, practicing physician, writer,
Speaker 2: and course creator. We are two working parents who love
Speaker 2: our careers and our families.
Speaker 1: Welcome to best of both worlds. Here we talk about
Speaker 1: how real women manage work, family, and time for fun,
Speaker 1: from figuring out childcare to mapping out long term career goals.
Speaker 1: We want you to get the most out of life.
Speaker 1: Welcome to best of both worlds. This is Laura. This
Speaker 1: is our annual goals episode, Goals twenty twenty five. We
Speaker 1: have been doing annual Goals episode for low these many years,
Speaker 1: setting a lot of goals in the course of running
Speaker 1: best of both worlds.
Speaker 2: We enjoy it.
Speaker 1: We enjoy listening to other people's goals episodes. So, Sarah,
Speaker 1: are you doing a twenty five for twenty twenty five
Speaker 1: or a word of the year variation along those lines.
Speaker 2: I'm just going to do a word of the year
Speaker 2: this year. No fancy long list unless I come up
Speaker 2: with something after this errs. But I am kind of
Speaker 2: excited about my word of the year, which is finite.
Speaker 2: So listeners may have seen that coming. I was really
Speaker 2: into like the mortality theme last year, with Jodi Wellman's
Speaker 2: You Only Die Once being like my favorite nonfiction book
Speaker 2: of the year, just because Laura didn't release any by
Speaker 2: the way, of course, and with Oliver Berkman's Meditation for
Speaker 2: Mortals just kind of adding on to that. I just
Speaker 2: I don't know, I'm like thinking about and maybe probably
Speaker 2: just like hitting the middle of my life statistically. So yeah,
Speaker 2: that's my word, and I feel like it has multiple applications,
Speaker 2: like finite number of activities you can fit into each day,
Speaker 2: as a reminder not to overload myself, and then just
Speaker 2: of course, like the remembrance the time in our lives
Speaker 2: in general is finite, which makes me want to plan
Speaker 2: really well but also savor things while they're happening. I
Speaker 2: think from a parenting perspective, also, I came to the
Speaker 2: realization that when I replaced my five year journal my
Speaker 2: next one, which I'll start in twenty twenty six, the
Speaker 2: last year will be Annabel going to college. I'm like, like,
Speaker 2: that was I mean, that's wild, Like the rest of
Speaker 2: her schooling fits in another five year journal. Like anyway,
Speaker 2: parenting is a finite journey. Life is a finite journey,
Speaker 2: and so I'm excited about this word of the year. Okay,
Speaker 2: what about you?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I usually don't set words to the ear other.
Speaker 1: I was considered doing influence as my word of the
Speaker 1: year for twenty twenty five, although than when I said influence,
Speaker 1: Sarah thought that I was going to become one of
Speaker 1: these social media influencers, which I am not. So maybe
Speaker 1: we need a different but similar word, such as impact.
Speaker 2: But I don't know.
Speaker 1: I influence is different than impact and subtle semantic ways,
Speaker 1: so maybe one of those. It's not really something I
Speaker 1: do all that much. But as we've been thinking about
Speaker 1: goals for the year, one of the ways we set
Speaker 1: goals like life goals. Both of us have done lists
Speaker 1: of one hundred dreams. Have you updated yours recently?
Speaker 2: Sarah? I updated it at Best Laid Plans Lives. So
Speaker 2: one of the sessions was led by Laura and she
Speaker 2: talked about the hundred dreams, and because it was led
Speaker 2: by her and not led by me, I was actually
Speaker 2: able to be pretty present and do my own list making.
Speaker 2: So that is the last time I've put together a
Speaker 2: I usually start from scratch, like I don't I do
Speaker 2: have some of the old lists because I've like blogged
Speaker 2: them and stuff, but I usually like to just kind
Speaker 2: of start from scratch with a new list when I
Speaker 2: feel like making one. So that's the most recent one,
Speaker 2: and yeah, it was fun to do. I'm not totally done,
Speaker 2: Like I did not get to one hundred, but I
Speaker 2: think I got to like forty or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean while I was leading that session, So
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that I really did a lot of
Speaker 1: updating in the course of it. I mean, the last
Speaker 1: time I did a full list was right before turning forty.
Speaker 1: Did that on my blog in late twenty eighteen, and
Speaker 1: I am now older than that, so maybe it's time
Speaker 1: for an update. I don't necessarily consult the list when
Speaker 1: I'm making annual goals list. I mean, I guess that
Speaker 1: might be something to do. I did look at my
Speaker 1: twenty ten list and my twenty fifteen list a while
Speaker 1: ago in the course of creating some content this year,
Speaker 1: and the upside is I actually have done a reasonable
Speaker 1: number of the things that I put on it, not
Speaker 1: all of them. I've still not been to New Zealand,
Speaker 1: but I may be singing the b Minor Mass the
Speaker 1: bach B minor mass and this comes out. So some
Speaker 1: things are happening and some just through the course of
Speaker 1: the kids getting older or are moving. In twenty ten,
Speaker 1: we were not out in the urbs yet, so there's
Speaker 1: certain things of just like moving out into the verbs
Speaker 1: that happened as a result of that.
Speaker 2: But it's an idea.
Speaker 1: If people are looking for sources of inspiration for annual
Speaker 1: goal lists, creating this long list of a hundred dreams
Speaker 1: might be wise as a way to just sort of
Speaker 1: get the creative juices going.
