Set Realistic Goals for Homestead Moms

Before starting a homestead, you should set some clear and realistic goals. These goals will shift over time, but it is important to have something to aim for. Even if you already have a homestead, you should set new goals periodically to help you grow. This is even more important when children are involved. Motherhood gets a little crazy and when you throw in a garden, livestock, food preservation, and everything else that comes along with homesteading it can get downright overwhelming. Let’s walk through 6 tips for setting goals for homestead moms who want to build a sustainable life with kiddos in tow. 

Setting Goals for Homestead Moms

It is very important to be intentional in your journey to grow your own food and live a sustainable lifestyle. Without intentional planning, tasks can fall by the wayside and efficiency can go down the toilet. Setting goals and placing them into a plan is the best way for homestead moms to get the most out of their year. 

1. Give yourself grace

The number one thing that I want you to remember is to give yourself grace. You will not reach “perfection” in motherhood or on your homestead… No one will. So go ahead and get ahead of the mom guilt and release yourself from the stress of trying to make no mistakes on this journey. 

Mistakes are not the end of the road. Mistakes do not equal failure, instead they equal growth. Embrace mistakes as you go and be okay with moving more slowly than you had originally intended. 

2. Consider your limitations

I hesitated to write this one, but it is important. This year is the first year that I have actually stepped back to look at my limitations instead of believing that I could handle anything that I put my mind to. Now, don’t get me wrong… I can handle anything I put my mind to, but “handling it” doesn’t always come along with efficiency, purpose, or joy. 

This year was my first as a single homestead mother of 5. My limitations at this point in my life are time and money. My time has to go primarily to my children & my business and my money is stretched tight as most single-income families are experiencing right now. I didn’t consider those limitations when bringing new livestock onto the homestead, however.

I made the decision to add meat rabbits along with my meat birds, laying hens, honeybees, and garden. That was totally too much for me to manage without overloading myself. I felt burdened more than purposeful. So I stepped back and re-evaluated our situation. We prefer chicken over rabbit meat so I decided to focus on chickens for meat and I sold the rabbits. Now my budget isn’t as stretched and my time has been freed up. 

All of that was said to say, don’t overload yourself. It is okay to consider limitations and set boundaries to protect your time, energy, and resources. 

2. Set the Purpose for Your Homestead

Are you starting a homestead for the lifestyle, for sustainability, for food freedom, to get out of the rat race? Clearly stating the reason for your homestead journey can help you set more intentional goals as you go along. 

When setting homestead mom goals, always consider your children and their purpose on the homestead as well.

3. Keep your goal list short

Strive to keep your “big” goals for the year narrowed down. It may seem like a year is a long time and you can get a lot of big things accomplished, but setting too many large goals can cause you to feel defeated if you don’t accomplish them all and it can make you “halfway” complete each one just to check it off the list.

If anything is worth doing, it is worth doing well so keep your goal list focused. For example, this year I want to continue with the animals and garden as I did last year, but I want to become comfortable with my pressure canning skills and learn to make sourdough proficiently. Those are my two big goals for the year. 

Of course, there will be more things accomplished in the year and I do have other goals, but they are smaller goals- add 5 more laying hens, replace the hive boxes, etc. The big goals for homestead moms that take more time, money, and mental energy are the ones that should stay on a short list for the year. 

Maybe you want to grow a large garden filled with fresh produce, raise your own meat animals, achieve financial freedom, purchase a family milk cow, or simply learn to make your own bread. Get those goals out on a list and prioritize them. The highest priority items can go on this year’s goals list while the others should be moved to the 3-year or 5-year plans. You can always re-evaluate as you go. 

4. Determine the Steps to Reach Your Goals

Once you establish your big homestead goals, lay out the steps that it will take to reach those goals. For example- I want to be confident with pressure canning so I need to attend canning workshops, read books about food preservation, buy an outdoor canning setup, and practice. 

Another example could look like this-

Goal: start a sustainable garden

Steps:

• choose a gardening method
• choose the garden space
• decided what plants to grow
• plan the garden
• order seeds
• prepare the garden bed
• etc. 

5. Establish the Tasks Required for Each Step

Now, dig deeper and write out the tasks that will need to be completed for each step. This will really help you think about your homestead mom goals and projects all the way through so that you are as prepared as possible.

**Download the free Homestead Goal Chart in the form above to help with this.

An example here (to pull from #4) could look like this-

Step: Choose a Gardening Method

Tasks:

• Read gardening books
• Research gardening methods online
• Talk to other homesteaders about their gardening methods

6. Take Homestead Goal-Setting and Planning further

Goals don’t mean a whole lot if they aren’t realistic, attainable, and actionable. You need to use specific numbers and dates so that you can effectively reach the goals that you set out to accomplish. However, setting specific goals can be a little overwhelming, especially with little ones tugging at your pants leg.

You can go further with your goal-setting and planning with my Homestead Goal-Setting Course. This course will walk you through setting up a 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year homestead plan with actionable and attainable goals for homestead moms (and dads and non-parents alike!).

If you aren’t interested in a course, but you still need planning worksheets to help you lay your goals out clearly, then you should check out The Homestead Goal + Project Planner!

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