One of the most important things to do when you set goals is to define points at which you look back and reflect on your accomplishment of/progress made on the goals. For my New Year’s resolutions, my first such evaluation point was set for one month. (Yes, yes, I’m a couple weeks late). So, how am I doing so far?
Spiritual Goals
- Pray/Read through Morning Prayer service every morning during January.
Other than one day when I was traveling and had forgotten to print off the service the day before, I accomplished this goal.
- Fasting once/month (through March) plus once for Leadership Retreat.
So far so good
- Scripture Memorization
No progress made.
- Reading through Bible with Rachel
No progress made.
- Reading through New Testament
Progress is slow but being made.
- Intentionality with accountability partner.
Trying, but still working on it.
Physical Goals
- Eat Reasonably
Little Progress
- Run 2x per week
I’ve been running 3 or 4 times this year.
Intellectual Goals
- Book Reading
Little progress made, some books changed out for others
Relational Goals
- Rachel
I have been more intentional about our relationship, and I think it has made a difference.
- Others
I’ve been busy, and some relationships have been put on the back burner. I need to work on these a lot in the coming months. I wouldn’t say I’ve failed at most of these, just that I need to put some extra effort in to them.
Stop Doing
- Limit TV to 15 hours/week
While I was failing at this initially, I’ve been so busy in recent weeks that I haven’t had time to watch more than 15 hours of TV per week.
Why did I write all of this? You probably don’t need to read it, but you probably do need to take a look at the goals you’ve set and your progress. If you don’t have any goals, you should probably think about setting some. You accomplish more when you’re working for something.
How do I feel about my progress? Well, pretty good actually. While I certainly haven’t nailed everything, I feel that I’ve made good progress on the goals that are most important to me (the spiritual and marital ones).
What are your goals, and how are you doing?
Ever heard of a stop doing list? There are plenty of times we think about all of the things we should be doing, but do we ever think about the things we shouldn’t be doing? I don’t necessarily mean things that are inherently bad (although we should certainly stop doing those). I’m talking about the things that are neutral or even good that we just need to stop doing. Things that we don’t really have time for, that eat away at the margins of our lives and intrude on the time that we have for the truly important things.
One of my personal New Year’s resolutions is a stop doing. I want to stop watching so much TV. I’m going to try to limit myself to 15 hours per week. I know that some of you are saying to yourself that 15 hours of TV is an obscene amount to watch in a week. (I’m guessing that half of the people in that group watch over 15 hours without realizing it. To be fair you have to include sports, news, movies and video podcasts in your total. ) The other half can’t imagine watching only 15 hours.
Anyway, my goal is 15 hours, a bit over two hours per day. That should be plenty, but I think it will require me to cut down. Let me note, however, that I am not counting the time I have something on while I’m designing a website, blogging, et cetera. (Hey, it’s my resolution. I can measure it however I want!)
What are your personal New Year’s resolutions? Is there anything you need to stop doing?
Anyway, these are all of the resolutions for today. I’ll have a few more to come during the next couple of weeks. Gotta run, time to hang with the wife. Happy New Years!
Undoubtedly my most important relationship (other than my relationship with Christ) is my relationship with my wife, Rachel. One of my goals for our relationship is that I would work on my temper. This is something that I have had a problem with in the past but had seemingly dealt with. It seems to have come back in the past few weeks, and so my goal for our relationship in the beginning of 2009 is that I would crucify this. I don’t want to just suppress my temper; I want to avoid letting things bother me in the first place.
Other people with whom I want to continue to foster deeper relationships this year include Dan Kyser, Jeff Johnson, Darren Cogan, and Tony K.
Who are you building relationships with this year?
Of all of my goals for 2009, the devotional ones are some of the most challenging.
For starters, I plan to pray the Morning Prayer from the Book of Common Prayer every day during the month of January. This takes about 30 minutes, and as I mentioned previously, I am not a morning person.
