One of the important elements of setting and achieving goals is to revisit them regularly. So, in the interest of personal accountability, I wanted to give you an update on the goals I set back in January.
(Here’s the short version: I have some work to do.)
- Read through the Bible; memorize Scripture and maintain it every week. This has been an area I’ve always struggled in. For some reason, consistent time in the Word has been a challenge to me. But I will say that my hunger for the Word is increasing, and my intake of the Word is growing a bit more regular. As for memorization… No, it really hasn’t happened. I haven’t made it a priority yet. But I know it’s something I need, so I will make it a more important part of my daily life moving forward.
- Lose 10 pounds a month. Starting weight: 464. Current weight… 464. I haven’t lost a pound. It’s been up and down week to week, because I haven’t really committed to the eating plan we had established last fall. While I’m glad that I haven’t gained weight (a common thing for me after about 6 months of any eating plan), I haven’t lost. Too many little daily cheats, not enough consistent exercise. And one element of this I haven’t been paying attention to is the emotional/spiritual facet of this fight. That’s something I’m starting to focus on more now.
- Take 1 weekend/overnight trip with my wife every 3 months. For Valentine’s weekend, H. and I went to a couples’ retreat put on by our church at La Toretta resort in Conroe. We had a lovely time, enjoyed some really good food (see #2 above), and just had a blast being together for a day and a half with no interruptions.
- Pay off $25K in debt. This has been hard. We both have been very diligent to stick to the budget and make tough choices, but we’ve also had to deal with some car repair issues and other unexpected costs. Plus, both of us are paying off student loans as well as cash-flowing school. Suffice it to say, this spring is going to be lean on the the whole paying-off-debt tip. However, our hope is that summer and fall will be better for making some headway with our debt.
- Have dinner with old friends. Haven’t yet, but I had a good phone call with an old acquaintance, and I’m planning on getting together with him next month. So, starting to work through this one.
- Read at least 2 books a month, and only books I currently own. With the one exception of Take the Stairs, I’ve taken care of this one…barely. 4 books down so far: Take the Stairs, The Art of Work, The Prodigal God, and Scripture Alone. Two of those were on my original list of 25, and the others were additions. However, as school has ramped up, I’ve gotten a bit behind in my reading. I’m still only about a third of the way through S. from back in January, about 3 chapters into This Momentary Marriage for February, and I haven’t even touched The Storytelling God, another February selection (though I’m really looking forward to that one).
- Produce 2500 words a week (either blogging or offline). I want to start off by saying I’m proud of myself, because this stretch of blogging (going back into last year) has been the most consistently productive I’ve had since the days where I was posting 3 or 4 random posts per day (usually during work hours). But it hasn’t been enough to meet my goal, unfortunately. I haven’t been doing any creative offline writing, so my word-counts are all from the blog posts. (And I’m including quotations in this, so the numbers are technically a little lower.) January’s Word Count: 7880. February’s Word Count: 11, 559. (Thank you, #SufficientFire.) And I guess we can add another 850+ to that one with this post. A good couple months of writing, but I think I can step it up a little bit more.
- Get an A in my seminary class this spring. I’m taking Systematic Theology I, and we’ve only had one graded assignment so far: a quiz that I got an 88 on (missed 3 questions). So I guess right now, this one’s in flux; but I feel pretty confident I can pull through.
So what have I learned from all this?
My goals for the year were ambitious but not impossible. However, a combination of unforeseen events and a lack of good habit-building has kept me from hitting a few of these. I need to examine where the hang-ups are in my daily habits, and look for solutions at ground-level. This will require something I need to fight for: time. I have a lot going on these days, and honestly, sometimes I just don’t have the time or desire to work on my life instead of just in my life.
All that said, I’m not giving up on any of these. And I’ll keep you posted every 2 months or so with an update of where I am in the process.
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Your Turn: How are you doing with your 2015 goals? What adjustments have you made? Share in the comments below!
The4thDave Blog 
Well, first of all, i was looking for the old post actually yesterday because I couldn’t remember what goals I had put. What I can tell you is I’ve gained 5 pounds in 8 weeks for the same reasons you gave for your lack of progress. You have permission to hold me accountable via email, bro.
Bible reading and stuff isn’t where I want it, but I’ve been teaching SS and that commitment has been keeping me from what I’d call my “normal.” Today I decided to read through the pslams in a month, so I read Ps 1-5. By end of March I should have read the book again. My prayers are scattered. I never remember to pray for what I plan to. I’ve planned to keep in a notebook, but never have done the work to set up!
Took my wife on one nice data with a babysitter in Feb. That’s pretty good for a guy with 4 living children.
Debt is being paid and we are watching our budget better than ever.