2014: Bring It

In mid-November, I wrote about how I wanted to develop a broader vision outside of myself and my family for 2014.  I wasn’t sure if anyone would care about my goals and vision, but I have had so many interesting conversations offline as a result of that post.  To further these conversations, and for posterity’s sake, I wanted to provide an update on how that process is going.

Before that, I just have to say that talking about goal setting and vision casting gets me giddy. Two days ago, David and I sat at Barnes & Noble drinking coffee and talking goals for over an hour and it was truly one of my favorite hours of 2013.  I love the sense of possibility and newness and excitement that a new morning brings—so having a whole YEAR to consider?!! Thrilling.

At the same time, my giddiness is tempered by a sober realization that life is not a given.  We don’t know how long we get to be alive and we don’t know what awaits us even one hour in the future.  I don’t mean this to be morbid…it’s just a realization I’ve had this year.  We can plan as much as we want, but God determines what happens and I pray that I always remain aware of that, grateful for the gift and for the Giver, and responsible with (and responsive to) the time and gifts I’m given.

Anyway, here were the goals I set for the rest of 2013 and an update on how I’ve done:

-to create a prayer calendar, chalkboard, or other creative way to display & remember my prayer requests.  To help me with this goal, I bought a book called “Organizing Your Prayer Closet” by Gina Duke.  It’s half a book on prayer and half a year-long prayer journal for people like me who like categories and organization.  The book part was a little mediocre (although I still took some things away from it) but the journal looks AWESOME and I am beyond psyched to start.

-continue to take 1 day per weekend OFF from work.  I’ve followed this guideline for “work” work.  Some house projects have crept up, but David and I have been good about doing them together, making them fun, and making sure our weekends have a balance between work and play.  Vacations helped.

-launch our new club.  It’s launched! I plan to finish up our winter newsletter in the next week or so and then I should be done with club-related tasks for a while.

-only clean 1x/day intend of freaking and doing it more.  I’ll put it this way—most days, I only picked up Zoe’s toys once (which was my goal) and I reduced the number of freak outs.  This is an ongoing goal 🙂

-invest time into planning professional goals for 2014.  I did this two days before Thanksgiving break.  More to come.

-meditate on and create a mission statement of sorts to guide how I spend my social time and volunteer time.  After I wrote this, I decided it felt stuffy.  Here are my thoughts: I want to blend my time with getting to know new people and pouring into existing relationships.  This year, it was about 50-50 since I was in a new life stage (and I feel very passionate about reaching out to other moms.)  Next year I anticipate my “social time” being spent more like 60% old friends and 40% new friends, because I have developed great relationships and want to continue them.  Also, I am NOT taking on any new volunteer commitments.  In between the club, my small group, and random things I do for church, I cannot and should not take on anything else.

Coming up in my next post: what word best described 2013 (here was last year’s word) and what are my goals/foundations and hopes for 2014?