December 31, 2024 • 38 mins
It's that time of here - here comes the annual goals ep, just in time for 2025!
Today, Sarah and Laura share their 2025 goals (in mostly-finalized form) in several domains: personal, work, relationships, and home!
In the Q&A, they discuss how often they review their own lists: seasonally or more?
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hi. I'm Laura Vanderkamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist,
and speaker.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
And I'm Sarah hart Hunger, a mother of three, practicing physician, writer,
and course creator. We are two working parents who love
our careers and our families.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Welcome to best of both worlds. Here we talk about
how real women manage work, family, and time for fun,
from figuring out childcare to mapping out long term career goals.
We want you to get the most out of life.
Welcome to best of both worlds. This is Laura. This
is our annual goals episode, Goals twenty twenty five. We
(00:48):
have been doing annual Goals episode for low these many years,
setting a lot of goals in the course of running
best of both worlds.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
We enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
We enjoy listening to other people's goals episodes. So, Sarah,
are you doing a twenty five for twenty twenty five
or a word of the year variation along those lines.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I'm just going to do a word of the year
this year. No fancy long list unless I come up
with something after this errs. But I am kind of
excited about my word of the year, which is finite.
So listeners may have seen that coming. I was really
into like the mortality theme last year, with Jodi Wellman's
You Only Die Once being like my favorite nonfiction book
(01:31):
of the year, just because Laura didn't release any by
the way, of course, and with Oliver Berkman's Meditation for
Mortals just kind of adding on to that. I just
I don't know, I'm like thinking about and maybe probably
just like hitting the middle of my life statistically. So yeah,
that's my word, and I feel like it has multiple applications,
like finite number of activities you can fit into each day,
(01:52):
as a reminder not to overload myself, and then just
of course, like the remembrance the time in our lives
in general is finite, which makes me want to plan
really well but also savor things while they're happening. I
think from a parenting perspective, also, I came to the
realization that when I replaced my five year journal my
next one, which I'll start in twenty twenty six, the
(02:13):
last year will be Annabel going to college. I'm like, like,
that was I mean, that's wild, Like the rest of
her schooling fits in another five year journal. Like anyway,
parenting is a finite journey. Life is a finite journey,
and so I'm excited about this word of the year. Okay,
what about you?
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yeah, I usually don't set words to the ear other.
I was considered doing influence as my word of the
year for twenty twenty five, although than when I said influence,
Sarah thought that I was going to become one of
these social media influencers, which I am not. So maybe
we need a different but similar word, such as impact.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
But I don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
I influence is different than impact and subtle semantic ways,
so maybe one of those. It's not really something I
do all that much. But as we've been thinking about
goals for the year, one of the ways we set
goals like life goals. Both of us have done lists
of one hundred dreams. Have you updated yours recently?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Sarah? I updated it at Best Laid Plans Lives. So
one of the sessions was led by Laura and she
talked about the hundred dreams, and because it was led
by her and not led by me, I was actually
able to be pretty present and do my own list making.
So that is the last time I've put together a
I usually start from scratch, like I don't I do
have some of the old lists because I've like blogged
(03:37):
them and stuff, but I usually like to just kind
of start from scratch with a new list when I
feel like making one. So that's the most recent one,
and yeah, it was fun to do. I'm not totally done,
Like I did not get to one hundred, but I
think I got to like forty or something.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, I mean while I was leading that session, So
I'm not sure that I really did a lot of
updating in the course of it. I mean, the last
time I did a full list was right before turning forty.
Did that on my blog in late twenty eighteen, and
I am now older than that, so maybe it's time
for an update. I don't necessarily consult the list when
I'm making annual goals list. I mean, I guess that
(04:12):
might be something to do. I did look at my
twenty ten list and my twenty fifteen list a while
ago in the course of creating some content this year,
and the upside is I actually have done a reasonable
number of the things that I put on it, not
all of them. I've still not been to New Zealand,
(04:32):
but I may be singing the b Minor Mass the
bach B minor mass and this comes out. So some
things are happening and some just through the course of
the kids getting older or are moving. In twenty ten,
we were not out in the urbs yet, so there's
certain things of just like moving out into the verbs
that happened as a result of that.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
But it's an idea.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
If people are looking for sources of inspiration for annual
goal lists, creating this long list of a hundred dreams
might be wise as a way to just sort of
get the creative juices going.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
I love it. Yeah, I kind of think I've yon
my share of annual planning seminars at this point. And
the problem is I can't really tell people to go
and whip up there are one hundred dreams lists because
most people don't have it. But I can see how
looking at a global list could be just one of
those nice triggers as you then sit down to make
your annual goals. So I need to think about that. Well,
maybe you.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Could strongly encourage people to do it as like their
pretty homework homework, right, like, try to get at least
fifty on there, and then that will get people started
and they can keep adding to it.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Over time. But yeah, so.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
We started working on our goals recently. I mean, you know, Sarah,
we a little bit of a philosophical thing here. We'll
tell you that when we were starting to do these notes,
Sarah was a little bit reluctant to send specific goals.
Now why was that, Sarah?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Because we're recording this and it's not even halfway through
December yet, and I'm just not quite feeling ready to
commit because I don't feel like I've done my full
process justice and I know what a good annual planning
process looks like. And I, as I said I during Live,
I was kind of an active participant when Laura was
(06:16):
leading it, but all the goal part I was leading it,
so I wasn't really there to like do my own stuff.
And I life has been very full, and I just
haven't done my own, like full big picture stuff. So
I still want to consider these like draft mode. I
think I'm close. I think I want to iron out
a few specifics as we'll talk about, because some of
them it's like, Okay, I have the idea, but I
(06:37):
don't have the mechanics entirely nailed down. But yeah, I
think it's just the time of year, and the fact
that I don't feel like I've done my official goal
setting yet, that I wasn't totally ready to be like
this is it on the stone tablet?
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah, because when we cycles, we actually do intend to
keep them. I mean that's the thing, like we won't
set one that we don't actually really want to do.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Oh for the most part, I think that's part.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Of taking one's goals seriously. I always think of November
and December as resolutions preseason that this is a good
time to you know, this is airing close to the
start of the new year, but for us, since we
were recording this in mid December, I think of this
time as like a football team in the weeks before
(07:23):
the season starts. I mean, you're practicing, you're doing some
games even, but they don't count for your standings. So
if you have some sort of goal you are thinking
of committing to instead of just saying like, oh, well,
maybe i'll start on January first, and then you're trying
to figure it out and you don't know how it'll
fit in your life. It's not very specific. You can
(07:44):
spend the weeks before the start of the new year
ironing all those things out, saying, well, what is appealing
about this goal? Well, how can I make it specific?
What's something that would fit into my regular life and
that I am excited about? And then you test drive
it for a while. Right, If there's something we want
to do, you try it out, because there's nothing magical
happens January first. You're not going to be a different person.
So if you absolutely cannot make it fit on December seventeen,
(08:07):
there's no reason to think that you will on January second,
so it's worth trying it out totally.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
And I made a slight face when you said, oh,
when we set goals, we want to do them all
or something. And I guess my only thing is, like
I have an attitude of like in an ideal world,
but I don't like expect to get all my goals done,
if that makes sense, Like I will consider it a
very successful year if I bat like sixty or seventy percent.
And I think that helps me not get like to
(08:36):
like upset or rigid about setting them to begin with,
or too frustrated with myself when inevitably I don't get
some of them done and we'll talk about it. But like,
there's many goals I set so many times and failed
and then ultimately succeeded. So I know for my own
story that that's possible, and it doesn't mean that just
because you couldn't do something one year doesn't mean you
can never do it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
All right, Well, with that in mind, I guess we
can go ahead and get it started. So Sarah Personal
goals for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Yay, all right. Well, I'm going to be like Captain
boring and obvious and start with some fitness stuff and
I want to strength train at least one hundred times,
so that would be an average of about two times
a week, so that should be a doable number. I
have to put strength kind of on my goals list.
It's not automatically going to happen. I know I'm going
(09:26):
to run, but I do not know that I will
do strength. But I think it's so incredibly important for many,
many reasons. So one hundred strength training sessions. I'm going
to leave it open as to what those will look like,
whether they will be following an online thing, working with
a trainer, doing a class. That part I'm gonna explore,
and I'm fine if it's a mix of all those things,
like it doesn't have to be one thing all year,
(09:46):
but one hundred sessions I'm committed to. And then this
one's a little difficult. But I would like to run
Boston Marathon in April of twenty twenty six, and I
do not know whether twenty twenty five whether I will
need to try to run a good, safe Boston qualifying time,
because as this airs, I haven't run my Discember marathon
(10:06):
yet and I don't know how that's going to go.