Speaker 2: I love it. Yeah, I kind of think I've yon
Speaker 2: my share of annual planning seminars at this point. And
Speaker 2: the problem is I can't really tell people to go
Speaker 2: and whip up there are one hundred dreams lists because
Speaker 2: most people don't have it. But I can see how
Speaker 2: looking at a global list could be just one of
Speaker 2: those nice triggers as you then sit down to make
Speaker 2: your annual goals. So I need to think about that. Well,
Speaker 2: maybe you.
Speaker 1: Could strongly encourage people to do it as like their
Speaker 1: pretty homework homework, right, like, try to get at least
Speaker 1: fifty on there, and then that will get people started
Speaker 1: and they can keep adding to it.
Speaker 2: Over time. But yeah, so.
Speaker 1: We started working on our goals recently. I mean, you know, Sarah,
Speaker 1: we a little bit of a philosophical thing here. We'll
Speaker 1: tell you that when we were starting to do these notes,
Speaker 1: Sarah was a little bit reluctant to send specific goals.
Speaker 1: Now why was that, Sarah?
Speaker 2: Because we're recording this and it's not even halfway through
Speaker 2: December yet, and I'm just not quite feeling ready to
Speaker 2: commit because I don't feel like I've done my full
Speaker 2: process justice and I know what a good annual planning
Speaker 2: process looks like. And I, as I said I during Live,
Speaker 2: I was kind of an active participant when Laura was
Speaker 2: leading it, but all the goal part I was leading it,
Speaker 2: so I wasn't really there to like do my own stuff.
Speaker 2: And I life has been very full, and I just
Speaker 2: haven't done my own, like full big picture stuff. So
Speaker 2: I still want to consider these like draft mode. I
Speaker 2: think I'm close. I think I want to iron out
Speaker 2: a few specifics as we'll talk about, because some of
Speaker 2: them it's like, Okay, I have the idea, but I
Speaker 2: don't have the mechanics entirely nailed down. But yeah, I
Speaker 2: think it's just the time of year, and the fact
Speaker 2: that I don't feel like I've done my official goal
Speaker 2: setting yet, that I wasn't totally ready to be like
Speaker 2: this is it on the stone tablet?
Speaker 1: Yeah, because when we cycles, we actually do intend to
Speaker 1: keep them. I mean that's the thing, like we won't
Speaker 1: set one that we don't actually really want to do.
Speaker 2: Oh for the most part, I think that's part.
Speaker 1: Of taking one's goals seriously. I always think of November
Speaker 1: and December as resolutions preseason that this is a good
Speaker 1: time to you know, this is airing close to the
Speaker 1: start of the new year, but for us, since we
Speaker 1: were recording this in mid December, I think of this
Speaker 1: time as like a football team in the weeks before
Speaker 1: the season starts. I mean, you're practicing, you're doing some
Speaker 1: games even, but they don't count for your standings. So
Speaker 1: if you have some sort of goal you are thinking
Speaker 1: of committing to instead of just saying like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: maybe i'll start on January first, and then you're trying
Speaker 1: to figure it out and you don't know how it'll
Speaker 1: fit in your life. It's not very specific. You can
Speaker 1: spend the weeks before the start of the new year
Speaker 1: ironing all those things out, saying, well, what is appealing
Speaker 1: about this goal? Well, how can I make it specific?
Speaker 1: What's something that would fit into my regular life and
Speaker 1: that I am excited about? And then you test drive
Speaker 1: it for a while. Right, If there's something we want
Speaker 1: to do, you try it out, because there's nothing magical
Speaker 1: happens January first. You're not going to be a different person.
Speaker 1: So if you absolutely cannot make it fit on December seventeen,
Speaker 1: there's no reason to think that you will on January second,
Speaker 1: so it's worth trying it out totally.
Speaker 2: And I made a slight face when you said, oh,
Speaker 2: when we set goals, we want to do them all
Speaker 2: or something. And I guess my only thing is, like
Speaker 2: I have an attitude of like in an ideal world,
Speaker 2: but I don't like expect to get all my goals done,
Speaker 2: if that makes sense, Like I will consider it a
Speaker 2: very successful year if I bat like sixty or seventy percent.
Speaker 2: And I think that helps me not get like to
Speaker 2: like upset or rigid about setting them to begin with,
Speaker 2: or too frustrated with myself when inevitably I don't get
Speaker 2: some of them done and we'll talk about it. But like,
Speaker 2: there's many goals I set so many times and failed
Speaker 2: and then ultimately succeeded. So I know for my own
Speaker 2: story that that's possible, and it doesn't mean that just
Speaker 2: because you couldn't do something one year doesn't mean you
Speaker 2: can never do it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, with that in mind, I guess we
Speaker 1: can go ahead and get it started. So Sarah Personal
Speaker 1: goals for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: Yay, all right. Well, I'm going to be like Captain
Speaker 2: boring and obvious and start with some fitness stuff and
Speaker 2: I want to strength train at least one hundred times,
Speaker 2: so that would be an average of about two times
Speaker 2: a week, so that should be a doable number. I
Speaker 2: have to put strength kind of on my goals list.
Speaker 2: It's not automatically going to happen. I know I'm going
Speaker 2: to run, but I do not know that I will
Speaker 2: do strength. But I think it's so incredibly important for many,
Speaker 2: many reasons. So one hundred strength training sessions. I'm going
Speaker 2: to leave it open as to what those will look like,
Speaker 2: whether they will be following an online thing, working with
Speaker 2: a trainer, doing a class. That part I'm gonna explore,
Speaker 2: and I'm fine if it's a mix of all those things,
Speaker 2: like it doesn't have to be one thing all year,
Speaker 2: but one hundred sessions I'm committed to. And then this
Speaker 2: one's a little difficult. But I would like to run
Speaker 2: Boston Marathon in April of twenty twenty six, and I
Speaker 2: do not know whether twenty twenty five whether I will
Speaker 2: need to try to run a good, safe Boston qualifying time,
Speaker 2: because as this airs, I haven't run my Discember marathon
Speaker 2: yet and I don't know how that's going to go.
