2023 Goals In Review

I did something new this year. I made four "goals", which were kind of more like habits that I wanted to build. As the year comes to an end, I wanted to see how I did with those goals.

First of all, I intentionally called them "goals" and not resolutions. Part of that is because I'd like them to last longer than a year and also, I simply wanted to make myself be more aware of them. I wanted to be intentional because I know myself and I know how I will have good intentions but never actually do certain things.

The Goals

1. Go to the local state and metro parks at least once each month.
2. Do five pushups morning and night.
3. Keep the radio off on drives of 30 minutes or less.
4. Intentionally invest in a relationship each week with a text, phone call, letter, etc.

The Reasoning
Well, the first one is kind of two-fold. On the one hand, we paid for the passes to these places and I want to make sure we get our money's worth. But it's also getting me outside and giving me some exercise. Number two was to get me doing something good for my body every day. Number three is an extension of my desire to practice "being". I'm not great at silence and stillness but I want to hear God's voice in my life so I decided that short drives were a good place to practice. And last but not least, I have a lot of people whom I dearly love but don't see often and I want to make an effort to maintain those relationships.

How It Went
Let's just get it out of the way - I did not keep these completely but I never thought I would. I didn't get to each park once a month, but I did go a lot and we got our money's worth. Besides, my family got to use them too.

I did not do the pushups every day, especially these last few months, but I did way more pushups this year than I ever have before and many days I did more than ten.

I'd say that I probably did the best with the radio. The one exception that I made was when it is dark or I was very tired for some reason, because singing along to songs helps me focus. I didn't hear God more like I was hoping but I'm going to stick with this because I need the practice of silence. My thoughts are still too loud.

As much as I'd like to say that I did great with the relationships, I was not as intentional as I'd like to be. Yes, on paper I did do something with at least one person most weeks, but many weeks it sort of just worked out that way and I was not putting much work into the relationships that aren't more readily available. But I am pleased with the work I'm doing to make relationships in my new Bible study, so that's good.

What I Learned
First and foremost, I learned that I like doing something like this. They are simple things but they challenge me in areas I want to grow and are achievable. I also learned to give myself a lot of grace. I'm proud of how I did but also the fact that I'm not beating myself up about not hitting every mark. That was never my goal. I feel good about what I did and I know that I can improve. 

I will have to give it some thought but I do want to do something like this again in 2024. have you ever tried something like this? Would you want to join me in making some goals for the coming year?





Photo by Hannah Olinger on Unsplash