So I guess I will just have like this contingent
if I do not run a great race, if I
do not run sub three p forty on my December race,
then my goal will be to do so in somewhere
in the spring.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
All right.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
I would like to work on my wardrobe this year.
I wanted to do that. Last year I didn't do it,
And this time I got a little bit more specific
about the items I wish to buy, because I think
that will help me just be more concrete about things
I need. Jeans. My jeans are like literally falling apart.
Like I've had multiple people ask me with a skeptical
look on their face, is that hole? Did you put
it there? Was it? Like fashion and I was like,
(10:44):
it's my own hole. It's time to like on facele. Yeah.
So I have one pair of presentable jeans and I
need like two more so because that's kind of what
I wear on my non work days a lot of
the time. That and beery joggers, which is not great.
So yeah, two pairs of jeans. I want to get
two presentable tops that are not T shirts. I want
one professional outfit for speaking and globally. I would like
(11:08):
to invest more in my clothing, not counting super shoes,
than I did in twenty twenty four, which should not
be hard because I did not invest much at all
twenty twenty four. Then I played around with I really
want to read more again. I mean I generally read
a lot, but I just I don't know. I had
a bad slump towards the end of twenty twenty four
that I haven't fully recovered from, and I was like,
what would be the most kind of easy, like no
(11:31):
pressure type of goal. And I think for me, I
came up with read ten minutes of nonfiction a day
and ten minutes of fiction to day. Now I can
read more than that, certainly, and I'm sure I will
many days. But if I'm like, eh, it's just ten minutes,
Like who cares? Like that will add up to a
lot of books, because I probably will end up reading
far more than ten minutes when I get into a book.
And this is a sub goal that I didn't write down.
(11:52):
But I need to be quicker at abandoning books that
I don't like. I mean, really, if I have like
a week where I'm barely making any headway, I just
need to move on. It means the book is not good.
It's not me, it's the book. And then this is
not like a goal goal. But I really enjoy the
practice of like tracking my media. I do it every
day in my hope nichi, and I am just excited
(12:14):
to like make that a consistent practice in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Awesome, Well we'll take a quick ad break and then
I'll be back talking about my personal goals. Well we
are back. This is our annual Goals episode, setting our
(12:38):
goals for twenty twenty five. And I'm with Sarah that
because we're recording this in mid December, maybe these are
still sort of draft goals. So my personal goals for
the year, you know, in twenty twenty four, I listen
to all the works of Bach, and so sort of
a logical continuation of that would be to listen to
all the works of Beethoven. In twenty twenty five. There
(12:58):
are a couple people who we're listening to BAC who
are doing this. The crew that listened to Bak is
going to be listening to Beethoven, so obviously, you know,
if I want to keep up with.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Them, we could do that.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
There we found a calendar, so I don't even have
to create one, which is an added bonus since I
created the back catalog and it was a ton of work,
so I'm pretty sure that will.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Wind up being my goal.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
I thought it might also or in place that read
Ana Karinya, the other Tolstoi book. I read Warren Piece
in twenty twenty one a chapter a day, and a
Karnina is you know, there's some debate on how we
say that, but anyway, it's about two hundred and sixty
two hundred and seventy chapters. So that would also lend
itself to at least a couple months, you know, nine
months of the year reading a chapter a day.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
But I could do that as well.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
I don't know, but those are kind of the two
that I was weighing with that another personal goal, I
am going to eat produce for breakfast.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
And so is that vegetables fruit or booth fruit, vegetables, fruit, avensibals?
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Okay, and this is with the goal of eating more
fruits and vegetables in general.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
But I figure that's kind of vague.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
So one way to make this doable is to eat
a serving with breakfast, because that tends to be a
meal that I'm probably not usually eating fruits or vegetables,
So if I add that in there, that will most
likely be in addition to what I am eating, and
I think it will also nudge me to have more
in the house, to have more that I like in
the house, to experiment with different things that I might
(14:30):
enjoy eating, So.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Produce for breakfast.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I am going to strength train twice a week, so
I'm working out once a week with my trainer, So
similar with Sarah, I'm I guess one hundred sessions would
be a good thing to commit to, and probably do
about fifty with my trainer, and then we'll probably do
fifty on my own. It doesn't have to be long
on my own, could just be you know, ten to
(14:55):
fifteen minutes. But yeah, those are my personal goals for
the year.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Awesome. Ooh, I was like really excited to find out
what like listening or reading. So I'll be interested to
see if you end up pursuing both the Beethoven and
the Enna Karenina.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Yeah, I know, how do we say her last name?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
People rave about that book though, so.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Well, I've read it before. I read it twenty years ago.
It was good, but yeah, it's been a long time
since I've read it, and I've been told you read
it differently as a middle aged person than you probably
do in your twenties.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
So yeah, it would be really fun to revisit like
books that you thought were super cool when you were
young and see how you feel about them, Like I
should reread The Bell Jar, and I think maybe you shouldn't.
I'll let you know. Okay, not on my goals list,
(15:50):
all right, anyway, Moving to work, all right, work, My
work goals are pretty much all in my creative work.
Not to say I don't have a gold be like
an excellent physician in my other work, but I just
feel like I'm more I don't want to say autopilot,
but I'm more settled there and there's more growth on
the other side. So my big one is that I
need to finish and launch my book into the world.
(16:12):
This will be my first experience I what a book
launch looks like. I'm scared. I do think this is
going to be like a ton of activity in January
and February, not a lot of stuff for a bunch
of months, and then like a frenzy towards the end
of the year. We'll see if I'm right. I do
want to put myself out there more in terms of
like pitch more than two podcasts like I did last year,
(16:35):
and maybe like see if I can expand speaking opportunities
things like that. I already have a couple on the
calendar that I'm excited about, but I don't know I
enjoy doing it, So maybe explore doing more of that.
We'll have a book coming out. Maybe they'll be like
those things will tie together. I want to improve if
I have one routine that I want to work on,
and I'm big on like just picking like one routine.
(16:56):
My like shutdown ritual is terrible. I mean, I talk
about it and I think it's very valuable, but I
can't seem to be like I am done. I've cleaned
up my loose ends. I'm not going to open my
work e mail up again. And it's annoying. It's annoying
to me. I want to shut down. So I'm gonna
work on that one specifically. And then this is real vague,
but because of the book work I think being very
(17:19):
beginning of the year, end of the year, and because
like I don't really have anything else work wise planned,
I feel like I just need some kind of fun
summer project to be determined to be.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Okay, well, that is a vague goal. I guess we
will find out next year what that was. That's what
you're reviewing.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Sorry, yeah, I'm gonna be like really but no, I mean,
maybe we'll check in, maybe we'll know what. But then
I'll definitely be able to unveil whatever it is. Maybe
I'll do like a Nano Orimo, but like in the summer,
like something like that. It's just something different, something different. Okay,
all right, sounds good.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
All right, So my work goals for the year for
twenty twenty five, I'm going to finish the book that
is currently being called Big Time and then lay the
groundwork for getting that out into the world, so very
similar to Sarah. My book deadline is April of this year,
and then it will likely come out in the first
quarter or so of twenty twenty six, so similar flory
(18:15):
to get it written first part of the year, a
little bit of time off, and then starting up the
promotion machine towards the end of the year. I want
to write a novel draft, so that might be my
summer project. Is I'm getting the itch to do some
more fiction, but I don't even have an idea yet,
So in order to make that happen, I really need
(18:36):
to spend some time thinking about it. I am going
to re up for one more year on sonnets. I'm
going to write fifty two more sonnets at the pace
of two lines a day. So you know, I've been
doing this for the past two years, have one hundred
and four sonnets by the time this airs, So I
guess I will have one hundred fifty six, or I
guess one hundred and fifty seven based on the number
(18:56):
of how the weeks go with a year. But yeah,
I really enjoyed doing this, and the discipline of doing
it over and over again means that you're constantly thinking
about it and then, like I said I've said before,
most are bad, sum are okay, a few I really like,
But it's by continuing to keep doing it that you
get more of the ones that you really like, and
(19:19):
so over the years that will add up. And then finally,
the last work goal I have is to grow vander
Hacks into somewhere between eight hundred and one thousand paid
subscribers by the end of twenty twenty five. So we're
currently at about four hundred, so that would just mean
(19:41):
doubling what happened in twenty twenty four, which theoretically sounds
like it should be doable. The issues, of course, your
biggest fans are the ones who sign up first, so
I have to find some more new big fans. So
somewhere between eight hundred and one thousand is where I
hope to end the year, and that would be a
(20:02):
good rate of growth and would make me feel like
this was a profitable project.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
And reminder listeners where they can sign up for that.