Speaker 2: So I guess I will just have like this contingent
Speaker 2: if I do not run a great race, if I
Speaker 2: do not run sub three p forty on my December race,
Speaker 2: then my goal will be to do so in somewhere
Speaker 2: in the spring.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: I would like to work on my wardrobe this year.
Speaker 2: I wanted to do that. Last year I didn't do it,
Speaker 2: And this time I got a little bit more specific
Speaker 2: about the items I wish to buy, because I think
Speaker 2: that will help me just be more concrete about things
Speaker 2: I need. Jeans. My jeans are like literally falling apart.
Speaker 2: Like I've had multiple people ask me with a skeptical
Speaker 2: look on their face, is that hole? Did you put
Speaker 2: it there? Was it? Like fashion and I was like,
Speaker 2: it's my own hole. It's time to like on facele. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I have one pair of presentable jeans and I
Speaker 2: need like two more so because that's kind of what
Speaker 2: I wear on my non work days a lot of
Speaker 2: the time. That and beery joggers, which is not great.
Speaker 2: So yeah, two pairs of jeans. I want to get
Speaker 2: two presentable tops that are not T shirts. I want
Speaker 2: one professional outfit for speaking and globally. I would like
Speaker 2: to invest more in my clothing, not counting super shoes,
Speaker 2: than I did in twenty twenty four, which should not
Speaker 2: be hard because I did not invest much at all
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four. Then I played around with I really
Speaker 2: want to read more again. I mean I generally read
Speaker 2: a lot, but I just I don't know. I had
Speaker 2: a bad slump towards the end of twenty twenty four
Speaker 2: that I haven't fully recovered from, and I was like,
Speaker 2: what would be the most kind of easy, like no
Speaker 2: pressure type of goal. And I think for me, I
Speaker 2: came up with read ten minutes of nonfiction a day
Speaker 2: and ten minutes of fiction to day. Now I can
Speaker 2: read more than that, certainly, and I'm sure I will
Speaker 2: many days. But if I'm like, eh, it's just ten minutes,
Speaker 2: Like who cares? Like that will add up to a
Speaker 2: lot of books, because I probably will end up reading
Speaker 2: far more than ten minutes when I get into a book.
Speaker 2: And this is a sub goal that I didn't write down.
Speaker 2: But I need to be quicker at abandoning books that
Speaker 2: I don't like. I mean, really, if I have like
Speaker 2: a week where I'm barely making any headway, I just
Speaker 2: need to move on. It means the book is not good.
Speaker 2: It's not me, it's the book. And then this is
Speaker 2: not like a goal goal. But I really enjoy the
Speaker 2: practice of like tracking my media. I do it every
Speaker 2: day in my hope nichi, and I am just excited
Speaker 2: to like make that a consistent practice in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: Awesome, Well we'll take a quick ad break and then
Speaker 1: I'll be back talking about my personal goals. Well we
Speaker 1: are back. This is our annual Goals episode, setting our
Speaker 1: goals for twenty twenty five. And I'm with Sarah that
Speaker 1: because we're recording this in mid December, maybe these are
Speaker 1: still sort of draft goals. So my personal goals for
Speaker 1: the year, you know, in twenty twenty four, I listen
Speaker 1: to all the works of Bach, and so sort of
Speaker 1: a logical continuation of that would be to listen to
Speaker 1: all the works of Beethoven. In twenty twenty five. There
Speaker 1: are a couple people who we're listening to BAC who
Speaker 1: are doing this. The crew that listened to Bak is
Speaker 1: going to be listening to Beethoven, so obviously, you know,
Speaker 1: if I want to keep up with.
Speaker 2: Them, we could do that.
Speaker 1: There we found a calendar, so I don't even have
Speaker 1: to create one, which is an added bonus since I
Speaker 1: created the back catalog and it was a ton of work,
Speaker 1: so I'm pretty sure that will.
Speaker 2: Wind up being my goal.
Speaker 1: I thought it might also or in place that read
Speaker 1: Ana Karinya, the other Tolstoi book. I read Warren Piece
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one a chapter a day, and a
Speaker 1: Karnina is you know, there's some debate on how we
Speaker 1: say that, but anyway, it's about two hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: two hundred and seventy chapters. So that would also lend
Speaker 1: itself to at least a couple months, you know, nine
Speaker 1: months of the year reading a chapter a day.
Speaker 2: But I could do that as well.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but those are kind of the two
Speaker 1: that I was weighing with that another personal goal, I
Speaker 1: am going to eat produce for breakfast.
Speaker 2: And so is that vegetables fruit or booth fruit, vegetables, fruit, avensibals?
Speaker 1: Okay, and this is with the goal of eating more
Speaker 1: fruits and vegetables in general.
Speaker 2: But I figure that's kind of vague.
Speaker 1: So one way to make this doable is to eat
Speaker 1: a serving with breakfast, because that tends to be a
Speaker 1: meal that I'm probably not usually eating fruits or vegetables,
Speaker 1: So if I add that in there, that will most
Speaker 1: likely be in addition to what I am eating, and
Speaker 1: I think it will also nudge me to have more
Speaker 1: in the house, to have more that I like in
Speaker 1: the house, to experiment with different things that I might
Speaker 1: enjoy eating, So.
