Some Goal Setting

I realize that we are now into February and I'm just getting around to some goal setting for the  year, but it's better late than never!  I've been spending January plugging through the book by Steven Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  It's a good book though reading it before I go to bed isn't a good idea since it takes a lot of concentration. 

One major thing I've gleaned from it is the activity of sitting down each week and writing down all the roles in my life - wife, mother, business owner, Great Commission Women's director, Children's ministry director and so on.  Then under each of those roles, I write out goals for the week and then transfer it onto my weekly calendar.  However, I then work through the things that will bring the greatest long-term investment and rewards first rather than just barrel through a to-do list.  For example, I had a list a mile long, but took the time to take Nathan out to breakfast last week to invest in him and work with him on writing out a bit of a financial bill-paying schedule. 

Anyway, I'm about 2/3 of the way through the book and I do want to go back through it again and highlight it but I'm learning some valuable lessons on how to work more effectively. 

I basically have three main goals this year.

Goal #1 - Personal Development

I always think it's important to work on this area and I see some definite weaknesses I have.  My tendency is to lament and feel like a failure, but that does absolutely nothing to change those bad habits, except to allow me to wallow in self-pity and stay exactly in the same place I've been.  So I'm giving myself permission to mess-up, ask forgiveness from God, myself and whoever else my weaknesses affect and then move on. 

So, I'm still formulating exactly how I'm going to make these changes.  For me it starts with spending time in God's word each day and through prayer.  It also happens when I keep myself focused.  Facebook is always a big distraction in more than one way.  I want to continue to glean and learn from good examples of this in my real life, as well as books, such as the one I'm reading. 

Goal #2 - Continue to Work on my Health

This is an area that is always ongoing for me.  To be honest, I really dislike exercise but know I need to just do it whether I enjoy it or not.  I also am pre-diabetic and my blood pressure has been on the high side for about a year now so I really need to get my rear in gear.  Both my grandmother and mother have diabetes and my dad's side has heart issues so it's something I want to improve.  At this point, I'm not so worried about the number on my scale as I am about just improving the types of food I eat, as well as moving at least 30-60 minutes each day.

Goal #3 - Scheduling, Balance, and Prioritizing

I wasn't quite sure how to word this particular goal.  My tendency is to focus on one thing and spend hours and days doing nothing but that item to the detriment of all other areas.  So this year, I'm trying to schedule my day better.  I'm fortunate in having a place to go (my shop) where I have a room devoted to this.  My computer is set up there, as well as my sewing machine.  What I'm trying to do is schedule so much time to creating items for the shop, and then so much time to doing any computer work I need to do, and so on. 

I'm finding that by doing it this way, I'm getting much more done and nothing is being neglected.  I still have the tendency to fall into the hyper-focus mode, but being conscious of it is helping, as well as working the planning Covey mentions in his book.

I also want to do more investing in people this year - family, friends, church family, etc.  It's easy for me to do things by myself.  I know that I work hard and it will get done well.  However, doing it by myself is less effective, than working with someone and training them too. 

For example, our denomination has a training ground seminar each year to teach some aspect of working with children or adults in ministry.  Rather than go by myself, my plan is to invite a few people along next year so that they also benefit from this.  It's a much more effective way to work.

So those are my three main goals this year.  I'll be tweaking them and probably adding to them but I feel they are doable and give me direction for 2017.