2009 Goals

Last year I shared with you my goals for 2008 and I actually accomplished some of those. So I thought I should try this again for 2009. And this year I’ll try and give more regular updates. In a couple of days I’ll also do a recap of my 2008 goals.

Now I should list my 2009 goals. Some of these goals are being made for me. Some of them are second attempts because I failed at them this year. Some of them are repeats because they were challenging enough that by repeat them I’m not necessarily making it easier on myself. Some are really simple goals, these hopefully will give me confidence to complete the ones that require more discipline. All are measureable, because I like to know if I succeed or not. And hopefully all will make me better: a better man, a better Christ follower, a better youth pastor, a better potential husband (wink wink ladies), etc.)

Oh…and I suppose I should say that I still don’t like the term resolution. It seems incredibly cliché. But then again so does the term goals, so what do I know.

Here are my 2009 goals

1. Find a new job. - Again, some of these goals were being made for me, and this one comes care of the United States Air Force. Due to the closure of the base I work at I will be out of the job sometime in the fall. Now the USAF will do what it can to find me another position within the system, but I want to use this opportunity to get back into full time ministry. This is where my passion is anyways.

2. Read 40 books. - This is a repeat goal, but I thought it was the right amount of books to challenge myself with. This is somewhere in the neighborhood of 3.5 books a month.

3. Memorize Colossians. - Another repeat, but this is because I failed to accomplish this last time. This time I am going to set some sub-goals in order to really achieve this one.

a. January – Read once a day.

b. February – Create flash cards with each paragraph and put them in order once a day.

c. March – Create flash cards with each sentence and put them in order once a day.

d. April & May – Create flash cards with each word from chapter 1 and put them in order once a day. Once a month write out the chapter.

e. June & July – Create flash cards with each word from chapter 2 and put them in order once a day. And once a week do the same with chapter 1. Once a month write out chapters 1 & 2.

f. August & September – Create flash cards with each word from chapter 3 and put them in order once a day. And once a week do the same with chapters 1 and 2. Once a month write out chapters 1 -3.

g. October & November – Create flash cards with each word from chapter 4 and put them in order once a day. And once a week do the same with chapters 1-3. Once a month write out the book from memorization.

h. December - Recite the book twice a week.

4. Visit some friends. – Whether it be in Kansas City, North Carolina or out in California. Get away from where you are and spend a week of enjoying where someone else is.

5. Visit two baseball stadiums. – This was suggested by a friend, and certainly this is a great goal. Actually she suggested I visit two baseball stadiums that I’ve never been to before.

6. Visit a Doctor. – while I went to an asthma and allergy specialist in 2008, I haven’t seen a general practitioner in years. Just for daily health stuff. I start my allergy shots next week, so life/health should start improving. But I ignore so many other things in my life, who knows if I’m healthy or sick.

7. Sign up for some kind of class. – I’ve been thinking how I need to discover something else. Maybe karate, or a dance class (in case I ever get married I can dance with my woman at the reception), or photography…something. Let’s work on this together.

8. Prep for a mission trip in 2010. – It was suggested by a friend that I visit Africa, which is something I would love to do. But I would also love to visit Southeast Asia or South America. But more than just visit one of those places I would love to find something I could do while I was there. So I officially starting a search for my Mission Trip 2010.

I feel like I'm forgeting something, and because I've chicken stratched these on napkins and loose pieces of paper for the past sevearl weeks I'm going to have to look around or rethink of what they were. Maybe I can figure it out and add to this list tomorrow.

What are some of your goals for the new year?