Speaker 2: Produce for breakfast.
Speaker 1: I am going to strength train twice a week, so
Speaker 1: I'm working out once a week with my trainer, So
Speaker 1: similar with Sarah, I'm I guess one hundred sessions would
Speaker 1: be a good thing to commit to, and probably do
Speaker 1: about fifty with my trainer, and then we'll probably do
Speaker 1: fifty on my own. It doesn't have to be long
Speaker 1: on my own, could just be you know, ten to
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes. But yeah, those are my personal goals for
Speaker 1: the year.
Speaker 2: Awesome. Ooh, I was like really excited to find out
Speaker 2: what like listening or reading. So I'll be interested to
Speaker 2: see if you end up pursuing both the Beethoven and
Speaker 2: the Enna Karenina.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, how do we say her last name?
Speaker 2: People rave about that book though, so.
Speaker 1: Well, I've read it before. I read it twenty years ago.
Speaker 1: It was good, but yeah, it's been a long time
Speaker 1: since I've read it, and I've been told you read
Speaker 1: it differently as a middle aged person than you probably
Speaker 1: do in your twenties.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it would be really fun to revisit like
Speaker 2: books that you thought were super cool when you were
Speaker 2: young and see how you feel about them, Like I
Speaker 2: should reread The Bell Jar, and I think maybe you shouldn't.
Speaker 2: I'll let you know. Okay, not on my goals list,
Speaker 2: all right, anyway, Moving to work, all right, work, My
Speaker 2: work goals are pretty much all in my creative work.
Speaker 2: Not to say I don't have a gold be like
Speaker 2: an excellent physician in my other work, but I just
Speaker 2: feel like I'm more I don't want to say autopilot,
Speaker 2: but I'm more settled there and there's more growth on
Speaker 2: the other side. So my big one is that I
Speaker 2: need to finish and launch my book into the world.
Speaker 2: This will be my first experience I what a book
Speaker 2: launch looks like. I'm scared. I do think this is
Speaker 2: going to be like a ton of activity in January
Speaker 2: and February, not a lot of stuff for a bunch
Speaker 2: of months, and then like a frenzy towards the end
Speaker 2: of the year. We'll see if I'm right. I do
Speaker 2: want to put myself out there more in terms of
Speaker 2: like pitch more than two podcasts like I did last year,
Speaker 2: and maybe like see if I can expand speaking opportunities
Speaker 2: things like that. I already have a couple on the
Speaker 2: calendar that I'm excited about, but I don't know I
Speaker 2: enjoy doing it, So maybe explore doing more of that.
Speaker 2: We'll have a book coming out. Maybe they'll be like
Speaker 2: those things will tie together. I want to improve if
Speaker 2: I have one routine that I want to work on,
Speaker 2: and I'm big on like just picking like one routine.
Speaker 2: My like shutdown ritual is terrible. I mean, I talk
Speaker 2: about it and I think it's very valuable, but I
Speaker 2: can't seem to be like I am done. I've cleaned
Speaker 2: up my loose ends. I'm not going to open my
Speaker 2: work e mail up again. And it's annoying. It's annoying
Speaker 2: to me. I want to shut down. So I'm gonna
Speaker 2: work on that one specifically. And then this is real vague,
Speaker 2: but because of the book work I think being very
Speaker 2: beginning of the year, end of the year, and because
Speaker 2: like I don't really have anything else work wise planned,
Speaker 2: I feel like I just need some kind of fun
Speaker 2: summer project to be determined to be.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, that is a vague goal. I guess we
Speaker 1: will find out next year what that was. That's what
Speaker 1: you're reviewing.
Speaker 2: Sorry, yeah, I'm gonna be like really but no, I mean,
Speaker 2: maybe we'll check in, maybe we'll know what. But then
Speaker 2: I'll definitely be able to unveil whatever it is. Maybe
Speaker 2: I'll do like a Nano Orimo, but like in the summer,
Speaker 2: like something like that. It's just something different, something different. Okay,
Speaker 2: all right, sounds good.
Speaker 1: All right, So my work goals for the year for
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, I'm going to finish the book that
Speaker 1: is currently being called Big Time and then lay the
Speaker 1: groundwork for getting that out into the world, so very
Speaker 1: similar to Sarah. My book deadline is April of this year,
Speaker 1: and then it will likely come out in the first
Speaker 1: quarter or so of twenty twenty six, so similar flory
Speaker 1: to get it written first part of the year, a
Speaker 1: little bit of time off, and then starting up the
Speaker 1: promotion machine towards the end of the year. I want
Speaker 1: to write a novel draft, so that might be my
Speaker 1: summer project. Is I'm getting the itch to do some
Speaker 1: more fiction, but I don't even have an idea yet,
Speaker 1: So in order to make that happen, I really need
Speaker 1: to spend some time thinking about it. I am going
Speaker 1: to re up for one more year on sonnets. I'm
Speaker 1: going to write fifty two more sonnets at the pace
Speaker 1: of two lines a day. So you know, I've been
Speaker 1: doing this for the past two years, have one hundred
Speaker 1: and four sonnets by the time this airs, So I
Speaker 1: guess I will have one hundred fifty six, or I
Speaker 1: guess one hundred and fifty seven based on the number
Speaker 1: of how the weeks go with a year. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed doing this, and the discipline of doing
Speaker 1: it over and over again means that you're constantly thinking
Speaker 1: about it and then, like I said I've said before,
Speaker 1: most are bad, sum are okay, a few I really like,
Speaker 1: But it's by continuing to keep doing it that you
Speaker 1: get more of the ones that you really like, and
Speaker 1: so over the years that will add up. And then finally,
Speaker 1: the last work goal I have is to grow vander
Speaker 1: Hacks into somewhere between eight hundred and one thousand paid
Speaker 1: subscribers by the end of twenty twenty five. So we're
Speaker 1: currently at about four hundred, so that would just mean
Speaker 1: doubling what happened in twenty twenty four, which theoretically sounds
Speaker 1: like it should be doable. The issues, of course, your
Speaker 1: biggest fans are the ones who sign up first, so
Speaker 1: I have to find some more new big fans. So
Speaker 1: somewhere between eight hundred and one thousand is where I
Speaker 1: hope to end the year, and that would be a
Speaker 1: good rate of growth and would make me feel like
Speaker 1: this was a profitable project.
