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?
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