22 in ’22

I love setting goals *insert happy sigh here*

There is something about having something to work towards that just works for me. I know that goals don’t work for everyone and even most of the time I don’t accomplish my goals. But I still love looking ahead and making a list of the things that I hope to accomplish.

I think the biggest problem that we have with goals is that we like to look ahead and see the accomplishment of those goals, but we forgot to look at just the next step forward toward those goals. It can be really overwhelming at the beginning of the year to realize that I need to establish 15 new habits on day one, and somehow carry them all forward for an entire year. This doesn’t ever seem to work well because as soon as we drop one, we drop them all.

One thing I try to do for planning long-term goals is to then break it down into quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily goals.

So, for example- if we want to spend 1000 hours outside this year, I am going to focus on getting 100 hours in this winter period. That’s about 1 hour a day through March. Sure, it doesn’t hardly put a dent in 1000 hours, but at the same time- its frigid outside and I realistically know that we aren’t going to be spending many hours out there!

Another thing that I like to do is a set some goals for the year that I cannot even work on until a set point. A goal like “go on a family vacation” doesn’t happen on January 1st- it happens at some later date and I don’t have to worry about it until then.

ALSO- a good dose of reality is sometimes helpful, so let’s check in on my goals from 2021:

• Memorize 1 John (Eh, we have Chapters 1-2 mostly memorized).
• Work on establishing a habitual prayer life  ( I would say that I really, truly did work on this and saw a lot of progress in 2021)
• Lead a summer Bible Study  (Yes!)
• Run a half-marathon (What? Nope.)
• Read 52 books  (I read 112)
• Run/Walk 500 miles (the tricky part of this will be tracking it!) (I did not indeed track this well, but I’m fairly confident I did this)
• Spend 1000 hours outside (also tricky to track!) (Also not sure of the exact hours, but we did make a big effort to be outside)
• Host guests at least 1x a month (I also didn’t track this, but this year was a year of hospitality for me and I don’t regret it one bit!)
• Go on a family vacation (We went to Gatlinburg for Spring Break!)
• Go on a ladies weekened/Theo guys weekend/a couples weekend (Ladies and Guys weekend happened, couples did not)
• Get together with my brother and SIL/SEE MY PARENTS IN PERSON  (Did not get to see my bro and SIL, but did get to see my parents a lot!)
• Work on limiting time on social media (turn off phone in the afternoon, no media on Sundays, one month off social media this year) (Eh. Can’t really say that I accomplished that one)
• Write to our sponsored Compassion Child monthly (1st Sunday of each month) (Nope. I think I maybe wrote 2 letters this year?)
• Send a weekly card or letter (Sunday afternoon) (Also nope)
• Publish my book (YES! I published my book in January 2021)
• Get family pictures taken
• Be a guest on 3 podcasts 
• Be intentional in building up our marriage 
• Continue to work at CHESS and build those relationships/community  (CHESS has been the biggest blessing in our lives this year!)
• Organize my classroom so I know where everything is and what to teach next and have it flow better  (This is a work in progress, but it is better than it was last year)
• Make enough money blogging to cover the fees of my blog- about $200 
• Continue to manage 3 rental properties, perhaps add one more? (We are now up to 5!)

So, out of 22 goals, I accomplished 13. For a challenging year in my life, I’ll take it.

I saw this idea on someone else’s blog and I loved the idea of 22 goals in 2022.

1. Finish my 10 butterflies cross stitch project
2. Memorize 1st John as a family
3. Memorize Proverbs 3 for myself
4. Visit 5 OH state parks as a family
5. Spend 1000 hours outside
6. Theo Guys weekend
7. Suzanne Ladies Weekend
8. Theo and Suzanne couples trip
9. Family vacation
10. Teach Kiah how to read
11. Establish a workout routine
12. Finish my continuing ed credits
13. Theo 1 year on HNT (Hostage Negotiation Team)
14. Continue to invest in CHESS and establish my classroom
15. Learn to play a song on the piano
16. Write to Reagan 1x a month
17. Read 100 books
18. Save a $% for down payment on land
19. Profit on Airbnb
20. Teach Sunday school for 1x
21. Host guests 12x (ideally 1x a month, but sometimes it will look like 3 one month and none the next)
22. Write 100 blog posts

So there we have it! So much to look forward to! There are many other goals that I have written down in my journal- and there are some that I am almost too scared to dream of. I am covering each goal in prayer as I go into the year 2022. And if the past three years have taught me anything, it is that I do not control the future and I will do well to faithfully work each day at becoming more like Christ and pursuing these things intentionally. But I also need to hold my plans loosely and trust in the Lord with all my heart as he directs my paths.

What are some goals that you have for 2022? Are there any goals on this list that we could work towards keeping each other accountable?