Speaker 2: And reminder listeners where they can sign up for that.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, well if you would like to sign up.
Speaker 1: I mean, if everyone listening to this sign up, we'd
Speaker 1: have way more than a thousand paid subscribers. So if
Speaker 1: you're listening to this, if you enjoy this content, you're thinking,
Speaker 1: how can I get more of Laura? So I do
Speaker 1: a short every weekday tip over at vander Hacks, which
Speaker 1: is a substack newsletter. So if you go to substack
Speaker 1: dot com and search for vander Hacks, you will find
Speaker 1: me and you can sign up for a free subscription
Speaker 1: to see if you like it. There are five posts
Speaker 1: a week, three or free two or behind the paywall,
Speaker 1: so hopefully you will like what you are getting in
Speaker 1: your inbox every morning or if you check in the
Speaker 1: substack app. But I really enjoyed doing that and would
Speaker 1: love to have some more people join me there.
Speaker 2: And I think they would be a lovely like morning
Speaker 2: ritual for someone. Yeah, if they're looking for different things
Speaker 2: they want to start the day with, that would be
Speaker 2: a nice, lie motivating.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And I know some people listen to Before Breakfast,
Speaker 1: which has sort of a similar theme of a weekday
Speaker 1: morning tip, but I know not everyone likes to listen
Speaker 1: to their tips, And so if you're more of a
Speaker 1: reading person, this is a way to get at something
Speaker 1: similar and just in an entirely different format.
Speaker 2: Love it all?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: Well, that was work. We are now at relationships and
Speaker 2: I'm going to set in Gold. That was as vague
Speaker 2: as last year. I need to make this less vague.
Speaker 2: Well there's some specificity, Okay, So that's a goal, Sarah.
Speaker 2: I still feel like the best thing I can do
Speaker 2: for my family and my parenting is to have nice
Speaker 2: one on one experiences with each of the members of
Speaker 2: my immediate family, and so I want to curate those
Speaker 2: and seek those out as much as possible. With Annabel,
Speaker 2: I want to make her gymnastics meets quality time. I mean,
Speaker 2: it won't be just me going to all of them,
Speaker 2: but for some of them. For Cameron, I want to
Speaker 2: do some kind of solo excursion or day with him.
Speaker 2: And then for Genevieve, I want to take her on
Speaker 2: a seven year old trip. I did that with Annabel,
Speaker 2: Josh took Cameron skiing, and then so Genevieve has some
Speaker 2: ideas for what she wants to do. So I guess
Speaker 2: that's kind of specific. But I also just globally want
Speaker 2: to keep working on ways to get my kids one
Speaker 2: on one, and I want to repeat my monthly date idea,
Speaker 2: except this time, I think I'm gonna sit down with
Speaker 2: Josh and we're gonna make a list of twelve restaurants
Speaker 2: we want to try because we do love trying like
Speaker 2: new and exciting cuisines, like either in Miami or Fort Lauderdale.
Speaker 2: And I think it'd be really fun to have that
Speaker 2: list to feel like we were going to go through.
Speaker 2: We kind of did that last year where we didn't
Speaker 2: formalize it or put it into one list, so I
Speaker 2: think that will be fun, and I want to do
Speaker 2: two short couples trips again. I also want to throw
Speaker 2: a casual neighborhood hang. I've done this a couple of
Speaker 2: years ago, but I didn't do it last year and
Speaker 2: it was great, and we've had some new neighbors move in,
Speaker 2: so I feel like I need to do it again.
Speaker 2: And then I want to connect with my far flung
Speaker 2: friends in person. So I'm hoping for, probably in addition
Speaker 2: to seeing you, Laura, probably like two friend trips over
Speaker 2: the course of the year, plus connecting with endocolleagues at
Speaker 2: Pediatric Endocrine Society, So that would be a lot of
Speaker 2: like meeting up with old friends, and I think that
Speaker 2: would be great. Yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: Well, I certainly love to have you come visit Philly
Speaker 1: and I will make it to Fort Lauderdale in the
Speaker 1: course of the year, probably at least twice. That seems
Speaker 1: to be the regular rhythm of what we do. So yeah,
Speaker 1: my relationship goals, I guess this could be sort of
Speaker 1: personal or relationship. I want to go to three professional
Speaker 1: sports events in the course of the year, and obviously
Speaker 1: I'm probably going to go with someone. Maybe Michael could
Speaker 1: be an older kid, I guess. But I want to
Speaker 1: go to a Sixers game. I want to go to
Speaker 1: a Phillies game, and I want to go to an
Speaker 1: Eagles game. So that will take me through multiple seasons
Speaker 1: of Philadelphia sports. Sadly, these Sixers are not doing all
Speaker 1: that well, so that might be slightly less excite, which
Speaker 1: was you know, as we're looking at dates, so that
Speaker 1: we're like, well, do we choose like when they're playing
Speaker 1: a really good team, like knowing they're gonna lose, but
Speaker 1: at least we'll see a really good team play, or
Speaker 1: you know, do we see a team they're more likely
Speaker 1: to win, but then maybe the basketball won't be as great.