I will be fasting once per month during January, February, and March in preparation for our trip to Ethiopia. (Lest you think I be bragging, this is part of the trip agreement, not my idea.) I also intend to fast once in preparation for the NCC Leadership Retreat that takes place at the end of January. I am considering continuing to fast once per month after March in order to discern God’s will for my life after I am done with the Protege Program at NCC.
I will finish memorizing Proverbs 6:20-7 and John 15:9-17.
I will finish reading through the Bible with Rachel. (We’re currently in Ezekiel.) And I will likely finish reading the New Testament with the NCC Discipleship Team.
I will be more intentional during meetings with my accountability partner and will make an effort to keep up with him more between our weekly meetings.
I’ve let my mind slip. In high school I was sharp. By college I was skating through: cramming for tests, not really learning. I feel like my mind has turned to mush. I suppose that I haven’t totally stopped learning. I taught myself PHP and video editing in 2007 and continued to hone those skills in 2008. However, I want to work out the part of my brain that deals with abstract thinking.
So, for 2009 I’m committing to more reading. Specifically, I am going to finish reading three books that I have started: Christian Theology: an Introduction by Allister McGrath, It by Craig Groeschel, and The Shack by W. Paul Young. In addition to these I plan to read two to three books with my mentee and at least one book with my men’s group. This spring my group is reading St. Augustine’s Confessions, and I want to have the book read before we start as well as read along with the group throughout the semester.
I may add some to this later, but for now, this is a good start. Not including the partials (one of which still has a few hundred pages left), this means that I’ll be reading at least eleven books this year. (I’ve got 8 more books to read as an NCC Protege.)
As part of this goal, I also intend to review each book that I read here on my blog.
What are your intellectual goals for 2009?
It’s been two years since I’ve exercised consistently. My diet wasn’t great to start with, yet it’s still taken a turn for the worse. So, my physical goals for 2009 are simple.
Eat Reasonably – Except for initial weight loss, I’m not a fan of unsustainable diets, but that doesn’t mean I can’t eat reasonably. I can have a piece of fruit or bowl of healthy cereal for breakfast and a healthy sandwich (lean meat, whole wheat bread, no mayo) for lunch. This means that even if I have pizza and beer for dinner, I still haven’t taken in an insane number of calories. It also means that when I’m out for lunch I can forgo sugary drinks and should try to eat a healthier dinner that day. An additional tip, adding a side of vegetables to any meal (especially an unhealthy one), means that you eat less junk.
Exercise – I plan to run two mornings a week through April, at which point I will reevaluate. If I happen to get a gym membership before then, plans will change.
What are your physical goals for 2009?
What are my goals, plans, and resolutions for 2009? Well, I’ll be posting those throughout the day but first, a bit of New Years resolution housekeeping.
NCC (especially Mark Batterson) is big on encouraging people to set goals. So here are some tips that I’ve picked up about goal setting while being at NCC.
From Heather Zempel, goals should be SMART.
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Require Faith
- Time-Related
I think the easiest way to explain is to give an example. One of my goals for 2009 is to strengthen my relationship with God. That’s pretty vague. How to I determine if I’ve accomplished that goal? So, I need to break it down.
For the month of January I plan to go through the Morning Prayer from the Book of Common Prayer every morning. That is specific. I can measure my success or failure. It is certainly something that is doable, but it will not be easy. I’m not a morning person. Waking up 45 minutes early every morning will take quite a bit of effort. Finally, it has an end point. This gives me something definitive to strive for, ensures that there is a time certain when I can evaluate the accomplishment, and frees me from the impossible task of committing to something for the rest of my life.
Heather also talks in that same blog post about breaking goals down into categories. I’m planning to use the categories:
- Physical
- Intellectual
- Devotional
- Creative
- Ministerial
- Relational
- Personal
One more important point, in his sermon on Sunday, Mark encouraged us not to set too many goals. If you plan to change everything in your life at one time, you’ll inevitably fail. Ever tried to move from a fast-food diet and no exercise to something like Body-for-LIFE while committing to having dinner as a family 5 nights a week, spend less time at work, become a more avid reader, improve your golf game, and invest more time at your church? FAIL
Take steps. Take steps that require faith. Take steps that are big and meaningful, but don’t try to do everything at once. For example, as I mentioned in a previous post, I’m putting my book on the back burner to focus on other things. I’ve got too much going on right now to commit to that. I’d rather do a few things well than do everything poorly.