Oh yeah, well if you would like to sign up.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
I mean, if everyone listening to this sign up, we'd
have way more than a thousand paid subscribers. So if
you're listening to this, if you enjoy this content, you're thinking,
how can I get more of Laura? So I do
a short every weekday tip over at vander Hacks, which
is a substack newsletter. So if you go to substack
dot com and search for vander Hacks, you will find
(20:33):
me and you can sign up for a free subscription
to see if you like it. There are five posts
a week, three or free two or behind the paywall,
so hopefully you will like what you are getting in
your inbox every morning or if you check in the
substack app. But I really enjoyed doing that and would
love to have some more people join me there.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
And I think they would be a lovely like morning
ritual for someone. Yeah, if they're looking for different things
they want to start the day with, that would be
a nice, lie motivating.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Yeah. And I know some people listen to Before Breakfast,
which has sort of a similar theme of a weekday
morning tip, but I know not everyone likes to listen
to their tips, And so if you're more of a
reading person, this is a way to get at something
similar and just in an entirely different format.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Love it all?
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Right?
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Well, that was work. We are now at relationships and
I'm going to set in Gold. That was as vague
as last year. I need to make this less vague.
Well there's some specificity, Okay, So that's a goal, Sarah.
I still feel like the best thing I can do
for my family and my parenting is to have nice
(21:43):
one on one experiences with each of the members of
my immediate family, and so I want to curate those
and seek those out as much as possible. With Annabel,
I want to make her gymnastics meets quality time. I mean,
it won't be just me going to all of them,
but for some of them. For Cameron, I want to
do some kind of solo excursion or day with him.
And then for Genevieve, I want to take her on
a seven year old trip. I did that with Annabel,
(22:05):
Josh took Cameron skiing, and then so Genevieve has some
ideas for what she wants to do. So I guess
that's kind of specific. But I also just globally want
to keep working on ways to get my kids one
on one, and I want to repeat my monthly date idea,
except this time, I think I'm gonna sit down with
Josh and we're gonna make a list of twelve restaurants
we want to try because we do love trying like
(22:27):
new and exciting cuisines, like either in Miami or Fort Lauderdale.
And I think it'd be really fun to have that
list to feel like we were going to go through.
We kind of did that last year where we didn't
formalize it or put it into one list, so I
think that will be fun, and I want to do
two short couples trips again. I also want to throw
a casual neighborhood hang. I've done this a couple of
years ago, but I didn't do it last year and
(22:48):
it was great, and we've had some new neighbors move in,
so I feel like I need to do it again.
And then I want to connect with my far flung
friends in person. So I'm hoping for, probably in addition
to seeing you, Laura, probably like two friend trips over
the course of the year, plus connecting with endocolleagues at
Pediatric Endocrine Society, So that would be a lot of
(23:09):
like meeting up with old friends, and I think that
would be great. Yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Well, I certainly love to have you come visit Philly
and I will make it to Fort Lauderdale in the
course of the year, probably at least twice. That seems
to be the regular rhythm of what we do. So yeah,
my relationship goals, I guess this could be sort of
personal or relationship. I want to go to three professional
sports events in the course of the year, and obviously
(23:36):
I'm probably going to go with someone. Maybe Michael could
be an older kid, I guess. But I want to
go to a Sixers game. I want to go to
a Phillies game, and I want to go to an
Eagles game. So that will take me through multiple seasons
of Philadelphia sports. Sadly, these Sixers are not doing all
(23:56):
that well, so that might be slightly less excite, which
was you know, as we're looking at dates, so that
we're like, well, do we choose like when they're playing
a really good team, like knowing they're gonna lose, but
at least we'll see a really good team play, or
you know, do we see a team they're more likely
to win, but then maybe the basketball won't be as great.
I don't know, tough choices, but the Phillies and the Eagles,
(24:18):
so you know, we'll go see them. I want to
host a holiday party, and I'm not specifying which holiday,
so it could be it could be the Arbor Day party,
but it will I mean most likely would be in
November in December. But you know, as we get more
and more festive decorations in this house, I think it
might be fun to share the joy of that, which
(24:42):
would be fun to do. But I'm not limiting myself
to only that. So if I decide to host a
different kind of party at some other point of the year,
maybe I'll just tie it to some holiday that is
occurring around then. I am going to be launching my
first kid out of the nest. Over the of the
next year. Think of this project as enjoying our last
(25:05):
eight months together. I know, Jasper and I actually have
a trip planned as part of our choir We're going
on to acchoir tour together this summer, which will be
a lot of fun. But also think about, you know,
what does he need to know, Like, what are sort
of life skills that one needs to succeed in a
new environment and you thinking about that, and then the
(25:26):
last three months or so of twenty twenty five, he
will be most likely starting school somewhere and so kind
of thinking about how it can be supportive during that transition. So, yeah,
that'll be a big thing. And then my last one
is kind of thinking of ourself as a musical family,
(25:46):
and I want all the kids to be in some
sort of music by the end of twenty twenty five.
And everyone is now except Henry. So I will start
Henry probably as he starts kindergarten. That's a good time
to Yeah, he could join the church children's choir. He
could start doing piano lessons. I think it would be
good to get him started on that. And then about
(26:09):
with that, you know, practicing myself modeling what it means
to be a working musician. I'm practicing frequently, both piano
and voice and how one makes that part of one's life.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
I love that. If my husband heard this, he'd be
so jealous. I think he wants us to be a
musical family. We stabvil, but that's awesome. I'm very impressed
that all of your kids and then soon Henry as well,
will be doing some kind of music. That's amazing. All right, Well,
(26:50):
we have one more category because I again, again I
like it for myself. All right, so I dragged Laura along. Okay, Well,
what's the category, Sarah, the categories household? No, I said it, okay,
it's household, and I have two things. One I forgot
to write here, but I want to try again with
(27:11):
my reading goal. I really think my kids actually need
to develop the ability or work on the ability to
sit there and read for thirty minutes, and not everybody
seems to do that very easily, So that is my goal.
Genevieve still isn't totally independent with her reading, but I
(27:33):
think there are some great solutions to that, like maybe
audiobooks would be kind of her surrogate for a little
while as she follows along. But Josh is also very
interested in this, so I think that will help, just
kind of having both family members on board, just like
as I wanted to do it before. I don't care
what they read. It could be a graphic novel, it
could be like I will supply them with whatever book.
(27:53):
I just want this to be ideally a weekly, regular
habit that we all just start to establish together. And
we can still all enjoy screens absolutely, but I need
to preserve their ability to focus and read.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
So you think you want to have a regular family
reading time?
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Yes, yes, Okay, even if it's everyone thirty minutes thirty
minutes okay, low bar oh, And someone had the idea
of like making like a baked good like as part
or like having like a fun snack to go with that.
So if it takes that to make the family excited
about it, I will try that. But yeah, family reading,
and then I did give myself a break from wanting
to organize my house in twenty twenty four, but I'm
(28:30):
back to wanting to organize my house in twenty twenty five,
and this time I'm planning on possibly outsourcing some of
this to either our nanny and or possibly a professional.
I don't have my plan in place of how I
want to do this, but I kind of just want
to go like category by category over the course of
(28:50):
the year. I don't see it as a one and
done thing, but like we're not doing the basic maintenance
of clearing stuff out, Like my kids have clothing in
their drawers that does not fit them. It's just the
bar is not that high for what I mean by organized,
but we're not reaching it.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
So so yeah, I was gonna say, like, what's the
actual goal here, Like how will we know when we
record at the end of twenty twenty five that Sarah
has met this goal.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
I want to have like gone through every room and
mostly just decluttered stuff that really doesn't belong there. That's
the main thing. It doesn't have to be arranged artfully,
but our draws can't be crammed with like random stuff.