Speaker 1: I don't know, tough choices, but the Phillies and the Eagles,
Speaker 1: so you know, we'll go see them. I want to
Speaker 1: host a holiday party, and I'm not specifying which holiday,
Speaker 1: so it could be it could be the Arbor Day party,
Speaker 1: but it will I mean most likely would be in
Speaker 1: November in December. But you know, as we get more
Speaker 1: and more festive decorations in this house, I think it
Speaker 1: might be fun to share the joy of that, which
Speaker 1: would be fun to do. But I'm not limiting myself
Speaker 1: to only that. So if I decide to host a
Speaker 1: different kind of party at some other point of the year,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll just tie it to some holiday that is
Speaker 1: occurring around then. I am going to be launching my
Speaker 1: first kid out of the nest. Over the of the
Speaker 1: next year. Think of this project as enjoying our last
Speaker 1: eight months together. I know, Jasper and I actually have
Speaker 1: a trip planned as part of our choir We're going
Speaker 1: on to acchoir tour together this summer, which will be
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. But also think about, you know,
Speaker 1: what does he need to know, Like, what are sort
Speaker 1: of life skills that one needs to succeed in a
Speaker 1: new environment and you thinking about that, and then the
Speaker 1: last three months or so of twenty twenty five, he
Speaker 1: will be most likely starting school somewhere and so kind
Speaker 1: of thinking about how it can be supportive during that transition. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: that'll be a big thing. And then my last one
Speaker 1: is kind of thinking of ourself as a musical family,
Speaker 1: and I want all the kids to be in some
Speaker 1: sort of music by the end of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: And everyone is now except Henry. So I will start
Speaker 1: Henry probably as he starts kindergarten. That's a good time
Speaker 1: to Yeah, he could join the church children's choir. He
Speaker 1: could start doing piano lessons. I think it would be
Speaker 1: good to get him started on that. And then about
Speaker 1: with that, you know, practicing myself modeling what it means
Speaker 1: to be a working musician. I'm practicing frequently, both piano
Speaker 1: and voice and how one makes that part of one's life.
Speaker 2: I love that. If my husband heard this, he'd be
Speaker 2: so jealous. I think he wants us to be a
Speaker 2: musical family. We stabvil, but that's awesome. I'm very impressed
Speaker 2: that all of your kids and then soon Henry as well,
Speaker 2: will be doing some kind of music. That's amazing. All right, Well,
Speaker 2: we have one more category because I again, again I
Speaker 2: like it for myself. All right, so I dragged Laura along. Okay, Well,
Speaker 2: what's the category, Sarah, the categories household? No, I said it, okay,
Speaker 2: it's household, and I have two things. One I forgot
Speaker 2: to write here, but I want to try again with
Speaker 2: my reading goal. I really think my kids actually need
Speaker 2: to develop the ability or work on the ability to
Speaker 2: sit there and read for thirty minutes, and not everybody
Speaker 2: seems to do that very easily, So that is my goal.
Speaker 2: Genevieve still isn't totally independent with her reading, but I
Speaker 2: think there are some great solutions to that, like maybe
Speaker 2: audiobooks would be kind of her surrogate for a little
Speaker 2: while as she follows along. But Josh is also very
Speaker 2: interested in this, so I think that will help, just
Speaker 2: kind of having both family members on board, just like
Speaker 2: as I wanted to do it before. I don't care
Speaker 2: what they read. It could be a graphic novel, it
Speaker 2: could be like I will supply them with whatever book.
Speaker 2: I just want this to be ideally a weekly, regular
Speaker 2: habit that we all just start to establish together. And
Speaker 2: we can still all enjoy screens absolutely, but I need
Speaker 2: to preserve their ability to focus and read.
Speaker 1: So you think you want to have a regular family
Speaker 1: reading time?
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, Okay, even if it's everyone thirty minutes thirty
Speaker 2: minutes okay, low bar oh, And someone had the idea
Speaker 2: of like making like a baked good like as part
Speaker 2: or like having like a fun snack to go with that.
Speaker 2: So if it takes that to make the family excited
Speaker 2: about it, I will try that. But yeah, family reading,
Speaker 2: and then I did give myself a break from wanting
Speaker 2: to organize my house in twenty twenty four, but I'm
Speaker 2: back to wanting to organize my house in twenty twenty five,
Speaker 2: and this time I'm planning on possibly outsourcing some of
Speaker 2: this to either our nanny and or possibly a professional.
Speaker 2: I don't have my plan in place of how I
Speaker 2: want to do this, but I kind of just want
Speaker 2: to go like category by category over the course of
Speaker 2: the year. I don't see it as a one and
Speaker 2: done thing, but like we're not doing the basic maintenance
Speaker 2: of clearing stuff out, Like my kids have clothing in
Speaker 2: their drawers that does not fit them. It's just the
Speaker 2: bar is not that high for what I mean by organized,
Speaker 2: but we're not reaching it.
Speaker 1: So so yeah, I was gonna say, like, what's the
Speaker 1: actual goal here, Like how will we know when we
Speaker 1: record at the end of twenty twenty five that Sarah
Speaker 1: has met this goal.
