Goals or Resolutions--Is there a Difference?
I love setting goals. Last year, I went a little crazy and maybe got about half or so of them accomplished. I didn't actually count them up. But it was good, I enjoyed working towards them.
This year I tried to use a bit more common sense with it all and have set a few less goals, I think. There are a few main areas I want to focus on: my relationship with God, especially improving my prayer life, my marriage, and my daughter. Then of course, there are the personal goals of exercising, hobbies, etc. and a few other things as well. But those don't rank with quite the importance that the three I mentioned do.
Last year I chose a word for the year: joy. I made the letters out of cardboard, wrapped them in string, hung them up and then mostly forgot about joy. This year I have another word and I am hoping to do a bit better at remembering it and observing it. This year my word is intention. I want to make the most of my life, I want to savor the little moments, treasure the memories.
I can make myself feel old, but Amber is growing up so fast and I want to savor the time now. She is passionate and energetic, lively and chatty, and to be honest sometimes by the end of the day, I am tired. She is mostly well-behaved, but an attention span of about ten seconds can leave a trail of debris in her wake. If I am sewing, then she wants to sit on the desk right beside the sewing machine. If I am washing dishes, she wants to help too. Sheplays in the water rinses, "dries" the silverware and puts it away. If I go upstairs, she goes upstairs, etc. etc. But I am loving this stage and I want to use it as a training ground. I want to talk to her, include her as much as possible in what I'm doing, and just make learning and work a part of everyday happenings and make it fun as well. But it does take intention on my part, a remembering of what I want to instill in her, a patience to take the time to teach her and train her. So doing a few fun things together is on my list for the year. I was going to be lofty and try to do "craft projects" with her and then realized that that was pretty much doomed to failure. I don't have the patience for that and I don't know that I want to cultivate that kind of patience either. Kudos to all you super moms out there.
Intentional devotions is another area I want to work on this year, along with intentionally cultivating my marriage. Reading I Corinthians 13 once a week, choosing first a challenge from Becky Thompson's book "Love Unending" and then a kindness challenge from Shaunti Feldhahn's book "The Kindness Challenge" there will be 52 challenges for 52 weeks. I want to talk about them here on the blog, a week at a time. Doing a deeper study of the Beatitudes will constitute another day of the week and then three more days to go through a Bible Study Book with the Sunday School lesson being reserved for the weekends. I hope it's not too many diverse things that it feels scattered. I read through the Bible last year and while I feel accomplished for having done that, I feel like I mostly just read like crazy and didn't really comprehend or let it sink it. So this year I want to choose with intention, read with intention, and let it soak and ruminate and grow from it.
Those are my goals and I hope they have a lot more chance of success than resolutions. Yesterday, in church, the pastor mentioned that resolutions have an 8% chance of being kept at the three-month-mark. That's not a very good ratio, so that's why I have chosen goals instead of resolutions. So much loftier of course!!!! :) :) :)
This year I tried to use a bit more common sense with it all and have set a few less goals, I think. There are a few main areas I want to focus on: my relationship with God, especially improving my prayer life, my marriage, and my daughter. Then of course, there are the personal goals of exercising, hobbies, etc. and a few other things as well. But those don't rank with quite the importance that the three I mentioned do.
Last year I chose a word for the year: joy. I made the letters out of cardboard, wrapped them in string, hung them up and then mostly forgot about joy. This year I have another word and I am hoping to do a bit better at remembering it and observing it. This year my word is intention. I want to make the most of my life, I want to savor the little moments, treasure the memories.
I can make myself feel old, but Amber is growing up so fast and I want to savor the time now. She is passionate and energetic, lively and chatty, and to be honest sometimes by the end of the day, I am tired. She is mostly well-behaved, but an attention span of about ten seconds can leave a trail of debris in her wake. If I am sewing, then she wants to sit on the desk right beside the sewing machine. If I am washing dishes, she wants to help too. She
Intentional devotions is another area I want to work on this year, along with intentionally cultivating my marriage. Reading I Corinthians 13 once a week, choosing first a challenge from Becky Thompson's book "Love Unending" and then a kindness challenge from Shaunti Feldhahn's book "The Kindness Challenge" there will be 52 challenges for 52 weeks. I want to talk about them here on the blog, a week at a time. Doing a deeper study of the Beatitudes will constitute another day of the week and then three more days to go through a Bible Study Book with the Sunday School lesson being reserved for the weekends. I hope it's not too many diverse things that it feels scattered. I read through the Bible last year and while I feel accomplished for having done that, I feel like I mostly just read like crazy and didn't really comprehend or let it sink it. So this year I want to choose with intention, read with intention, and let it soak and ruminate and grow from it.
Those are my goals and I hope they have a lot more chance of success than resolutions. Yesterday, in church, the pastor mentioned that resolutions have an 8% chance of being kept at the three-month-mark. That's not a very good ratio, so that's why I have chosen goals instead of resolutions. So much loftier of course!!!! :) :) :)
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