I mean, it's not like dire dire, but I don't
want it to get there. And I mean to some extent,
(29:38):
we have a decent sized house and I just feel
like we've just like let ourselves fill the space. But
then sometimes it really you know, it's like where are
the keys while the key bin has like forty different
items in there that like don't need to be there,
like things like that. Like I just it's time and
if I'm not able to do this on my own,
which I may not be, then it's time to bring
in the troops of some kind.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Understn't know what understood well, you know, and you've pointed
out that you can not fail, but like I mean,
you could not reach sort of your oh yeah, ar
of a goal multiple years and then keep putting it
on there and then eventually do it. It's not that
it's going to move forward forever. That you know, might
six years but then happen.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Yes, And I'm comfortable with that. I mean, I had
flossing was a goal for me like in my thirty
or twenties and thirties, like for like years, and like
that's something I do regularly without even thinking about strength training.
I did fall off the wagon this year, but generally
have been pretty good about it in recent years. And
that was something I used to fail at, like every year,
book writing, state planning, like there have been so many
(30:39):
things that I have just put on there and it
just takes the right like set of conditions and sometimes
reframing it or getting help. And actually it's kind of
interesting to think about what helps you move forward on
a goal that you get stuck on, and that could
be a whole other episode. But I have no shame
in putting something on there that's been on there before,
and I hope this will be the year. Yeah. No,
I mean there's nothing wrong with trying a goal again.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I mean I'd put you know, write a collection of
seasonal sonnets on my list of one hundred dreams year
many many times and had not done it, and then
finally found a way that I could do it, which
is riding the two lines a day over the course
of the year, and that made me stick with it.
Or goals like singing the B Minor Mass. I didn't
(31:23):
pull that off as an annual goal without knowing that
there was going to be a way to do it.
But you can try things again. That's definitely true. I
would say my household goal, I'm going to expand my
miniature scenes. This is a fun goal because it means
I get to buy things and I get to put
them in my office. And I have a number of
little room vignettes. I have a kitchen, I have a
(31:45):
living room, I have a laundry room, I have a bedroom.
I may be getting for Christmas a bathroom.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
How was that fun?
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Like, you know, get a little uh, but it has
to ship from Australia so it hasn't gotten here yet.
But it was bathtub, toilet, cabinet, various sink.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Can you turn the water on?
Speaker 1 (32:06):
No, there was no plumbing in my miniature scene. That
would be a little bit. You can put lights in
fairly easy. Plumbing would be harder to pull off. You
need like a little bucket of water under it. That'd
be cool though, But I've also enjoyed getting the accessories, Like,
so Ruth got me a bunch of little kitchen accessories
for my birthday, Like there were little cereal boxes and
(32:29):
a fruit bowl and it's endless, Like.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
You could do this forever.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
And I was stymied on this for years because I
didn't have a dollhouse.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
And I was like, well, I gotta make my dollhouse,
you know.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
I got to buy the dollhouse kit, and I bought
a dollhouse kit, but then I didn't build because, like,
woodworking is not on my goals, Like I don't really
want to like build this thing. That's not the part
of it I like. And a lot of the prefab
ones are just not very good. So I was either
going to have to hire somebody to make me a dollhouse,
which I could, but that's its separate project. But then
(33:01):
I was like, well, I like the rooms, like when
I go to see like when I'm at the Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago, I go see the miniature rooms,
like the rooms in the wall. They don't have a dollhouse.
They have the rooms in the wall. Or the Indianapolis
Children Museum also has a bunch of rooms in the wall.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
I'll do that. You know. That's good. So, yeah, I
can't wait to see them. I've seen the ones you
have now, so it's going to expand. It's exciting. Yeah,
it is, all right.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
So moving to our question section, how often would you
review these goal lists? So we've made this goal list.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
So I, with my nested goal system, kind of have
the practice of pulling it out every season. And I
have to say doing this formally with others via planning
by season in twenty twenty four was helpful because I
got my list out every time too, and I'm like,
this is actually great, like a planned opportunity that I'm
forced to look at this and figure out like what
actually fits for the season. So I think season works
(34:00):
really really well for this, whether it's quarterly or quintiles
or however you like to organize the year. I guess
I will mention that I am doing planning by season
twenty twenty five, so if you want to review your
annual goals with me and plan your seasons with me
next year, you can, But doing it on your own
absolutely works too. Or maybe some people might benefit from monthly,
(34:21):
but I don't know, four or five times a year,
I feel like keeps the novelty and like it isn't
too much pressure but also will remind you of what
you planned and you won't forget about it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
I mean the daily stuff is pretty easy because it
is in fact daily, so unless I got really off
of it, I think I would remember things like you know,
listening to the music, writing the sonnets. Some of them
will be a little bit trickier to remember. But I
guess we do our check in in June, our mid
year check in, so that's always a good chance to
(34:50):
do it. I would probably do season as well. Probably
I should do one in mid spring, one for June
for our check in at kind of the beginning of
the fall. I think those would all be good times
to check in and see that I've staying on track.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
I've also seen other people do really interesting things with
their list, like if they really want to be reminded,
they'll like make it their screensaver, or like print out
a copy and put it above their desk or stuff
like that. Yeah. I generally like it more intermittent, but hey,
I think whatever you.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Can note on the bathroom mirror, hey, you know every
morning you're looking at it, am I achieving my goals
yet if not, why not, Well, you know it would
be good to remind ourselves of that at least somewhat.
All right, So, Sarah, love of the week, What is
your love of the week?
Speaker 2 (35:35):
This time a blog reader turned me onto year end
lists dot Com. So you guys know, I love my
best music of twenty twenty four and best books and
best whatever from various sources. But then sometimes it's Paywalt
or whatever, and like this is a site that like
aggregates all of them, and it's so fun to just
read through and like get ideas for movies you might
(35:56):
want to see your books read or music to listen
to it. I think even at a podcast category, I
didn't click on that. I'm sure we're number one, like obviously,
but yeah, super fun resource. Year end lists dot.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Com, Year end Lists dot Com. Yeah that sounds like
a website made precisely for you, Sarah. They're like, who
is our target audience? It is Sarah, it is me.
Well probably a lot of other people too. Yeah. I
mean I would say I like the idea of very
specific goals, and partly I think it is that sort
(36:29):
of resolutions preseason noodling on it where you come up
with how to make a goal specific. So something like
eating produce for breakfast is very specific, and I know,
well I have I done it, have I not. It's
something that I can think about every morning. But just
the idea of turning a vaguer goal like I want
to eat more fruits and vegetables into something that is
(36:51):
truly doable, like I want to listen to more classical
music and became listening to thirty minutes of Bach last
year and I guess this year. Yeah, but the idea
of being very specific in the goals helps make them
feel more exciting, I think, even because it's not like, oh, well,
(37:12):
I guess I got to figure out how to fit
this into life, and even to remind myself of it frequently,
it's just like, no, this is something that's concrete that
I can do.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Yes. Yeah, you feel more of a sense of achievement
when you checked it off, when you know it was
exactly what you like sit out to do exactly.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
All right, Well, this has been best of both worlds.
We've done our annual goals episode. We'll check back in
over the course of the year. If we have done
these things, we'll definitely be talking about it at probably
the end of June, certainly at the end of twenty
twenty five. It's funny to think about twenty twenty five,
Laura and Sarah sitting here discussing the year. But I'm
(37:48):
sure it will have been a year one way or another.
The time is going to pass, and hopefully it will
be filled with many wonderful things. We hope it is
filled with many wonderful things for our listeners as well.
So thank you for listening to us in twenty twenty four.
Here's another great year together.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
Yes, Happy New Year, Happy twenty twenty five in advance.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Yeah, this has been best of both worlds. We'll be
back next week in twenty twenty five with more on
making work and life fit together.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Thanks for listening. You can find me Sarah at the
shoebox dot com or at the Underscore Shoebox on Instagram,
and you can.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. This has
been the best of both worlds podcasts.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Please join us next time for more on making work
and life work together.
Hi. I'm Laura Vanderkamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist,
and speaker.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
And I'm Sarah hart Hunger, a mother of three, practicing physician, writer,
and course creator. We are two working parents who love
our careers and our families.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Welcome to best of both worlds. Here we talk about
how real women manage work, family, and time for fun,
from figuring out childcare to mapping out long term career goals.