Speaker 2: I want to have like gone through every room and
Speaker 2: mostly just decluttered stuff that really doesn't belong there. That's
Speaker 2: the main thing. It doesn't have to be arranged artfully,
Speaker 2: but our draws can't be crammed with like random stuff.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's not like dire dire, but I don't
Speaker 2: want it to get there. And I mean to some extent,
Speaker 2: we have a decent sized house and I just feel
Speaker 2: like we've just like let ourselves fill the space. But
Speaker 2: then sometimes it really you know, it's like where are
Speaker 2: the keys while the key bin has like forty different
Speaker 2: items in there that like don't need to be there,
Speaker 2: like things like that. Like I just it's time and
Speaker 2: if I'm not able to do this on my own,
Speaker 2: which I may not be, then it's time to bring
Speaker 2: in the troops of some kind.
Speaker 1: Understn't know what understood well, you know, and you've pointed
Speaker 1: out that you can not fail, but like I mean,
Speaker 1: you could not reach sort of your oh yeah, ar
Speaker 1: of a goal multiple years and then keep putting it
Speaker 1: on there and then eventually do it. It's not that
Speaker 1: it's going to move forward forever. That you know, might
Speaker 1: six years but then happen.
Speaker 2: Yes, And I'm comfortable with that. I mean, I had
Speaker 2: flossing was a goal for me like in my thirty
Speaker 2: or twenties and thirties, like for like years, and like
Speaker 2: that's something I do regularly without even thinking about strength training.
Speaker 2: I did fall off the wagon this year, but generally
Speaker 2: have been pretty good about it in recent years. And
Speaker 2: that was something I used to fail at, like every year,
Speaker 2: book writing, state planning, like there have been so many
Speaker 2: things that I have just put on there and it
Speaker 2: just takes the right like set of conditions and sometimes
Speaker 2: reframing it or getting help. And actually it's kind of
Speaker 2: interesting to think about what helps you move forward on
Speaker 2: a goal that you get stuck on, and that could
Speaker 2: be a whole other episode. But I have no shame
Speaker 2: in putting something on there that's been on there before,
Speaker 2: and I hope this will be the year. Yeah. No,
Speaker 2: I mean there's nothing wrong with trying a goal again.
Speaker 1: I mean I'd put you know, write a collection of
Speaker 1: seasonal sonnets on my list of one hundred dreams year
Speaker 1: many many times and had not done it, and then
Speaker 1: finally found a way that I could do it, which
Speaker 1: is riding the two lines a day over the course
Speaker 1: of the year, and that made me stick with it.
Speaker 1: Or goals like singing the B Minor Mass. I didn't
Speaker 1: pull that off as an annual goal without knowing that
Speaker 1: there was going to be a way to do it.
Speaker 1: But you can try things again. That's definitely true. I
Speaker 1: would say my household goal, I'm going to expand my
Speaker 1: miniature scenes. This is a fun goal because it means
Speaker 1: I get to buy things and I get to put
Speaker 1: them in my office. And I have a number of
Speaker 1: little room vignettes. I have a kitchen, I have a
Speaker 1: living room, I have a laundry room, I have a bedroom.
Speaker 1: I may be getting for Christmas a bathroom.
Speaker 2: How was that fun?
Speaker 1: Like, you know, get a little uh, but it has
Speaker 1: to ship from Australia so it hasn't gotten here yet.
Speaker 1: But it was bathtub, toilet, cabinet, various sink.
Speaker 2: Can you turn the water on?
Speaker 1: No, there was no plumbing in my miniature scene. That
Speaker 1: would be a little bit. You can put lights in
Speaker 1: fairly easy. Plumbing would be harder to pull off. You
Speaker 1: need like a little bucket of water under it. That'd
Speaker 1: be cool though, But I've also enjoyed getting the accessories, Like,
Speaker 1: so Ruth got me a bunch of little kitchen accessories
Speaker 1: for my birthday, Like there were little cereal boxes and
Speaker 1: a fruit bowl and it's endless, Like.
Speaker 2: You could do this forever.
Speaker 1: And I was stymied on this for years because I
Speaker 1: didn't have a dollhouse.
Speaker 2: And I was like, well, I gotta make my dollhouse,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: I got to buy the dollhouse kit, and I bought
Speaker 1: a dollhouse kit, but then I didn't build because, like,
Speaker 1: woodworking is not on my goals, Like I don't really
Speaker 1: want to like build this thing. That's not the part
Speaker 1: of it I like. And a lot of the prefab
Speaker 1: ones are just not very good. So I was either
Speaker 1: going to have to hire somebody to make me a dollhouse,
Speaker 1: which I could, but that's its separate project. But then
Speaker 1: I was like, well, I like the rooms, like when
Speaker 1: I go to see like when I'm at the Chicago
Speaker 1: Art Institute of Chicago, I go see the miniature rooms,
Speaker 1: like the rooms in the wall. They don't have a dollhouse.
Speaker 1: They have the rooms in the wall. Or the Indianapolis
Speaker 1: Children Museum also has a bunch of rooms in the wall.
Speaker 2: I'll do that. You know. That's good. So, yeah, I
Speaker 2: can't wait to see them. I've seen the ones you
Speaker 2: have now, so it's going to expand. It's exciting. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it is, all right.
Speaker 1: So moving to our question section, how often would you
Speaker 1: review these goal lists? So we've made this goal list.
