Next Practices

The year is fast coming to a close and it’s time again for a monthly status update on how I’m coming with my goals. 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.

By now I’m fairly confident how the goals are going to play out by the end of the year – not perfect, but mostly accomplished and I’m just fine with that, especially since they were fairly ambitious. I had hoped that taking another stay-at-home week of vacation in October would allow more catching up on the reading goals, but I ended up working half of my vacation, so not much was done that week toward the goals.

That said, here is where I stand with about seven weeks of 2013 remaining.

Goals related to body:

1. Keep my weight at or below 150 pounds. With my new weight goal as of a month ago being 145 instead of 150, I’m staying below the original goal with no problem. It’s been challenging getting to and staying below 145, but I’ve gotten there a few days in the past couple of weeks. Tracking calories consumed and expended via the Fitbit website is very helpful with this goal. The holidays are around the corner, though, so continued attention to daily efforts here are necessary.

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. Since wearing my Fitbit Flex in September, I haven’t had any days below 10,000 steps. Wearing it seems to encourage me to reach 10,000 as a minimum more easily than previous motivators.

3. Average at least six hours of sleep per night. With thanks again to my Fitbit, I now know I’m averaging a little over 6 hours per day. It isn’t enough, but it meets the goal I set. I’ll increase this goal for 2014.

Goals related to mind:

1. Read a book every other week. With only 12 books read in 2013, one of which was in October, this is one of the goals I won’t come close to reaching. I’m working on book #13 now. This goal was just too ambitious given other demands. I’ve learned from it and will set a more reasonable reading goal next year.

2. Blog every other day (at least). I took a break a couple of weeks in October from attempting a blog post every other day, resulting in only 10 posts for the month. Therefore, I’m nine posts behind where I should be for the year. I’ll make that up by December.

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. This goal was passed in early October. Everything after that is gravy thanks to you, dear readers! We’re approaching 22,000 views year-to-date.

5. Continue to write hand-written letters to my sons. I’m on target here with the next letters to be delivered around Christmas.

Goals related to spirit:

1. Finish reading the ESV Study Bible and read half of The Apologetics Study Bible. Having completed the ESV in September, I’m in Exodus in The Apologetics Study Bible. I won’t complete half of it by year end, but I’m fine 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.

I’m looking forward to setting my goals for 2014. My lessons learned for this year combined with new thoughts about possibilities for next year have me excited about some things that I’ll share around January 1.

Ten months into 2013, that’s where I stand on my goals – not perfect, but still satisfying. What about you? How are you doing on your goals for the year?

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?

The year is fast appearing in the rear view mirror. 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 of holding 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.

I am very pleased to let you know that August was an outstanding month in getting back on track with a few of the goals that were in jeopardy. Thanks to taking a week of vacation and actually using it for things other than work, I caught up quite a bit – not entirely, but meaningfully. I’ll be taking another week off in mid-September to do more of the same, so things are looking up.

That said, here is where I stand after 2/3 of 2013 is behind us.

Goals related to body:

1. Keep my weight at or below 150 pounds. All is well on this goal. I stay 2-3 pounds below my max now to allow a little cushion for splurges here and there.

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 averaging over 18,000 steps per day for all of the days so far in my company’s 100 Day Dash campaign that ends September 10. I’ll keep at the 18,000/day average through the campaign and then return to the goal of 10,000 steps 3 days/week thereafter just because it’s good for my health.

3. Average at least six hours of sleep per night. I don’t measure this, but more nights than not I believe I get this amount of sleep. I know I’m taking more naps than previous years! That’s fun. After the 100 Day Dash, I intend to purchase a device that will help me track sleep. On a related note, I’m thinking about increasing this goal to 7 hours/day in 2014. That would be radical for me, but I think I hear my body calling me to that.

Goals related to mind:

1. Read a book every other week. I have only completed nine books this year. I should have 17 complete by now to be on pace. (Of course, one I’ll finish in September has over 2,700 pages, so I suppose it should count as more than one, but I’m counting it as only one.) I read quite a bit during my vacation and have completed two books since last month’s report as well as a significant portion of the ESV Study Bible that is related to another goal below. I’ll plan on more of the same during my September vacation week. I may not reach the 26 book goal for the year, but I’ll keep plugging away.

2. Blog every other day (at least). I’m glad to report that as of this post I have caught up on this goal, posting 124 times so far this year. Ideas have been flowing with a little more frequency lately (could it be the mind-clearing vacation?) and I have a short list of topics on hand already to write about in coming days.

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. As of this post, I am only a little more than 2,000 views away from this goal, so I should reach this by early October if not late September.

5. Continue to write hand-written letters to my sons. I have written drafts of the next letters to send to my sons. I’m now in the period of several days when I revise them nightly for a while before committing to the final contents. They’ll get hand-written and distributed by sometime next week.

