Next Practices

Only one more month of the year to go! This is my next-to-last monthly update on my annual goals that I first published here on January 1 – eleven goals divided into the categories of body, mind and spirit. I share updates monthly as a public way to hold myself accountable. I color-code the goals with green if I am on or ahead of schedule, orange if I am slightly behind schedule, or red if I am dangerously behind schedule.

By mid-November it was evident which goals could be met by year’s end and which would not be. Overall, I’m satisfied with how much I’ve done. I’ve also learned a lot about goal setting that will impact what I plan for 2014, especially considering that these are all goals accomplished in addition to working 50+ hours per week at my job.

So here is where I stand with a few weeks of 2013 remaining.

Goals related to body:

1. Keep my weight at or below 150 pounds. This has been no issue, especially since I lowered the original goal to 145 and maintain that daily. I entered Thanksgiving Day a couple of pounds under so I could enjoy all the normal foods with family that day and not go over the goal. I’ll keep 145 as my goal going forward – no need to lose more.

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 day below 10,000 steps. In addition, I’ve made sure not to have any 7-day period with less than 80,000 steps total, so my average is a little over 11,000/day now.

3. Average at least six hours of sleep per night. I love tracking this with my Fitbit. I’ve not had a week averaging less than six hours per night since getting the device. It isn’t enough, though, so I’ll increase this goal for 2014.

Goals related to mind:

1. Read a book every other week. I gave up on trying to reach this goal recently, capping my book reading at 12 this year. The original goal was just too much given all my other goals and work schedule, so I’ll be more reasonable next year in this regard.

2. Blog every other day (at least). I should reach this goal by the end of the year, but being eight posts behind, I will have to blog more days than not this month to reach it.

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. It looks like we’ll finish the year with about 25,000 views, thanks to you, dear readers.

5. Continue to write hand-written letters to my sons. It’s time to figure out the subject of my next letter and plan on getting them to my boys by 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 still in the early books in The Apologetics Study Bible. I won’t complete half of it by year end, but I’m fine with that. I’ll set a goal to finish all of it by the end of 2014.

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 eager to set my goals for 2014. I’ll post them here on January 1. They will not be as time-consuming overall as this year’s goals. I need to bake into my schedule next year more free time and more sleep time, so that will require less in the way of goals outside of work.

With only a few weeks left in 2013, that’s where I stand on my goals. What about you? How are you doing on your goals for the year? Are you thinking about goals you’ll want to set for 2014?

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?