Wednesday, January 9, 2013

A Year of Progress

As I started thinking about my goals for the year of 2013, I thought back on 2012.  Remember that huge list I wrote out last year?  Well, I only fully accomplished one.  That depressed me.  I felt like a complete New Year's Goal Setter Failure, just like 98% of the rest of the population who sets goals at the beginning of the year (note: that figure has no scientific background what-so-ever, I totally made it up). 

So here it is January 9th and I have yet to set any goals for 2013.  Once again, feeling a little failure'ish'.  But, I am so very thankful that I have wise friends.  I met with my great friend yesterday and she had a similar 2012 goal issue, but she let me in on a little something she figured out. 

We are both reading "Unglued" by Lysa Terkeurst.  In this book, on of the first things Lysa talks about is "imperfect progress" which she defines as: imperfect changes, slow steps of progress wrapped in grace.  She wrote this in her journal about it, " Progress.  Just make progress.  Its okay to have setbacks and the need for do-overs.  Its okay to draw a line in the sand and start over again -- and again.  Just make sure you're moving the line forward.  Moving forward.  Take baby steps, but at least take steps that keep you from being stuck.  Then change will come.  And it will be good."

I love this.  While I did not completely meet any of my goals set last year, I can see progress made in many of them.  I moved the line forward.  I made progress.  And now, I have this year to make even more progress as well.  I can't give up on setting goals for myself and wanting to move forward just because I didn't meet a silly little deadline set by society. 

Philippians 1:6 tells me "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

He is still working on me, so why should I be done working.  So, I'll continue on, knowing that even imperfect progress is still progress in a better direction than where I started. 

Here goes:

1.  Sit down for quiet time, reading my Bible at least 4 times per week and blog/journal at least 3 of them.

2. Make my bed more often than not. (I have never been one to make our bed, but I always like it when it is done.  So, I am going to try and do it more often)

3.  Spend more time reading the Bible with my kids.  We read books, Bible story books, Christian children's books and anything else, but don't read the Bible itself as often as we should.

4.  Keep on praying.  One of my goals last year was to pray more often and I did make progress on this one.  Now, I want to continue on this one since you can't ever really pray too much!

5.  Run the Lincoln Half Marathon in less time than last year (2:08).  Really hoping for an even 2 hours, but not certain I can chop 8 minutes off or not.

6.  Do something each month to make my marriage stronger.  So often I focus on myself and my kids and leave the hubs in the dust.  I want to make sure he knows how very much he means to me.

7.  Memorize scripture.  This was a goal from last year too.  I set a small goal of one verse per month and couldn't even do it.  I did 6 however, which is 6 more than I knew in 2011, so I'll take it.  I am going to shoot for the one per month again this year and hope to double my total from last year.

8.  Print this list and have it somewhere visible to remind me what my goals are.  If I don't ever see them, I forget what they are and forget to purpose to do them.

What are your thoughts on imperfect progress and what are your goals for 2013?
 

No comments:

Post a Comment