With the year more than 3/4 behind us, it’s time again for a monthly status update on how I’m coming with my goals for the year. I first published them here on January 1 – eleven goals divided into the categories of body, mind and spirit. I share updates here monthly as a public way to hold myself accountable. I color-code the goals with green indicating that I am on or ahead of schedule, orange if I am slightly behind schedule, or red if I am dangerously behind schedule.
September saw some solid progress on a few goals. Thanks to taking another stay-at-home week of vacation and using it for things other than work, I made a little progress. I’ll be taking another week off in late October to do more of the same. I’m resigned to the likelihood that I won’t accomplish all goals, but I’ll complete most and I’m OK with that. To paraphrase someone who wrote me recently, “Jeff, most people don’t even set goals each year like you did, so it’s OK not to meet every one of them.” I’m thankful for that reminder.
That said, here is where I stand with less than three months of 2013 remaining.
Goals related to body:
1. Keep my weight at or below 150 pounds. All is well on this goal. In fact, I recently decided to back that down another five pounds to max out at 145 pounds. That’s about what I weighed when I was my best at running several years ago, so I want to get back to that number as my maximum weight.
2. Walk/jog/run a total of 10,000 steps per day three days per week – COMPLETE. In terms of total number of days for the year, this was completed in early August. I’m continuing to reach at least 10,000 per day nearly every day, anyway, to maintain a healthy level of activity. I’m enjoying using my new Fitbit Flex which I reviewed here, so reaching the goal is even more fun now than before.
3. Average at least six hours of sleep per night. With the purchase of my Fitbit Flex, I can now track sleep activity and I’m pleased to say that my weekly reports show that I average slightly more than the six hour per night goal. Yay! I’ve never known that for certain. I’m still inclined to increase that goal to seven hours per night for next year.
Goals related to mind:
1. Read a book every other week. I have only completed eleven books in 2013, two of which were in September. I’m resigned to the fact that I won’t make the 26 goal for the year – not even close. That’s OK. I’ve still read more books than in any recent year in memory. I’ll be more reasonable in this goal for next year after this year’s experience.
2. Blog every other day (at least). I’m only 3 posts behind the 140 I should have completed this year to date, so that will be easy to catch up on.
3. Continue to follow My 3 Words: Ground, Stretch, Reflect. All is well here. If you don’t know what this refers to, read this post.
4. Double the blog’s readership from 10,000 views in 2012 to 20,000 – COMPLETE. I’m happy to report that this goal was passed in early October. That means that even though I’m writing half the number of blog posts I wrote last year (when I blogged every day), the average views per post are more than four times last year’s average. Thank you, dear readers, for making that happen!
5. Continue to write hand-written letters to my sons. I delivered to each of my sons in September another letter, so I’m on target with this goal and will write another to them at Christmas.
Goals related to spirit:
1. Finish reading the ESV Study Bible and read half of The Apologetics Study Bible. I used some of my September vacation week to complete the ESV and wrote a review of it here. I have started in The Apologetics Study Bible and, instead of trying to complete half by the end of the year, I’ll give myself through 2014 to complete all of it. Therefore, I’m changing the color of this goal from red to orange. I doubt I’ll complete one-third of it by the end of the year, but I’m OK with that.
2. Review 100 Bible memory verses weekly. I’m on track with this.
3. Come to some resolution regarding an unsettled situation where I worship – COMPLETE.
As the end of 2013 fast approaches, I’m overall satisfied with how I’ve progressed toward completion of the goals for body, mind and spirit. Ideally, I would be on target to reach all of them. It appears that the only ones I won’t reach relate to reading, so I think I simply expected too much of myself in that regard given my other time commitments. That’s a good lesson to learn prior to setting goals for next year which will be more reasonable.
One other major lesson learned this year is that it isn’t healthy to set too many goals. I find myself on some evenings or weekends just wanting and craving some down time without any to-do lists hovering overhead. I will definitely keep that in mind when setting goals next year, trying to build in guilt-free time to relax and have fun. I didn’t do that this year. Body, mind and spirit all need down time.
So that’s the report after nine months of 2013. What about you? How are you doing on your goals for the year?
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