An important part of setting goals is revisiting and reevaluating them. They don’t do any good if you just set them and forget they exist.
I posted on my Fall ‘08 goals previously, but here’s the short version:
- Strengthen relationship with God through regular Bible reading and prayer.
- Be a better husband.
- Finish first draft of my book by May ‘09.
- Support the men’s ministry at NCC.
So, how did I do?
Well, I have been praying and reading the Bible more than in the past, but neither of these are as regular or consistent as they need to be. This will be something that makes the list of goals for 2009.
Honestly, I failed at being a better husband. If anything, I have been getting upset more easily. Correcting this will be a big focus for Spring 2009.
First draft of my book? What’s that? I don’t think I’ve written anything on it since I blogged my Fall goals. Honestly, this one is on the back burner for now, and I’m okay with that.
As for the men’s ministry, while the group that I help lead is going quite well, I have done nothing to support the other parts of the men’s ministry at NCC. (Note that this is not to say that there is anything wrong with them, just that I haven’t done anything to support them.) This is one that I am not sure will happen in early 2009. My responsibilities at NCC have shifted, and I am not sure what effect that will have on my ability to do this.
Overall, I can’t say that I’m super-happy with my accomplishments this fall. I made only moderate progress on one of my four goals. This spring needs to be a time that I increase focus on my goals. I spend a lot of time working on things, but I have a tendency to forget the more important stuff.
Heather Zempel, the Discipleship Pastor at NCC and my new boss, has asked me to come up with a list of goals for the fall semester, so I thought I’d share them here.
First, I want to spend more time with God. I’m usually not very good at doing this consistently, and I know that it is absolutely necessary, especially as I am moving into full-time ministry. While there may be some things I can do in my own strength, I will never be able to minister as effectively out of spiritual emptiness as I will out of spiritual fullness. As a corollary to this, I want to make sure that I don’t rely on the time I spend with God at work. I want to model the type of life that I am encouraging others to lead, and since most people can’t stop in the middle of their work day to read the Bible, I want to make sure that’s not the only time I spend with God either.
Second, I want to be a better husband. I know that this is something that I should always be striving to do, but I want to make it a special focus over the next few months as my schedule will be pretty crazy, meaning that time with Rachel is harder to come by.
Third, I want to have the first draft of my book written by May ‘09. This is the big, hairy, audacious goal of the year. I’ve never written a book before. I might be overreaching. I wrote about three-and-a-half pages on Sunday night, which I’m guessing is 7-10 book pages. In addition to being a short-term goal, writing and publishing a book is also one of my life goals. I wasn’t necessarily expecting to tackle this one so soon, but an idea for a book came to me. And I decided to run with it.
Finally, and this one is more of a ministry goal than a personal goal, I want to figure out how I can support the men’s ministry at NCC. The guys who have been heading it up have been doing a great job, and I want to figure out how I can assist and support them. What I don’t want to do is to come in and take anything over. My hope is to figure out what I can do to enable them to do what they’re already doing even better.
Let me take this opportunity to encourage you to set goals and pursue them, to chase your dreams. You can sit there and let life float by, or you can make things happen. Figure out what you want and go after it. Make sure that it’s the right thing. Make sure that your goals are Godly goals, that your dreams are Holy Spirit inspired dreams, but then don’t just sit back and wait for God to act. Move. He’s probably already given you the tools you need. You may have to take a step of faith. You may need to step out and trust that the resources will be there. Does this mean that you will necessarily succeed? No, sometimes even God ordained dreams fail. Don’t forget to “Pray like it depends on God,” but don’t forget to “Work like it depends on you” as well.
