If the Lord wills . . .

In light of the New Year's Day post I wrote about setting goals, I prayerfully set about to write down what I hope to accomplish in 2013. I'm sharing these so that I'll have this post to return to throughout the year to check my progress and to see if I still feel the Lord leading in that direction.



I know that most of the "experts" suggest making goals as specific as possible, but I think that's exactly why so many of us give up on our New Year resolutions. Instead I chose to make my main goals very generalized, and then break them up into more specific goals. Even my more specific goals are fairly broad. At least that way I can reach the end of the year and look back to see that I made at least some progress. (I also limit my small goals to seven or less per category. Too many would make these more overwhelming than they already are. I didn't list all of the small steps in order to shorten this post, but I'll probably add to this list throughout the year for my own benefit.)



Based on a couple of time management book written by Stephen Covey, First Things First and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People , I decided to further break down my goals by various compartments/roles in my life. It was very interesting to see how these roles and compartments overlapped each other in such a way that some goals fulfilled more than I expected. For example, physical exercise is also great for your brain and emotional health!



Since it's so easy to forget about some goals without a daily reminder, I tried to think of "triggers" that are common to my life which would remind me to actually do the small steps of each goal. I only added a few of these to give you the idea. And as always I tried to make sure that all my goals aligned with my life mission statement. (I would highly encourage all of you to prayerfully think about your God-given purpose and life mission. It brought a lot of clarity to me on how to best spend each minute of my time.)



SPIRITUAL: Know Him more and better.



SMALL STEPS:

~ Continue daily quiet time/Bible study and prayer.

~ Improve the quality of my prayer life:


keep a prayer journal with dates, specific requests (both my petitions and intercession for others), and answers (Trigger [time specific] - right before bed);
focus on the attributes of God during the praise portion of my prayers;
develop gratitude by prayerfully writing down at least 3 blessings I'm grateful for each day (Trigger [time specific] - right before bed);
intercede for others immediately (as soon as I learn of their requests);
and especially submit my will and my schedule to Him daily. 



~ Find more means of personal face-to-face outreach and ministry. (I feel a strong burden for women and children, so this is where I'll begin my search. I also consider my writing as part of this "life" work.)

~ Spend more time meditating on and memorizing the Word. (Trigger [time specific] - right before bed) 

~ Fellowship regularly with members of my heavenly family, attempting to encourage them.



PHYSICAL: Improve/maintain my physical health. 



SMALL STEPS:

~ Walk daily. (Trigger [time specific] - right after breakfast, when possible; [location specific] - when writing/doing computer work/reading/paper work)

~ Drink water daily. (Trigger - keep water bottle with me at all times; hunger pangs)  

~ Eat healthier. (Trigger - grocery shopping [only buy healthy foods]) 

~ More fresh air. (Trigger [weather specific] - work outside on pretty days) 

~ Strength training/Toning. (Trigger [time specific] - when I get through walking or after sitting at computer for lengthy time; or during tv watching)

~ Stretches to relieve pain and improve flexibility. (Trigger [location specific] - when I'm watching television) 

~ Lose weight. (See the weight counter in the right side margin of my blog to see one way I keep myself motivated and accountable. Hopefully the other steps above will make this a reality!)



MENTAL/EMOTIONAL: Improve/maintain my mental and emotional health. 



SMALL STEPS:

~ Challenge my brain each day by:


reading (future blog post on WordVessel Reading Challenge 2013);
doing puzzles and mind games (my favorite online games are Sudoku and Concentration; wish I could afford Lumosity.com because they seem to have very helpful and well-researched brain teasers);
writing. (Nothing like it for tying my brain in knots!)

~ Relax and find enjoyable activities to do each day by: (This continues to be my most difficult challenge because I'm a can't-be-idle kinda gal, BUT I do thoroughly enjoy my work! =)


using the end of the day for a warm shower, reading, journaling, etc.;
rewarding difficult tasks with enjoyable tasks.

~ Manage my time efficiently by:


daily and monthly planning;
staying organized.

HOME IMPROVEMENT: Improve our personal space. (I won't list all these here, since most of it's more like a project list I keep of things I hope to accomplish both inside and outside our home. I'm a big believer in making your surroundings work for you, even if it means being creative in order to save money!)

~ Stay/get organized! (Trigger [time specific] - clear desk/pick up house at the end of every day) 

~ Get rid of unused stuff with CraigsList, eBay, garage sale, or through charitable donations.



WORK: To do my best for God's glory. 

~ Keeper of the home.

~ Helpmate for my awesome hubby.

~ Write novels.

~ Write non-fiction books.

~ Blogging.



In addition to these I also have overall goals relating to our family finances and my personal relationships, but I opted to leave them out for obvious reasons. Hope you all find my humble attempts at goal-setting (for the purpose of living this God-give life intentionally) useful to you. And I'd love to hear some of your goals and plans for 2013 in the comments below!