302 - My Goals for 2026
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Happy February, friend! Today I am pulling back the curtain and sharing my goals for 2026. There are only eight of them. Some are practical, some are personal, and all of them are shaping how I’m approaching this year. So let’s dive in.
For the full episode, hit play above or read through below.
You’re listening to Work and Play with Nancy Ray, episode 302. Much of our daily lives can be divided into two categories, work and play. Simply put, that is where our life and our legacy take place. This is a podcast all about learning to work and play well, which leads to a healthy soul and a fulfilling life. Let’s get to it.
Okay, I am tuning in from a very snowy North Carolina. It is making me so happy, just all the snow that is outside my window right now. We were hit with an ice storm first, and then we had a break for a few days, and then a snow storm came through. We’re right in the middle of North Carolina, and even though we still got like three to four inches of really powdery, beautiful snow, the mountains to the west of us, even just Winston-Salem, like a few hours away, got like seven or eight inches, maybe more and the coast got like over a foot, I think. So even though we got a lot, it was actually the littlest amount of North Carolina. It’s kind of crazy, but either way, I’m grateful.
The kids are out of school again this week, so we’re just flying by the seat of our pants over here, embracing a lot of togetherness, a lot of board games, some snow cream, some hot chocolate. It’s great. But let’s jump in to today’s episode. I’m going to be sharing with you my goals for 2026. Every year, I kind of start this process in December, and I slow down and I start to ask the Lord, “What do you have for me this year?” I talk to Him about, “Do you have a word for me this year? What should be my focuses this year?” I kind of go through a series of questions, kind of assessing the last year, reflecting a lot on what was working and what wasn’t. Then I just practice listening to Him, and I journal a lot and then out of that kind of organically flows my goals for the year and what I really want to do.
It is a great combination of work and play this year. I’m really excited to share it with you. I feel like He gave me so much clarity on a few key areas I want to focus on, and I’m just going to walk you through them. I thought there’s nothing like some good, fresh, new year energy. Nothing beats sharing your goals with friends. So that’s what I’m doing today. Not because I think that you should have these goals. I don’t think that your goals should be the same as me, but because I hope it encourages you to really think through what matters to you this year. What is your focus for this year? What is the Lord speaking to you about for 2026?
If you feel like you need some help in this area and you still don’t know, like you’re like, “I don’t have goals for this year. I don’t know what I’m focusing on this year. I don’t have a word for this year. I’m just making it.” First of all, I want to say, I feel you. January has been a slog. It’s been very difficult for me. Also, don’t stop and don’t not make any goals just because you feel that way. I have a resource for you that might be helpful. You can just go to the show notes and click on Rhythms Reset. I created this not that long ago. It is a five episode podcast series that helps you set goals and rhythms for 12 weeks at a time, focused and intentional.
I’ve actually been listening through the Rhythms Reset myself, like a total dork listening to my own podcast series. But honestly, I love the audio format. It’s helpful and it’s simple. As a busy mom, that’s what I have time to do right now. I can’t really sit down for like hours and hours at a time. I’ve got to do it in little spurts. So anyway, I hope it helps you. You can head to the show notes, or you can just go to nancyray.com. You can search for it there, or at nancyray.com/rhythms-reset is the actual link that will take you there.
Okay, back to my goals. Let’s jump in.
1) Deepen my faith and walk with the Lord
Number one. This is a consistent goal I have almost every year, but it’s one that forever pays off, like forever. The goal is for me to continue to deepen my faith and deepen my walk with the Lord. It’s always my most important goal, but this year I’m being really specific about it, and I’m doing this in two ways.
I want to continue to look for the character of God as I read through the whole Bible, specifically using the Bible Recap plan on my favorite Dwell Bible audio app, which you guys hear me talk about all the time. I have really been loving how insightful this plan is. I’ve heard about it. I’ve never done it myself. It’s so good. So that’s the first way I want to deepen my faith, is to learn more about God through this plan and through reading through or listening through the whole Bible. So I read a portion or listen to a portion of Scripture. It’s usually about twelve minutes. Then I listen to her recap of that Scripture, which is about eight minutes so it’s twenty minutes a day. I already feel like I’m hearing from the Lord in some really sweet ways.