Goals related to spirit:

1. Finish reading the ESV Study Bible and read half of The Apologetics Study Bible. I made up a lot of ground on this goal during vacation last month. I have finished the biblical text of the ESV and the accompanying notes on that text. What I still lack are the additional articles unrelated to specific passages, which is a few hundred pages. I hope to finish that during my September vacation week and then start my journey through The Apologetics Study Bible.

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.

It feels good to have a great month in August where I made up some ground. With lots of vacation time built up at work, I’ll continue to take a week off per month for a while to allow time to reach more of these goals than would otherwise be possible. I’m also seriously thinking about my 2014 goals and have started a list of possibilities. There will be some definite changes, although I like the well-roundedness of categorizing them by body, mind and spirit. I’m inclined not to set goals for things have have pretty much become lifestlye habits by now, so I may still do some of the things listed above but just not track them and report on them. I’ll be more realistic in some areas where I bit off more than I could reasonably chew this year. I have a couple of new, ambitious goals in mind for 2014 that I will decide on by year’s end and announce at the appropriate time.

So that’s the report after eight months of 2013 on my goals for body, mind and spirit. What about you? How are you doing on your goals for the year?

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 my updates here monthly as a public way of holding 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.

July was a good month in that I caught up a little bit in some areas where I was behind, but I still am woefully behind in a couple of others.  I’m hopeful that a week of vacation later in August when I will stay at home and do as I please will allow some much needed time for more catching up, especially in the reading-related goals where I’m lagging the most.

That said, here is where I stand after seven months of 2013.

Goals related to body:

1. Keep my weight at or below 150 pounds.  I celebrated my 1-year anniversary of reaching my weight goal on July 26 and blogged about it.  All is well on this goal.

2. Walk/jog/run a total of 10,000 steps per day three days per week – COMPLETE.  As of today, I have completed this goal for the year nearly five months ahead of time!  It helps that I’m averaging over 17,000 steps per day for all of the 100 days in my company’s 100 Day Dash campaign through September 11.  I’ll still keep at the 17,000/day pace through the campaign and 3 days/week thereafter just because it’s good for my health.

3. Average at least six hours of sleep per night.  I don’t measure this, but more nights than not I believe I get this amount of sleep.

Goals related to mind:

1. Read a book every other week.  I have only completed seven books this year.  I should have fifteen completed by now to be on pace.  Apparently, I set a goal for a lot more than my available time allows.  Reading one per month has been possible and I may just have to live with that unless multiple vacation weeks between now and the end of the year change the picture.  I read a LOT daily online by following article links and other links to resources through people I follow on Twitter and elsewhere, so I know I’m reading more than the equivalent of the goal I set for books – it just isn’t in the form of books.  If I set a goal like this next year, it will not be for more than one book per month.  That was simply too ambitious for my work schedule and lifestyle.

2. Blog every other day (at least).  I’ve posted 104 blog posts this year, but an every-other-day schedule would have me at 109 already.  This time last month I was ten posts behind schedule, but now I’m only five behind, so I’ve made up some ground.

3. Continue to follow My 3 Words: Ground, Stretch, Reflect.  All is well here.

4. Double the blog’s readership from 10,000 views in 2012 to 20,000.  July was the best month I’ve ever had on this blog for views with over 3,000 for the month, so I continue to be well ahead of the pace needed to reach this goal.  With over 15,000 views through early August, there should be no problem reaching the 20,000 point in the next 2-3 months, thanks to you, dear readers!

5. Continue to write hand-written letters to my sons.  While I’ve decided on the topic for my next letter, I need to write them in August so that I don’t write the two per year too close in time to each other.  One is always given at Christmas, so the other needs to be in the summer.  Time is running out on that.

Goals related to spirit:

1. Finish reading the ESV Study Bible and read half of The Apologetics Study Bible.  I’m far, far behind on this goal.  It will take a few vacation weeks of reading to catch up and there is no guarantee that will happen.  If this goal gets adjusted, it may be to finish the ESV this year and then start the next one in January.

2. Review 100 Bible memory verses weekly.  This is one of the easiest goals I maintain, requiring less than an hour per week, so all is well here.

3. Come to some resolution regarding an unsettled situation where I worship – COMPLETE.

With seven months of the year behind me, I can say with confidence that I was too ambitious in the goals I set for 2013.  I’ll reach most of them, but I’m beginning to accept the possibility that I may not achieve them all.  I’m not giving up yet, especially since I have about six weeks of vacation due me that I can take whenever I want.  I’m inclined to take one week per month the remainder of the year, giving much of those weeks to making up lost ground on the reading goals.  Stay tuned.

That’s my report after seven months of 2013 on my goals for body, mind and spirit.  What about you?  How are you doing on your goals for the year?

