I don’t do New Year resolutions.  I find them fake and phoney.  If I was unwilling to change all year, what makes me think December 31 to January 1 will make any difference.  There is much hype around the idea of making resolutions, getting rid of bad habits, and adopting helpful ones.  But why wait for the end of the year.  Why not start today?  Right now?  Purpose in this moment to make a shift, either a small course change or a major overhaul, if that is what is needed.

Instead of January 1 to make all the changes I was unwilling to make the prior 365 days, I do more frequent check-ins with myself.

I have also come to realize and accept that I cannot focus on everything at the same time.  When I try to do too much at once, I merely set myself up for failure.  Instead I break down my personal goals into categories:

Faith
Professional
Family
Physical
Personal Growth

Within each of these categories I may have 1, 2 or 3 non-competing goals going on at any one time.

What do I mean by non-competing?

For example: running 5 times a day and not consuming oil can both be done simultaneously, without conflicting with each other.

Compare that to: train for half-marathon and complete workout DVD 5 times a week is not.  Now, I may be able to do both…some of the time.  But there will be more days than not that the half-marathon training leaves me totally drained and the idea of another workout is not only less than appealing, but counter productive.

So physically, if I am training for a race, I will not have another workout goal at the same time.

Here is what that grid may look like for me at any point in time:

Faith – memorize book of James
Professional – complete a book section a day until done, spend 20 minutes researching articles each day
Family – Spend at least 1 hour a day playing with kids (can be broken up into small chunks), read story book together at breakfast, read a story to them at bedtime.
Physical – Eat Plant-perfect (no animal products, no oil), Walk/Run 30 min – 1 hour every day.
Personal Growth – Read 20 minutes for pleasure each day, Work through Smart.ly course, Listen to podcasts while exercising.

Some categories may only have 1 item because that is all I can handle at a time.  If I am intensely working to memorize the book of James, there is little other room for mental focusing on other Bible areas.  That doesn’t prevent me from also studying a specific topic, or reading a section from another book.  In fact our morning routine has us reading chronologically through the Bible at breakfast, so I don’t even schedule that.  It is simply understood, expected and rarely skipped. So while I am not limited to only what is on my goal list, it does save me from overcommitting and then inevitably failing.