The second way that I am hoping to really deepen my faith with the Lord is memorizing Scripture. I don’t know if you feel this way, but the older I get, the less I do this and probably the more I need to do it, honestly. I am going to be trying the Simply Charlotte Mason system of Scripture memory. You get this box that contains 4x6 note cards and I’m not going to explain it in detail here, but basically you focus on one passage at a time and you recite it regularly with your kids. Then you move it into this folder system that helps you review other verses that you’ve memorized in the past while also continuing to add to your arsenal of verses that you are learning and memorizing and know. Go to YouTube and search the Simply Charlotte Mason system of Scripture memory and you will get a YouTube video on it that will kind of blow your mind. It’s really cool. I’m so excited to really try to use that this year.
So those are the two ways I really want to deepen my faith. I want to deepen it through knowing the word of God better. I will still continue to fellowship with my church, attend church faithfully, volunteer at church, hopefully jump back into the worship team at church. I hope to fellowship with my Bible study ladies throughout the year and continue to single out certain books of the Bible and go deep with them in searching the Scriptures that way. But these are the two ways, like inside my four walls and inside my home, that I really want to pursue the Lord and His word and know Him better. Through reading and listening through the whole Bible and memorizing Scripture more regularly with the kids.
2) Organize my work into more effective systems
Okay, second goal. I am working diligently on organizing my work into more effective systems. Okay, this one might feel a little nerdy. If you don’t love organization or if you’re not kind of business minded or you don’t like systems, this might not be for you, but I am so excited about it.
So I want to track everything in my work this year. I’m not naturally great at numbers. In our marriage, Will is the one who is great at numbers. I’m not. But I know this is going to help me grow and so I want to track my numbers. I want to track my email list growth, my social media growth and engagement. I want to track my finances. I want to, every single month, put in my income and expenses and track it and then unsubscribe and cut down on the things that I’m not using. I want to be very engaged in the nerdy number side of my business to see what’s working and what’s not. So that’s the first part of it.
I also want to really lean into AI this year and use it more effectively. I know that some of you are not into AI and I totally respect that. I think it is so good to be very cautious about it. I think there are parts of it that I absolutely hate. What I want to do is I want to view it as a tool, and I want to lean into it in ways that it can really help me, like in ways I’ve just never used it before.
One of the ways is I just want to let it help me organize a lot of thoughts that I have. So I can just type a bunch of stuff out and it can help me organize those things. It can help me come up with marketing plans. It can help me write emails very quickly. Like, I just want it to help me with my time because I feel like my time is so incredibly limited in my work. To be honest, I feel like a lot of the work side of me has really suffered in the last couple of years. Obviously I’ve taken a break. I’ve had a baby. I have no regrets there. But now I feel like it’s time to start getting that back in order, right? Like I’m jumping into the driver’s seat. So I want to lean into AI and let it help me.
I also am doing some nerdy slash maybe feels unimportant things that I think are actually going to help me so much. Like switching all of my emails from using the Apple Mail app, which I’ve used for years, and instead I’m switching to using Gmail in a web page. You might be thinking, why would you do that if you have a great system down? Well, I think it’s going to help me manage my inbox better. The new Mail app has had some updates that I just really don’t like and I’ve actually been missing some really important emails because of the way it’s organizing them. It also just takes up too much space on my hard drive. If I just access it online, it doesn’t take up any space and so I’m phasing out using that.
Also, I am embracing Trello as my task management software. I am using that for all of my content. I’m just excited to kind of get these new systems in place and new, like, a new tech stack in place that hopefully will benefit me in my work. So organizing, systematizing my work and paying attention to numbers, leaning into AI. It’s going to be great.
3) Prioritize friendships
Alright. Goal number three… prioritizing friendships. Now this is a big one for me because I feel like it’s a weakness of mine in a lot of ways, in the sense that, like, I don’t know, I could be a better friend and my life is so overflowingly full with homeschool and just the day to day of keeping a household going and parenting that, if I’m honest, by the end of the day I just, like, I want to crash. I don’t really want to see anybody. I don’t want to fellowship with friends. I just want to, like, it’s just like, this is just what I got to do to keep going.