With the year half over, 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 my updates here monthly as a public way of holding myself accountable.  With this month’s report, I’ll start color-coding the goals with green indicating that I am on or ahead of schedule, orange signifying being slightly behind schedule, and red meaning I am dangerously behind schedule.

The fact that I am on the back side of 2013 now will light a fire under me where needed.  I admit that I too frequently procrastinate on some kinds of tasks, rushing near a deadline to finish the job.  The good news is that I almost always finish the job and do it well.  The bad news is that I get away with the procrastination since it all turns out well in the end (albeit unnecessarily stressful as the deadline nears).  My procrastination ends up being rewarded with good results rather than causing unwanted consequences.  In fact, I recall many times where I have intentionally added little tasks and diversions not originally planned because I knew that I could still produce the desired results in the time allotted and squeeze in some additional activity along the way.  I welcome any free psychoanalysis my readers wish to offer to explain that all-too-common behavior.

Regardless, back to the update… Here is where I stand at the midyear point for each of my goals.

Goals related to body:

1. Keep my weight at or below 150 pounds.  No worries.  My weigh-ins have been at or below my target weight every day since last July 26.  I look forward to my 1-year anniversary in a few weeks of maintaining this goal.

2. Walk/jog/run a total of 10,000 steps per day three days per week. I’m still way ahead of schedule on this one.  With our company’s annual 100 Day Dash underway and me averaging about 17,000 steps per day for the past month, I’m on pace to pass the goal of 153 10,000-steps days for the year by sometime in August.  Of course, you can’t build up exercise and then goof off for long periods, so I’ll still continue the 3-day-per-week goal for the remainder of the year even after I have accomplished the total days goal.

3. Average at least six hours of sleep per night.  I still don’t record numbers here, but more nights than not when I set my alarm and lay down, it’s for more than six hours from the time I’m going to bed.  I’m also taking many more evening naps in my favorite man cave recliner than in years past.  I’ve started going in a little later to work than previously, not always being the first one on the team to arrive.  I’m considering getting a Fitbit device to wear in a couple of months that will measure my actual sleep.  That would be a far more accurate measure.

Goals related to mind:

1. Read a book every other week.  I have only completed six books this year.  I should have thirteen completed by now.  Yikes!  This goal is in serious jeopardy of not being achieved unless Dr. Seuss comes to the rescue (just kidding).

2. Blog every other day (at least).  I’ve posted 83 blog posts this year, but an every-other-day schedule would have me at 93 already, so I need some consistent daily posts to catch up – very doable, especially in light of last year’s successful lesson learned post for each of the 366 leap year days.

3. Continue to follow My 3 Words: Ground, Stretch, Reflect.  I don’t think I go a day without doing all three things to some extent, but unless I’m blogging, I don’t spend as much intentional time on the end-of-day reflection as I otherwise do – all the more reason to blog more frequently.

4. Double the blog’s readership from 10,000 views in 2012 to 20,000.  With over 12,000 views just past the midpoint of the year, I am gladly running almost 20% ahead of my goal, thanks to you, dear readers!

5. Continue to write hand-written letters to my sons.  For this twice-per-year goal, July is the month I need to do this since the other time will be at Christimas.  I’ve decided on the topic and will take my time crafting these in the coming weeks.

Goals related to spirit:

1. Finish reading the ESV Study Bible and read half of The Apologetics Study Bible.  Why is it that my two seriously delinquent goals are the reading ones?  In addition to getting my act together on this, I definitely need another “monk week” where I spend a week reading at a nearby monastery once or twice a year.  I can get the equivalent of two months of reading done in one of those weeks.  I need to do this by the end of the summer.

2. Review 100 Bible memory verses weekly.  This is one of the easiest goals I maintain, requiring less than an hour per week.

3. Come to some resolution regarding an unsettled situation where I worship.  Completed in January.

An interesting observation that comes to me as I look at the above goals is this: even though I feel like I am overall woefully behind in my goals for the year due to the ones appearing above in orange and red, the greater number of green ones tells me that I’m not doing too bad, after all.  Why do we have a tendency to bemoan what we aren’t doing well instead of celebrating what we are doing well?  Of course, I’d like to see nothing but green above, but there is a bit of comfort in seeing far more green than any other color, especially when I know that it is still possible to achieve them all.

I’ve also had one other insight this week as I pondered my goals.  I think I set too many of them for 2013.  I’m not leaving myself enough time to relax and play and, in the words of late humorist Grady Nutt, “do nothing slowly.”  I need to remember that issue when setting goals for 2014.  Maybe some of you can make it a point to remind me of that in late December.  Of course, I’m too stubborn to change any for this year.  I set them, so I will continue to strive to achieve them.

That’s where I am halfway through the year on my goals for body, mind and spirit.  What about you?  How are you doing on your goals for the year?