2016 Goals

I’m a big, huge super-duper fan of goals.  I love, love, love goals.  Goals are the GPS of my life. Without them I wouldn’t end up where I wanted to go, or it may take me a lot longer to get there. I’ve enjoyed  successes, but I’ve also leaned to celebrate perceived failures.  Because, I’ve found that 100% of the time I’m further ahead than if I hadn’t set goals at all.

It’s important to set manageable chucks not wild leaps that are destine to fail before they begin.  Because, you know how you eat an elephant right? One bite at a time.

You know how you eat an elephant right? One bite at a time.

My yearly goals have evolved into a combination of a word for the year, Gift to the King and improving (or recommitting) to last year’s goals. So at the start of a new year, I pause and look back over my goals and then write up new ones for a new year.

2016 Goals

Self-Control: As I’ve prayed, pondered and puzzled over a word for 2016 I’ve finally landed on self-control. Health, money and time are all limited commodities.  My goal is to live within boundaries for each of the three categories.

• Exercising and healthily eating– This is my Gift to the King this year.  Lose 20 pounds by burning more calories than I eat, making wise whole food choices (fruit and vegetable) and limiting sugar.  I have tried and tried – and succeeded and failed – and failed and succeeded at the balance of exercise and healthy eating.  I just seem to like sitting in the recliner more than I like lacing up my tennis shoes, and eating chocolate and potato chips more than carrots and salad. So here’s an example of a mostly failed, sometimes somewhat successful goal. Even with only being partially successful I managed to lose 15 pounds over the last 15 months.  In deciding to give my health to Jesus as a gift in 2016, I knew it was something I would take serious.  After all, I’m not one to give a gift and then take it back – especially to Jesus!  I know He is honored by healthy living, and I know I feel better when I’m healthy.
• Living by a budget– We’ve always had a budget. And I’ve seen it as approached it as  guideline or suggestion.  As you can guess, I’m left over budget at the end of most years.  This year, I want to commit to being a wise steward of all God has given us.  James and I sat down and drew up a new budget for 2016 and I downloaded Goodbudget on my ipad.  I like it because a. It’s free.  b. It reminds me of electronic envelope system.  c. Frowning faces when you overspend seem to motive me.  Who knew?
• Spending my time wisely– I tend to overspend my time in the same way I overspend my calories or my money.  I have a tendency to try and get two to three times as much done in a day as I probably should. And then my character suffers as a result.  This year I am striving to balance my time – not frenzy crazy busy and not wasteful of the resource God has given me. I tend to let the little things become big things. So, I’ve made three lists.  The things I care about.  The things I don’t care about. The things I don’t know if I should care about.  I’m wrestling through the third list. The things on there are things I probably shouldn’t care about, but do – like a clean house.  Anyway, by the end of the year I hope to have simplified my life by focusing on what is really important to me.

 

Read 36 Books (12 fiction, 12 non fiction, 12 on writing)  In 2015 I set 25 books as my goal and I ended up reading 30 for a total of over 7,000 pages.  This year I’d like to read one fiction and one non fiction each month.  I’d also like to continue to pursue writing – and I was challenged by Crystal Paine to read, read, read if you want to learn about a subject. I love Goodreads to keep track of my reading goals.  Want to know what I read this year? Take a peek here.

Ok – so how about you? Do you love goals? Hate goals?  Have any 2016 goals? I’d love to hear from you.  Leave me a comment below and let me know your thoughts.