I know I need friends and I know I need to make more time for friends. So there have been a handful of families that we have wanted to invite over for dinner for months, dare I say years now. We keep saying we need to have them over. We need to have them over. And then life happens. We don’t. And that’s just how it is. This year, I want to put those things in the calendar. I want to actually invite them over for dinner.
I also want to do a handful of meaningful getaways with a few different friend groups this year. Then, yeah, continuing fellowship with my church friends as well and maybe reach out and organize a couple of other gatherings with them individually, like my church friends.
Okay. Be a better friend. That was goal number three.
4) Unfrump myself
Goal number four. You might laugh at this one. This one is unfrump myself. I feel very frumpy all the time with my appearance. I am actually going to make a whole episode about this next week, so come back if you’re interested. Or if you think, hmm, Nancy, I feel frumpy too. What are you going to do? I’ll tell you more next week, but in a nutshell, I want to just take care of my appearance a little more than I have been. I want to stop looking homeless every day. I know that sounds dramatic, but it is how I feel.
I love to wake up and put on workout clothes first thing. Do work in leggings around the house and there’s nothing wrong with that. I am for that. I am all for comfort and I am for working out. The problem is, many days I never work out and that makes me feel really frumpy because I’ve been wearing workout clothes all day but I never work out. Then I just never end up putting on a real outfit in the week and I go out in public, and I’m like, “What am I doing? This is kind of embarrassing.”
So that’s it. Unfrump myself. More on this next week. Come back to hear me really spill the beans on how I plan to do this.
5) Become the healthiest and strongest I’ve ever been
Alright, goal number five has to do with my health. Basically, this is my goal. I want to be the healthiest, strongest I’ve ever been, period. Other goals along with that? I would love to start sleeping through the night regularly this year. *Cough cough* Winnie. I’m not quite there yet with her. Princess Winnie is precious, but I still feed her and get up with her at night. She has slept through the night like seven times in her life and it actually is trending very well this week. She’s had a rough first year of sickness. Every time she would start to get some good chunks of sleep, she’d get sick and wake up a ton. I would love to start sleeping through the night again. I know that correlates with my health.
Also, I would love to breastfeed Winnie all the way through this year, like to make it to year two with her. That’d be amazing. She just turned one and obviously, she’s kind of like my boss in that regards. Like, she’ll determine how long she goes, but I would love to go to two or two and a half or longer if she would like.
I would love to get back to my early morning workouts, like starting my workout at 5:30. I would love to continue eating really healthy meals, hitting that 100 to 150 grams of protein every day, drinking a ton of water, lots of veggies. You know, the jury’s still out if I’m going to run a half marathon or marathon this year. I do turn 40, and I thought that would be a really fun thing to do for my 40th, but I just don’t know. I just don’t know. They don’t have many half marathons or marathons close to the time of my birthday. So we’ll see. We’ll see about that. But I think in a nutshell, I just want to be the healthiest, strongest version of me I’ve ever been. Anything else is bonus.
6) Declutter the house
Goal number six… declutter the house. Is this ever not my goal? No, it’s always my goal. Always. Isn’t it yours? Yes, I feel you nodding with me. But seriously, I would love to go through every room and really pare down. I want our home to feel peaceful and functional. I want my brain to feel like it can think and not have the mental to-do list of all of the clutter surrounding me on all the surfaces at all time. I just don’t want it to feel as chaotic and cluttered. So I’ll get to my word of the year at the end of these. I was debating whether or not to share it, but I think that I’m going to have to be a little extreme. Am I actually going to do it? I don’t know. I hope so. That’s my goal. I got to break that down a little more later.
7) Regular connection with Will
Okay, goal number seven. Connection with Will. I just want to have these regular conversations with Will about not just like, what are we doing this week, work, you know, school, updates, life, but like, what are our family goals? What are our financial goals? What are we doing? I want to have fun with him, like work and play, like let’s have fun together as a married couple.
So one of the things we do is we take dance lessons and I want to continue that. It’s so great. I want to continue to prioritize just date nights and go to new places and try new things. Like, just have fun. I feel like those things matter so much for our marriage, but they are super hard to prioritize when you have a lot of little kids and life is as full as ours is. But that’s what we want, right? That’s what goals are for, is to prioritize the important things. So I really am excited to continue to pour into our marriage in that way.