We want you to get the most out of life.
Welcome to best of both worlds. This is Laura. This
is our annual goals episode, Goals twenty twenty five. We
(00:48):
have been doing annual Goals episode for low these many years,
setting a lot of goals in the course of running
best of both worlds.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
We enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
We enjoy listening to other people's goals episodes. So, Sarah,
are you doing a twenty five for twenty twenty five
or a word of the year variation along those lines.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I'm just going to do a word of the year
this year. No fancy long list unless I come up
with something after this errs. But I am kind of
excited about my word of the year, which is finite.
So listeners may have seen that coming. I was really
into like the mortality theme last year, with Jodi Wellman's
You Only Die Once being like my favorite nonfiction book
(01:31):
of the year, just because Laura didn't release any by
the way, of course, and with Oliver Berkman's Meditation for
Mortals just kind of adding on to that. I just
I don't know, I'm like thinking about and maybe probably
just like hitting the middle of my life statistically. So yeah,
that's my word, and I feel like it has multiple applications,
like finite number of activities you can fit into each day,
(01:52):
as a reminder not to overload myself, and then just
of course, like the remembrance the time in our lives
in general is finite, which makes me want to plan
really well but also savor things while they're happening. I
think from a parenting perspective, also, I came to the
realization that when I replaced my five year journal my
next one, which I'll start in twenty twenty six, the
(02:13):
last year will be Annabel going to college. I'm like, like,
that was I mean, that's wild, Like the rest of
her schooling fits in another five year journal. Like anyway,
parenting is a finite journey. Life is a finite journey,
and so I'm excited about this word of the year. Okay,
what about you?
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yeah, I usually don't set words to the ear other.
I was considered doing influence as my word of the
year for twenty twenty five, although than when I said influence,
Sarah thought that I was going to become one of
these social media influencers, which I am not. So maybe
we need a different but similar word, such as impact.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
But I don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
I influence is different than impact and subtle semantic ways,
so maybe one of those. It's not really something I
do all that much. But as we've been thinking about
goals for the year, one of the ways we set
goals like life goals. Both of us have done lists
of one hundred dreams. Have you updated yours recently?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Sarah? I updated it at Best Laid Plans Lives. So
one of the sessions was led by Laura and she
talked about the hundred dreams, and because it was led
by her and not led by me, I was actually
able to be pretty present and do my own list making.
So that is the last time I've put together a
I usually start from scratch, like I don't I do
have some of the old lists because I've like blogged
(03:37):
them and stuff, but I usually like to just kind
of start from scratch with a new list when I
feel like making one. So that's the most recent one,
and yeah, it was fun to do. I'm not totally done,
Like I did not get to one hundred, but I
think I got to like forty or something.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, I mean while I was leading that session, So
I'm not sure that I really did a lot of
updating in the course of it. I mean, the last
time I did a full list was right before turning forty.
Did that on my blog in late twenty eighteen, and
I am now older than that, so maybe it's time
for an update. I don't necessarily consult the list when
I'm making annual goals list. I mean, I guess that
(04:12):
might be something to do. I did look at my
twenty ten list and my twenty fifteen list a while
ago in the course of creating some content this year,
and the upside is I actually have done a reasonable
number of the things that I put on it, not
all of them. I've still not been to New Zealand,
(04:32):
but I may be singing the b Minor Mass the
bach B minor mass and this comes out. So some
things are happening and some just through the course of
the kids getting older or are moving. In twenty ten,
we were not out in the urbs yet, so there's
certain things of just like moving out into the verbs
that happened as a result of that.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
But it's an idea.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
If people are looking for sources of inspiration for annual
goal lists, creating this long list of a hundred dreams
might be wise as a way to just sort of
get the creative juices going.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
I love it. Yeah, I kind of think I've yon
my share of annual planning seminars at this point. And
the problem is I can't really tell people to go
and whip up there are one hundred dreams lists because
most people don't have it. But I can see how
looking at a global list could be just one of
those nice triggers as you then sit down to make
your annual goals. So I need to think about that. Well,
maybe you.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Could strongly encourage people to do it as like their
pretty homework homework, right, like, try to get at least
fifty on there, and then that will get people started
and they can keep adding to it.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Over time. But yeah, so.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
We started working on our goals recently. I mean, you know, Sarah,
we a little bit of a philosophical thing here. We'll
tell you that when we were starting to do these notes,
Sarah was a little bit reluctant to send specific goals.
Now why was that, Sarah?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Because we're recording this and it's not even halfway through
December yet, and I'm just not quite feeling ready to
commit because I don't feel like I've done my full
process justice and I know what a good annual planning
process looks like. And I, as I said I during Live,
I was kind of an active participant when Laura was
(06:16):
leading it, but all the goal part I was leading it,
so I wasn't really there to like do my own stuff.
And I life has been very full, and I just
haven't done my own, like full big picture stuff. So
I still want to consider these like draft mode. I
think I'm close. I think I want to iron out
a few specifics as we'll talk about, because some of
them it's like, Okay, I have the idea, but I
(06:37):
don't have the mechanics entirely nailed down. But yeah, I
think it's just the time of year, and the fact
that I don't feel like I've done my official goal
setting yet, that I wasn't totally ready to be like
this is it on the stone tablet?
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah, because when we cycles, we actually do intend to
keep them. I mean that's the thing, like we won't
set one that we don't actually really want to do.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Oh for the most part, I think that's part.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Of taking one's goals seriously. I always think of November
and December as resolutions preseason that this is a good
time to you know, this is airing close to the
start of the new year, but for us, since we
were recording this in mid December, I think of this
time as like a football team in the weeks before
(07:23):
the season starts. I mean, you're practicing, you're doing some
games even, but they don't count for your standings. So
if you have some sort of goal you are thinking
of committing to instead of just saying like, oh, well,
maybe i'll start on January first, and then you're trying
to figure it out and you don't know how it'll
fit in your life. It's not very specific. You can
(07:44):
spend the weeks before the start of the new year
ironing all those things out, saying, well, what is appealing
about this goal? Well, how can I make it specific?
What's something that would fit into my regular life and
that I am excited about? And then you test drive
it for a while. Right, If there's something we want
to do, you try it out, because there's nothing magical
happens January first. You're not going to be a different person.
So if you absolutely cannot make it fit on December seventeen,
(08:07):
there's no reason to think that you will on January second,
so it's worth trying it out totally.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
And I made a slight face when you said, oh,
when we set goals, we want to do them all
or something. And I guess my only thing is, like
I have an attitude of like in an ideal world,
but I don't like expect to get all my goals done,
if that makes sense, Like I will consider it a
very successful year if I bat like sixty or seventy percent.
And I think that helps me not get like to
(08:36):
like upset or rigid about setting them to begin with,
or too frustrated with myself when inevitably I don't get
some of them done and we'll talk about it. But like,
there's many goals I set so many times and failed
and then ultimately succeeded. So I know for my own
story that that's possible, and it doesn't mean that just
because you couldn't do something one year doesn't mean you
can never do it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
All right, Well, with that in mind, I guess we
can go ahead and get it started. So Sarah Personal
goals for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Yay, all right. Well, I'm going to be like Captain
boring and obvious and start with some fitness stuff and
I want to strength train at least one hundred times,
so that would be an average of about two times
a week, so that should be a doable number. I
have to put strength kind of on my goals list.
It's not automatically going to happen. I know I'm going
(09:26):
to run, but I do not know that I will
do strength. But I think it's so incredibly important for many,
many reasons. So one hundred strength training sessions. I'm going
to leave it open as to what those will look like,
whether they will be following an online thing, working with
a trainer, doing a class. That part I'm gonna explore,
and I'm fine if it's a mix of all those things,
like it doesn't have to be one thing all year,
(09:46):
but one hundred sessions I'm committed to. And then this
one's a little difficult. But I would like to run
Boston Marathon in April of twenty twenty six, and I
do not know whether twenty twenty five whether I will
need to try to run a good, safe Boston qualifying time,
because as this airs, I haven't run my Discember marathon
(10:06):
yet and I don't know how that's going to go.
So I guess I will just have like this contingent
if I do not run a great race, if I
do not run sub three p forty on my December race,
then my goal will be to do so in somewhere
in the spring.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
All right.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
I would like to work on my wardrobe this year.
