Leaning Into 2015

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Here is the thing about New Year’s Goals and Resolutions: They aren’t about feeling guilty over your life, or about correcting past mistakes.346 New Year’s Goals and Resolutions are about leaning forward. They’re about living an intentional life. Instead of spending your energy responding to life as it happens, having goals allows you to create your own future.

I go through the goal-setting and resolution-making exercise every year, and most years I publish my list, to be accountable and to encourage other people to do the same thing. However, I would guess that over the last twenty years, my success rate, meaning the percentage of goals and resolutions I can say I absolutely accomplished by the end of the year, is probably less than 30%.

But I’m a different man because of that 30%. Not only that, I’m a different man for attempting the other 70%. Even the act of writing them down, and sometimes that’s all the attention I give them, changed my outlook for the next year.

PROJECTS I NEED TO FINISH:

Publish book #4. (I am deep into the structural part of this book, but it is hard to find quality time to work on it and live the rest of my life, too.)

Finish Cyndi’s outdoor shower. (I’ve been poking around the project trying to figure the best way to do it. I should be past most of the decision points now … time to finish)

Make modifications to our seldom-visited westerly side yard. (This project will spill over into making my garage more useful)

Finish our wills, end of life plans, financial statements, and all of that. (In the past two years we have lived through enough estate complications (from both families) we have no excuse to finish this up.)

HOW I WANT TO LIVE:

Take two backpacking weekends. (I don’t know how many more times I can haul my pack up Tejas trail on these sore knees; I should go now before it gets worse.)

Run a trail race.

4,000 miles cycling, 400 miles running. (These are more “holding-on” goals than stretch-goals.)

Run at least one more marathon.

Hold an Iron Men Retreat with at least five guys speaking.

Play scales and warm ups on my P-Bone at least twice a week.

Do core workouts at least two evenings a week.

Find a way to make my 100-life-goals more accessible and reportable. (This includes reorganizing and evaluating.)

WHO I WANT TO BECOME:

Make this my default reaction: Assume positive intent on the part of everyone

Ruthlessly eliminate hurry from my life. (As prescribed by Dallas Willard (via John Ortberg)

SCARY LONG-TERM DREAMS:

Run a 100-mile trail race (This may never be possible for me, but ultramarathons have sung their siren song in my ears ever since I first started reading about running; I can’t give up on this yet.)

Take an epic multiday bike adventure ride

HOW ABOUT YOU?

What are your goals for 2015? Share them. Who knows but that someone may have special abilities or information that will help you accomplish them.

 

 

“I run in the path of Your commands, for You have set my heart free.” Psalm 119:32

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