8) Write more
Alright, goal number eight. I want to write more. This is the last goal, by the way. I want to write more. I want to write because it’s a challenge for me and it is a delight to me. This could be anything from me just journaling a little bit every day, to writing a blog post every now and then, to more long form writing for a possible book in the future. I just want to write more. I want to work that muscle. I wanna do it because I enjoy it and I feel like this is definitely like, this is like squarely work and play, right? It definitely ties into my work. But for me, it feels like something that I would just be doing for me to exercise that muscle that I really love. I really love to do it.
Okay, that’s it. Those are my eight goals, but I do have one other like unofficial goal. It actually isn’t even a goal. Okay, it’s not a goal., I’m considering something and it’s a little like, do I want to say this out loud on the podcast? But I’m going to, because I’ve already written it in and here we go.
I am thinking about doing the Contentment Challenge for the whole year, like past three months. In all my years. I’ve never done this. I’m considering doing it for the whole year with this caveat where I would do like two days of shopping for each season. So I would do the Contentment Challenge. If you’re new, it just means I’m not shopping at all for anything extra: clothes, household stuff, whatever. So do the Contentment Challenge through March and then I would give myself like the first three days in April to make some purchases for spring. Then Contentment Challenge again in April, May, June. Then repeat a few days of shopping for summer in like July. Then Contentment Challenge again in July, August, September. You get the picture all the way through the end of the year. I think if I do that, it would really help me know exactly what I want to buy and why I want to buy it.
One of the things I do in the Contentment Challenge is I have a running list and a note in my phone of the things that I want that pop up while I’m on the Contentment Challenge that I really want to buy. All I do is I write it in the note and I link to it. I never buy it. I just wait. What that does is it allows you to really think through the things you actually want and need. I’m thinking I might just shop from that list for those few days and then just go back to life. I don’t know. I feel like the Lord is really doing something new in my heart and different with this Contentment Challenge. It’s like, I don’t know. It’s good. It’s good. It’s different. I just really, I feel Him stirring up this contentment in me that's deeper, and I don’t want to stop. That’s it. I just don’t want to stop yet and I want to be really intentional about my purchases. Okay, if you want to learn more about that, nancyray.com/contentment-challenge, or just go to my website.
Okay, those are my goals for 2026. Alright, I forgot. I was going to tell you my word for the year. It’s so funny. This is a funny word for the year. I am not expecting it, but I think, oh, I think this is my word. I’m just going to go for it. I’m going to say it. The word is “drastic.” Alright, I think that’s my word for the year. I’m saying think because I’m still letting it settle. But here's what I know. I think that God is asking me to do some kind of drastic things to really pull my heart in line with His. Some of that has to do with how He’s teaching me and talking to me about social media. Some of that has to do with just the boundaries I’m setting around my home and my family and setting a family culture that is so drastically different than the world. Some of it has to do with my work. Some of it has to do with like cleaning out my house, right? Like I need some drastic changes in my closet and some drastic changes in my house. I think with that word in my brain and heart, it helps me to make some big decisions that are usually just hard for me.
I’m a sentimental person. It’s hard for me to get rid of stuff. It’s hard for me to make changes. I think the Lord is saying like, “Nancy, in order for you to get to where you want to go, you kind of have to be drastic with some things.” Okay, I said it. That’s it. We’ll see. Guys, we’ll see. I don’t know. I’m excited about it, and I’m also nervous. I don’t know what the Lord’s going to want me to do. But I do know that He’s faithful and that’s where I land with this.
Alright, so those are my goals for 2026. Some are big, some are small. All of them are shaping how I am living out this year. I hope hearing them and hearing my crazy word of the year encourages you to think through your own priorities and think through how God is speaking to you.
Thanks for listening to episode 302 of Work and Play with Nancy Ray. Everything I’ve mentioned today can be found in the show notes at nancyray.com/podcast/302 and you can find me at nancyray.com or follow me at @NancyRay on Instagram.
Listen, if you haven’t gone to nancyray.com in a while, you should go check it out because I got a brand new website at the end of the year and it’s been really fun.
Alright. I’m going to close today with words from Stephen Covey who said,
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”
Thanks for listening, and I’ll catch you next time.