I wanted to do that. Last year I didn't do it,
And this time I got a little bit more specific
about the items I wish to buy, because I think
that will help me just be more concrete about things
I need. Jeans. My jeans are like literally falling apart.
Like I've had multiple people ask me with a skeptical
look on their face, is that hole? Did you put
it there? Was it? Like fashion and I was like,
(10:44):
it's my own hole. It's time to like on facele. Yeah.
So I have one pair of presentable jeans and I
need like two more so because that's kind of what
I wear on my non work days a lot of
the time. That and beery joggers, which is not great.
So yeah, two pairs of jeans. I want to get
two presentable tops that are not T shirts. I want
one professional outfit for speaking and globally. I would like
(11:08):
to invest more in my clothing, not counting super shoes,
than I did in twenty twenty four, which should not
be hard because I did not invest much at all
twenty twenty four. Then I played around with I really
want to read more again. I mean I generally read
a lot, but I just I don't know. I had
a bad slump towards the end of twenty twenty four
that I haven't fully recovered from, and I was like,
what would be the most kind of easy, like no
(11:31):
pressure type of goal. And I think for me, I
came up with read ten minutes of nonfiction a day
and ten minutes of fiction to day. Now I can
read more than that, certainly, and I'm sure I will
many days. But if I'm like, eh, it's just ten minutes,
Like who cares? Like that will add up to a
lot of books, because I probably will end up reading
far more than ten minutes when I get into a book.
And this is a sub goal that I didn't write down.
(11:52):
But I need to be quicker at abandoning books that
I don't like. I mean, really, if I have like
a week where I'm barely making any headway, I just
need to move on. It means the book is not good.
It's not me, it's the book. And then this is
not like a goal goal. But I really enjoy the
practice of like tracking my media. I do it every
day in my hope nichi, and I am just excited
(12:14):
to like make that a consistent practice in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Awesome, Well we'll take a quick ad break and then
I'll be back talking about my personal goals. Well we
are back. This is our annual Goals episode, setting our
(12:38):
goals for twenty twenty five. And I'm with Sarah that
because we're recording this in mid December, maybe these are
still sort of draft goals. So my personal goals for
the year, you know, in twenty twenty four, I listen
to all the works of Bach, and so sort of
a logical continuation of that would be to listen to
all the works of Beethoven. In twenty twenty five. There
(12:58):
are a couple people who we're listening to BAC who
are doing this. The crew that listened to Bak is
going to be listening to Beethoven, so obviously, you know,
if I want to keep up with.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Them, we could do that.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
There we found a calendar, so I don't even have
to create one, which is an added bonus since I
created the back catalog and it was a ton of work,
so I'm pretty sure that will.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Wind up being my goal.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
I thought it might also or in place that read
Ana Karinya, the other Tolstoi book. I read Warren Piece
in twenty twenty one a chapter a day, and a
Karnina is you know, there's some debate on how we
say that, but anyway, it's about two hundred and sixty
two hundred and seventy chapters. So that would also lend
itself to at least a couple months, you know, nine
months of the year reading a chapter a day.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
But I could do that as well.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
I don't know, but those are kind of the two
that I was weighing with that another personal goal, I
am going to eat produce for breakfast.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
And so is that vegetables fruit or booth fruit, vegetables, fruit, avensibals?
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Okay, and this is with the goal of eating more
fruits and vegetables in general.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
But I figure that's kind of vague.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
So one way to make this doable is to eat
a serving with breakfast, because that tends to be a
meal that I'm probably not usually eating fruits or vegetables,
So if I add that in there, that will most
likely be in addition to what I am eating, and
I think it will also nudge me to have more
in the house, to have more that I like in
the house, to experiment with different things that I might
(14:30):
enjoy eating, So.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Produce for breakfast.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I am going to strength train twice a week, so
I'm working out once a week with my trainer, So
similar with Sarah, I'm I guess one hundred sessions would
be a good thing to commit to, and probably do
about fifty with my trainer, and then we'll probably do
fifty on my own. It doesn't have to be long
on my own, could just be you know, ten to
(14:55):
fifteen minutes. But yeah, those are my personal goals for
the year.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Awesome. Ooh, I was like really excited to find out
what like listening or reading. So I'll be interested to
see if you end up pursuing both the Beethoven and
the Enna Karenina.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Yeah, I know, how do we say her last name?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
People rave about that book though, so.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Well, I've read it before. I read it twenty years ago.
It was good, but yeah, it's been a long time
since I've read it, and I've been told you read
it differently as a middle aged person than you probably
do in your twenties.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
So yeah, it would be really fun to revisit like
books that you thought were super cool when you were
young and see how you feel about them, Like I
should reread The Bell Jar, and I think maybe you shouldn't.
I'll let you know. Okay, not on my goals list,
(15:50):
all right, anyway, Moving to work, all right, work, My
work goals are pretty much all in my creative work.
Not to say I don't have a gold be like
an excellent physician in my other work, but I just
feel like I'm more I don't want to say autopilot,
but I'm more settled there and there's more growth on
the other side. So my big one is that I
need to finish and launch my book into the world.
(16:12):
This will be my first experience I what a book
launch looks like. I'm scared. I do think this is
going to be like a ton of activity in January
and February, not a lot of stuff for a bunch
of months, and then like a frenzy towards the end
of the year. We'll see if I'm right. I do
want to put myself out there more in terms of
like pitch more than two podcasts like I did last year,
(16:35):
and maybe like see if I can expand speaking opportunities
things like that. I already have a couple on the
calendar that I'm excited about, but I don't know I
enjoy doing it, So maybe explore doing more of that.
We'll have a book coming out. Maybe they'll be like
those things will tie together. I want to improve if
I have one routine that I want to work on,
and I'm big on like just picking like one routine.
(16:56):
My like shutdown ritual is terrible. I mean, I talk
about it and I think it's very valuable, but I
can't seem to be like I am done. I've cleaned
up my loose ends. I'm not going to open my
work e mail up again. And it's annoying. It's annoying
to me. I want to shut down. So I'm gonna
work on that one specifically. And then this is real vague,
but because of the book work I think being very
(17:19):
beginning of the year, end of the year, and because
like I don't really have anything else work wise planned,
I feel like I just need some kind of fun
summer project to be determined to be.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Okay, well, that is a vague goal. I guess we
will find out next year what that was. That's what
you're reviewing.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Sorry, yeah, I'm gonna be like really but no, I mean,
maybe we'll check in, maybe we'll know what. But then
I'll definitely be able to unveil whatever it is. Maybe
I'll do like a Nano Orimo, but like in the summer,
like something like that. It's just something different, something different. Okay,
all right, sounds good.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
All right, So my work goals for the year for
twenty twenty five, I'm going to finish the book that
is currently being called Big Time and then lay the
groundwork for getting that out into the world, so very
similar to Sarah. My book deadline is April of this year,
and then it will likely come out in the first
quarter or so of twenty twenty six, so similar flory
(18:15):
to get it written first part of the year, a
little bit of time off, and then starting up the
promotion machine towards the end of the year. I want
to write a novel draft, so that might be my
summer project. Is I'm getting the itch to do some
more fiction, but I don't even have an idea yet,
So in order to make that happen, I really need
(18:36):
to spend some time thinking about it. I am going
to re up for one more year on sonnets. I'm
going to write fifty two more sonnets at the pace
of two lines a day. So you know, I've been
doing this for the past two years, have one hundred
and four sonnets by the time this airs, So I
guess I will have one hundred fifty six, or I
guess one hundred and fifty seven based on the number
(18:56):
of how the weeks go with a year. But yeah,
I really enjoyed doing this, and the discipline of doing
it over and over again means that you're constantly thinking
about it and then, like I said I've said before,
most are bad, sum are okay, a few I really like,
But it's by continuing to keep doing it that you
get more of the ones that you really like, and
(19:19):
so over the years that will add up. And then finally,
the last work goal I have is to grow vander
Hacks into somewhere between eight hundred and one thousand paid
subscribers by the end of twenty twenty five. So we're
currently at about four hundred, so that would just mean
(19:41):
doubling what happened in twenty twenty four, which theoretically sounds
like it should be doable. The issues, of course, your
biggest fans are the ones who sign up first, so
I have to find some more new big fans. So
somewhere between eight hundred and one thousand is where I
hope to end the year, and that would be a
(20:02):
good rate of growth and would make me feel like
this was a profitable project.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
And reminder listeners where they can sign up for that.