Speaker 2: So I, with my nested goal system, kind of have
Speaker 2: the practice of pulling it out every season. And I
Speaker 2: have to say doing this formally with others via planning
Speaker 2: by season in twenty twenty four was helpful because I
Speaker 2: got my list out every time too, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: this is actually great, like a planned opportunity that I'm
Speaker 2: forced to look at this and figure out like what
Speaker 2: actually fits for the season. So I think season works
Speaker 2: really really well for this, whether it's quarterly or quintiles
Speaker 2: or however you like to organize the year. I guess
Speaker 2: I will mention that I am doing planning by season
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five, so if you want to review your
Speaker 2: annual goals with me and plan your seasons with me
Speaker 2: next year, you can, But doing it on your own
Speaker 2: absolutely works too. Or maybe some people might benefit from monthly,
Speaker 2: but I don't know, four or five times a year,
Speaker 2: I feel like keeps the novelty and like it isn't
Speaker 2: too much pressure but also will remind you of what
Speaker 2: you planned and you won't forget about it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean the daily stuff is pretty easy because it
Speaker 1: is in fact daily, so unless I got really off
Speaker 1: of it, I think I would remember things like you know,
Speaker 1: listening to the music, writing the sonnets. Some of them
Speaker 1: will be a little bit trickier to remember. But I
Speaker 1: guess we do our check in in June, our mid
Speaker 1: year check in, so that's always a good chance to
Speaker 1: do it. I would probably do season as well. Probably
Speaker 1: I should do one in mid spring, one for June
Speaker 1: for our check in at kind of the beginning of
Speaker 1: the fall. I think those would all be good times
Speaker 1: to check in and see that I've staying on track.
Speaker 2: I've also seen other people do really interesting things with
Speaker 2: their list, like if they really want to be reminded,
Speaker 2: they'll like make it their screensaver, or like print out
Speaker 2: a copy and put it above their desk or stuff
Speaker 2: like that. Yeah. I generally like it more intermittent, but hey,
Speaker 2: I think whatever you.
Speaker 1: Can note on the bathroom mirror, hey, you know every
Speaker 1: morning you're looking at it, am I achieving my goals
Speaker 1: yet if not, why not, Well, you know it would
Speaker 1: be good to remind ourselves of that at least somewhat.
Speaker 1: All right, So, Sarah, love of the week, What is
Speaker 1: your love of the week?
Speaker 2: This time a blog reader turned me onto year end
Speaker 2: lists dot Com. So you guys know, I love my
Speaker 2: best music of twenty twenty four and best books and
Speaker 2: best whatever from various sources. But then sometimes it's Paywalt
Speaker 2: or whatever, and like this is a site that like
Speaker 2: aggregates all of them, and it's so fun to just
Speaker 2: read through and like get ideas for movies you might
Speaker 2: want to see your books read or music to listen
Speaker 2: to it. I think even at a podcast category, I
Speaker 2: didn't click on that. I'm sure we're number one, like obviously,
Speaker 2: but yeah, super fun resource. Year end lists dot.
Speaker 1: Com, Year end Lists dot Com. Yeah that sounds like
Speaker 1: a website made precisely for you, Sarah. They're like, who
Speaker 1: is our target audience? It is Sarah, it is me.
Speaker 1: Well probably a lot of other people too. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: mean I would say I like the idea of very
Speaker 1: specific goals, and partly I think it is that sort
Speaker 1: of resolutions preseason noodling on it where you come up
Speaker 1: with how to make a goal specific. So something like
Speaker 1: eating produce for breakfast is very specific, and I know,
Speaker 1: well I have I done it, have I not. It's
Speaker 1: something that I can think about every morning. But just
Speaker 1: the idea of turning a vaguer goal like I want
Speaker 1: to eat more fruits and vegetables into something that is
Speaker 1: truly doable, like I want to listen to more classical
Speaker 1: music and became listening to thirty minutes of Bach last
Speaker 1: year and I guess this year. Yeah, but the idea
Speaker 1: of being very specific in the goals helps make them
Speaker 1: feel more exciting, I think, even because it's not like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: I guess I got to figure out how to fit
Speaker 1: this into life, and even to remind myself of it frequently,
Speaker 1: it's just like, no, this is something that's concrete that
Speaker 1: I can do.
Speaker 2: Yes. Yeah, you feel more of a sense of achievement
Speaker 2: when you checked it off, when you know it was
Speaker 2: exactly what you like sit out to do exactly.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, this has been best of both worlds.
Speaker 1: We've done our annual goals episode. We'll check back in
Speaker 1: over the course of the year. If we have done
Speaker 1: these things, we'll definitely be talking about it at probably
Speaker 1: the end of June, certainly at the end of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five. It's funny to think about twenty twenty five,
Speaker 1: Laura and Sarah sitting here discussing the year. But I'm
Speaker 1: sure it will have been a year one way or another.
Speaker 1: The time is going to pass, and hopefully it will
Speaker 1: be filled with many wonderful things. We hope it is
Speaker 1: filled with many wonderful things for our listeners as well.
Speaker 1: So thank you for listening to us in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: Here's another great year together.
Speaker 2: Yes, Happy New Year, Happy twenty twenty five in advance.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this has been best of both worlds. We'll be
Speaker 1: back next week in twenty twenty five with more on
Speaker 1: making work and life fit together.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening. You can find me Sarah at the
Speaker 2: shoebox dot com or at the Underscore Shoebox on Instagram,
Speaker 2: and you can.
Speaker 1: Find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. This has
Speaker 1: been the best of both worlds podcasts.
Speaker 2: Please join us next time for more on making work
Speaker 2: and life work together.