Eric's 2012 Goals
Last March I downloaded Michael Hyatt's Life Plan and it has been staring at me ever since. Well, I finally finished my first Life Plan last week and I am really excited about it. I feel so focused and it has helped me realign my priorities. I've got a fresh start to the new year and already have a day scheduled at the end of March for a quarterly review of my goals. Let me also say publicly how proud I am of Kelsey for the goals she set for 2012. She said it, but it's really not her style and I love watching her challenge herself.
I already posted about how I did with my 2011 goals, so feel free to read that if you want to see where I'm coming from. I'm not going to share all of my goals because some of them are just too personal.
For a little taste of the Life Plan, I will share my goals for most of the eight different categories of my life, in priority order:
- God
- Self (Health, Growth, Rest)
- Kelsey
- Child
- Friends
- Finances
- Ministry
- Career
2012 Goals
- Memorize the Bible verses in my Life Plan by Dec. 31, 2012. Part of the Life Plan exercise is to come up with a supporting Bible verse for each category. This was a natural goal that I am excited about acheiving because I have never done a great job of memorizing verses, but this gives me a great reason to start.
- Spend five minutes of quiet time in prayer each day of 2012. I'm going to try to do this before I read every morning.
- Exercise at least three times a week for 30 minutes or more. I will do this in one of four ways: P90X, running, biking or going to the gym (lifting weights).
- Eat nutritiously most of the time (two meals a day at least). I'm allowing myself a little flexibility here for eating out.
- Read 12 books in 2012 by reading, on average, 20 minutes before going to bed each night. Last year I didn't meet my reading goal because I didn't have a specific time set aside to read. This year I made a plan. I did some quick math: 10 pages in 20 minutes/day = 300 pages a month. Most books are around 200-300 pages, with the exception of Steve Jobs which is 600! I'm going to have to ramp it up for January to stay on track.
- Attend the Global Leadership Summit at Lutheran Church of Hope on Aug. 9-10, 2012. Kelsey and I attended this two years ago and we loved it. Sadly, last year we didn't have any vacation days to attend, but this year I am setting them aside right away to make sure I get back to this awesome event.
- Plan a date night once a month where we are alone for at least two hours. We spend nearly every night together right now. This goal is in anticipation when our baby arrives in March. I know it's not realistic to have a date night every week with a newborn, but we can certainly arrange to have a date night once a month. Priorities. I know we used to do this weekly, but life does change and being flexible is part of having a child.
- Cuddle, kiss and tell my daughter I love her every day in 2012.
- Live in the NOW moments with our daughter by unplugging for at least one hour every day. My fear is that by the time I get home from work, do some chores, cook supper, etc., that there won't be much quality time to spend with my daughter. There will be probably only four hours after I get off work before she will go to bed.
- Change my daughter’s diaper once a day. This seems simple, but I want my daughter to know that her father takes care of her and to be able to serve her in this way. As things get crazy, it might be easy to fall into a pattern of Kelsey taking care of the baby and me doing chores. This is a goal to help balance that.
- Write at least one blog post a month in the following categories: faith, marriage and money.
- Facetime with Garrett at least six times this year. We are both new to parenthood, and I want to be sure that we stay connected.
The one thing that I have incorporated into my weekly routine is a review of my Life Plan. I think this will be a key to my success. Keeping the things that are most important to me fresh in my mind every week should help me stay on track.
How about you? What are some of your big goals for 2012?