Oh yeah, well if you would like to sign up.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
I mean, if everyone listening to this sign up, we'd
have way more than a thousand paid subscribers. So if
you're listening to this, if you enjoy this content, you're thinking,
how can I get more of Laura? So I do
a short every weekday tip over at vander Hacks, which
is a substack newsletter. So if you go to substack
dot com and search for vander Hacks, you will find
(20:33):
me and you can sign up for a free subscription
to see if you like it. There are five posts
a week, three or free two or behind the paywall,
so hopefully you will like what you are getting in
your inbox every morning or if you check in the
substack app. But I really enjoyed doing that and would
love to have some more people join me there.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
And I think they would be a lovely like morning
ritual for someone. Yeah, if they're looking for different things
they want to start the day with, that would be
a nice, lie motivating.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Yeah. And I know some people listen to Before Breakfast,
which has sort of a similar theme of a weekday
morning tip, but I know not everyone likes to listen
to their tips, And so if you're more of a
reading person, this is a way to get at something
similar and just in an entirely different format.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Love it all?
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Right?
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Well, that was work. We are now at relationships and
I'm going to set in Gold. That was as vague
as last year. I need to make this less vague.
Well there's some specificity, Okay, So that's a goal, Sarah.
I still feel like the best thing I can do
for my family and my parenting is to have nice
(21:43):
one on one experiences with each of the members of
my immediate family, and so I want to curate those
and seek those out as much as possible. With Annabel,
I want to make her gymnastics meets quality time. I mean,
it won't be just me going to all of them,
but for some of them. For Cameron, I want to
do some kind of solo excursion or day with him.
And then for Genevieve, I want to take her on
a seven year old trip. I did that with Annabel,
(22:05):
Josh took Cameron skiing, and then so Genevieve has some
ideas for what she wants to do. So I guess
that's kind of specific. But I also just globally want
to keep working on ways to get my kids one
on one, and I want to repeat my monthly date idea,
except this time, I think I'm gonna sit down with
Josh and we're gonna make a list of twelve restaurants
we want to try because we do love trying like
(22:27):
new and exciting cuisines, like either in Miami or Fort Lauderdale.
And I think it'd be really fun to have that
list to feel like we were going to go through.
We kind of did that last year where we didn't
formalize it or put it into one list, so I
think that will be fun, and I want to do
two short couples trips again. I also want to throw
a casual neighborhood hang. I've done this a couple of
years ago, but I didn't do it last year and
(22:48):
it was great, and we've had some new neighbors move in,
so I feel like I need to do it again.
And then I want to connect with my far flung
friends in person. So I'm hoping for, probably in addition
to seeing you, Laura, probably like two friend trips over
the course of the year, plus connecting with endocolleagues at
Pediatric Endocrine Society, So that would be a lot of
(23:09):
like meeting up with old friends, and I think that
would be great. Yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Well, I certainly love to have you come visit Philly
and I will make it to Fort Lauderdale in the
course of the year, probably at least twice. That seems
to be the regular rhythm of what we do. So yeah,
my relationship goals, I guess this could be sort of
personal or relationship. I want to go to three professional
sports events in the course of the year, and obviously
(23:36):
I'm probably going to go with someone. Maybe Michael could
be an older kid, I guess. But I want to
go to a Sixers game. I want to go to
a Phillies game, and I want to go to an
Eagles game. So that will take me through multiple seasons
of Philadelphia sports. Sadly, these Sixers are not doing all
(23:56):
that well, so that might be slightly less excite, which
was you know, as we're looking at dates, so that
we're like, well, do we choose like when they're playing
a really good team, like knowing they're gonna lose, but
at least we'll see a really good team play, or
you know, do we see a team they're more likely
to win, but then maybe the basketball won't be as great.
I don't know, tough choices, but the Phillies and the Eagles,
(24:18):
so you know, we'll go see them. I want to
host a holiday party, and I'm not specifying which holiday,
so it could be it could be the Arbor Day party,
but it will I mean most likely would be in
November in December. But you know, as we get more
and more festive decorations in this house, I think it
might be fun to share the joy of that, which
(24:42):
would be fun to do. But I'm not limiting myself
to only that. So if I decide to host a
different kind of party at some other point of the year,
maybe I'll just tie it to some holiday that is
occurring around then. I am going to be launching my
first kid out of the nest. Over the of the
next year. Think of this project as enjoying our last
(25:05):
eight months together. I know, Jasper and I actually have
a trip planned as part of our choir We're going
on to acchoir tour together this summer, which will be
a lot of fun. But also think about, you know,
what does he need to know, Like, what are sort
of life skills that one needs to succeed in a
new environment and you thinking about that, and then the
(25:26):
last three months or so of twenty twenty five, he
will be most likely starting school somewhere and so kind
of thinking about how it can be supportive during that transition. So, yeah,
that'll be a big thing. And then my last one
is kind of thinking of ourself as a musical family,
(25:46):
and I want all the kids to be in some
sort of music by the end of twenty twenty five.
And everyone is now except Henry. So I will start
Henry probably as he starts kindergarten. That's a good time
to Yeah, he could join the church children's choir. He
could start doing piano lessons. I think it would be
good to get him started on that. And then about
(26:09):
with that, you know, practicing myself modeling what it means
to be a working musician. I'm practicing frequently, both piano
and voice and how one makes that part of one's life.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
I love that. If my husband heard this, he'd be
so jealous. I think he wants us to be a
musical family. We stabvil, but that's awesome. I'm very impressed
that all of your kids and then soon Henry as well,
will be doing some kind of music. That's amazing. All right, Well,
(26:50):
we have one more category because I again, again I
like it for myself. All right, so I dragged Laura along. Okay, Well,
what's the category, Sarah, the categories household? No, I said it, okay,
it's household, and I have two things. One I forgot
to write here, but I want to try again with
(27:11):
my reading goal. I really think my kids actually need
to develop the ability or work on the ability to
sit there and read for thirty minutes, and not everybody
seems to do that very easily, So that is my goal.
Genevieve still isn't totally independent with her reading, but I
(27:33):
think there are some great solutions to that, like maybe
audiobooks would be kind of her surrogate for a little
while as she follows along. But Josh is also very
interested in this, so I think that will help, just
kind of having both family members on board, just like
as I wanted to do it before. I don't care
what they read. It could be a graphic novel, it
could be like I will supply them with whatever book.
(27:53):
I just want this to be ideally a weekly, regular
habit that we all just start to establish together. And
we can still all enjoy screens absolutely, but I need
to preserve their ability to focus and read.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
So you think you want to have a regular family
reading time?
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Yes, yes, Okay, even if it's everyone thirty minutes thirty
minutes okay, low bar oh, And someone had the idea
of like making like a baked good like as part
or like having like a fun snack to go with that.
So if it takes that to make the family excited
about it, I will try that. But yeah, family reading,
and then I did give myself a break from wanting
to organize my house in twenty twenty four, but I'm
(28:30):
back to wanting to organize my house in twenty twenty five,
and this time I'm planning on possibly outsourcing some of
this to either our nanny and or possibly a professional.
I don't have my plan in place of how I
want to do this, but I kind of just want
to go like category by category over the course of
(28:50):
the year. I don't see it as a one and
done thing, but like we're not doing the basic maintenance
of clearing stuff out, Like my kids have clothing in
their drawers that does not fit them. It's just the
bar is not that high for what I mean by organized,
but we're not reaching it.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
So so yeah, I was gonna say, like, what's the
actual goal here, Like how will we know when we
record at the end of twenty twenty five that Sarah
has met this goal.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
I want to have like gone through every room and
mostly just decluttered stuff that really doesn't belong there. That's
the main thing. It doesn't have to be arranged artfully,
but our draws can't be crammed with like random stuff.
I mean, it's not like dire dire, but I don't
want it to get there. And I mean to some extent,
(29:38):
we have a decent sized house and I just feel
like we've just like let ourselves fill the space. But
then sometimes it really you know, it's like where are
the keys while the key bin has like forty different
items in there that like don't need to be there,
like things like that. Like I just it's time and
if I'm not able to do this on my own,
which I may not be, then it's time to bring
in the troops of some kind.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Understn't know what understood well, you know, and you've pointed
out that you can not fail, but like I mean,
you could not reach sort of your oh yeah, ar
of a goal multiple years and then keep putting it
on there and then eventually do it. It's not that
it's going to move forward forever. That you know, might
six years but then happen.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Yes, And I'm comfortable with that. I mean, I had
flossing was a goal for me like in my thirty
or twenties and thirties, like for like years, and like
that's something I do regularly without even thinking about strength training.
I did fall off the wagon this year, but generally
have been pretty good about it in recent years. And
that was something I used to fail at, like every year,
book writing, state planning, like there have been so many
(30:39):
things that I have just put on there and it
just takes the right like set of conditions and sometimes
reframing it or getting help. And actually it's kind of
interesting to think about what helps you move forward on
a goal that you get stuck on, and that could
be a whole other episode. But I have no shame
in putting something on there that's been on there before,
and I hope this will be the year. Yeah. No,
I mean there's nothing wrong with trying a goal again.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I mean I'd put you know, write a collection of
seasonal sonnets on my list of one hundred dreams year
many many times and had not done it, and then
finally found a way that I could do it, which
is riding the two lines a day over the course
of the year, and that made me stick with it.
Or goals like singing the B Minor Mass. I didn't
(31:23):
pull that off as an annual goal without knowing that
there was going to be a way to do it.
But you can try things again. That's definitely true. I
would say my household goal, I'm going to expand my
miniature scenes. This is a fun goal because it means
I get to buy things and I get to put
them in my office. And I have a number of
little room vignettes. I have a kitchen, I have a
(31:45):
living room, I have a laundry room, I have a bedroom.
I may be getting for Christmas a bathroom.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
How was that fun?
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Like, you know, get a little uh, but it has
to ship from Australia so it hasn't gotten here yet.
But it was bathtub, toilet, cabinet, various sink.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Can you turn the water on?
Speaker 1 (32:06):
No, there was no plumbing in my miniature scene. That
would be a little bit. You can put lights in
fairly easy. Plumbing would be harder to pull off. You
need like a little bucket of water under it. That'd
be cool though, But I've also enjoyed getting the accessories, Like,
so Ruth got me a bunch of little kitchen accessories
for my birthday, Like there were little cereal boxes and
(32:29):
a fruit bowl and it's endless, Like.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
You could do this forever.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
And I was stymied on this for years because I
didn't have a dollhouse.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
And I was like, well, I gotta make my dollhouse,
you know.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
I got to buy the dollhouse kit, and I bought
a dollhouse kit, but then I didn't build because, like,
woodworking is not on my goals, Like I don't really
want to like build this thing. That's not the part
of it I like. And a lot of the prefab
ones are just not very good. So I was either
going to have to hire somebody to make me a dollhouse,
which I could, but that's its separate project. But then
(33:01):
I was like, well, I like the rooms, like when
I go to see like when I'm at the Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago, I go see the miniature rooms,
like the rooms in the wall. They don't have a dollhouse.
They have the rooms in the wall. Or the Indianapolis
Children Museum also has a bunch of rooms in the wall.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
I'll do that. You know. That's good. So, yeah, I
can't wait to see them. I've seen the ones you
have now, so it's going to expand. It's exciting. Yeah,
it is, all right.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
So moving to our question section, how often would you
review these goal lists? So we've made this goal list.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
So I, with my nested goal system, kind of have
the practice of pulling it out every season. And I
have to say doing this formally with others via planning
by season in twenty twenty four was helpful because I
got my list out every time too, and I'm like,
this is actually great, like a planned opportunity that I'm
forced to look at this and figure out like what
actually fits for the season. So I think season works
(34:00):
really really well for this, whether it's quarterly or quintiles
or however you like to organize the year. I guess
I will mention that I am doing planning by season
twenty twenty five, so if you want to review your
annual goals with me and plan your seasons with me
next year, you can, But doing it on your own
absolutely works too. Or maybe some people might benefit from monthly,
(34:21):
but I don't know, four or five times a year,
I feel like keeps the novelty and like it isn't
too much pressure but also will remind you of what
you planned and you won't forget about it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
I mean the daily stuff is pretty easy because it
is in fact daily, so unless I got really off
of it, I think I would remember things like you know,
listening to the music, writing the sonnets. Some of them
will be a little bit trickier to remember. But I
guess we do our check in in June, our mid
year check in, so that's always a good chance to
(34:50):
do it. I would probably do season as well. Probably
I should do one in mid spring, one for June
for our check in at kind of the beginning of
the fall. I think those would all be good times
to check in and see that I've staying on track.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
I've also seen other people do really interesting things with
their list, like if they really want to be reminded,
they'll like make it their screensaver, or like print out
a copy and put it above their desk or stuff
like that. Yeah. I generally like it more intermittent, but hey,
I think whatever you.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Can note on the bathroom mirror, hey, you know every
morning you're looking at it, am I achieving my goals
yet if not, why not, Well, you know it would
be good to remind ourselves of that at least somewhat.
All right, So, Sarah, love of the week, What is
your love of the week?
Speaker 2 (35:35):
This time a blog reader turned me onto year end
lists dot Com. So you guys know, I love my
best music of twenty twenty four and best books and
best whatever from various sources. But then sometimes it's Paywalt
or whatever, and like this is a site that like
aggregates all of them, and it's so fun to just
read through and like get ideas for movies you might
(35:56):
want to see your books read or music to listen
to it. I think even at a podcast category, I
didn't click on that. I'm sure we're number one, like obviously,
but yeah, super fun resource. Year end lists dot.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Com, Year end Lists dot Com. Yeah that sounds like
a website made precisely for you, Sarah. They're like, who
is our target audience? It is Sarah, it is me.
Well probably a lot of other people too. Yeah. I
mean I would say I like the idea of very
specific goals, and partly I think it is that sort
(36:29):
of resolutions preseason noodling on it where you come up
with how to make a goal specific. So something like
eating produce for breakfast is very specific, and I know,
well I have I done it, have I not. It's
something that I can think about every morning. But just
the idea of turning a vaguer goal like I want
to eat more fruits and vegetables into something that is
(36:51):
truly doable, like I want to listen to more classical
music and became listening to thirty minutes of Bach last
year and I guess this year. Yeah, but the idea
of being very specific in the goals helps make them
feel more exciting, I think, even because it's not like, oh, well,
(37:12):
I guess I got to figure out how to fit
this into life, and even to remind myself of it frequently,
it's just like, no, this is something that's concrete that
I can do.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Yes. Yeah, you feel more of a sense of achievement
when you checked it off, when you know it was
exactly what you like sit out to do exactly.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
All right, Well, this has been best of both worlds.
We've done our annual goals episode. We'll check back in
over the course of the year. If we have done
these things, we'll definitely be talking about it at probably
the end of June, certainly at the end of twenty
twenty five. It's funny to think about twenty twenty five,
Laura and Sarah sitting here discussing the year. But I'm
(37:48):
sure it will have been a year one way or another.
The time is going to pass, and hopefully it will
be filled with many wonderful things. We hope it is
filled with many wonderful things for our listeners as well.
So thank you for listening to us in twenty twenty four.
Here's another great year together.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
Yes, Happy New Year, Happy twenty twenty five in advance.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Yeah, this has been best of both worlds. We'll be
back next week in twenty twenty five with more on
making work and life fit together.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Thanks for listening. You can find me Sarah at the
shoebox dot com or at the Underscore Shoebox on Instagram,
and you can.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. This has
been the best of both worlds podcasts.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Please join us next time for more on making work
and life work together.
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Decisions, Decisions
Welcome to "Decisions, Decisions," the podcast where boundaries are pushed, and conversations get candid! Join your favorite hosts, Mandii B and WeezyWTF, as they dive deep into the world of non-traditional relationships and explore the often-taboo topics surrounding dating, sex, and love. Every Monday, Mandii and Weezy invite you to unlearn the outdated narratives dictated by traditional patriarchal norms. With a blend of humor, vulnerability, and authenticity, they share their personal journeys navigating their 30s, tackling the complexities of modern relationships, and engaging in thought-provoking discussions that challenge societal expectations. From groundbreaking interviews with diverse guests to relatable stories that resonate with your experiences, "Decisions, Decisions" is your go-to source for open dialogue about what it truly means to love and connect in today's world. Get ready to reshape your understanding of relationships and embrace the freedom of authentic connections—tune in and join the conversation!