#GOALS
Growing up, I was not usually one to set goals for the coming year or “New Year’s Resolutions.” This may be partially due to the struggle I had with being a perfectionist and a people pleaser. I didn’t like making promises or challenging myself if there was decent possibility that I could fail. However, I do appreciate a good challenge! Maybe now that I understand forgiveness better and can forgive myself easier, I’ve been a lot better about simply doing my best and forgiving myself for what I don’t accomplish. Nonetheless, I realized that making yearly goals/challenges/new years resolutions are a more recent occurrence for me.
Last year, with the fact that I was about to embark on traveling to 11 countries over the first 11 months of 2019 with World Race, I decided to set 11 main goals to accomplish each month!
…Welp, to tell the truth, I didn’t accomplish all of them every month. In fact, I kinda forgot what most of them were by midyear, except for a select few that I kept up to the end. I was even planning to write a blog about them each month (you may have read it: HERE), which lasted a whole… one blog. *cue that fizzle-out sound*
However, in reflecting on those goals, I wanted to highlight and celebrate the things I was able to keep up most, if not all, of the race this year.
- Leading someone to know Christ each month. This is something I didn’t accomplish on my own. However, as a squad we saw people accept Jesus Christ into their lives and tried our best to keep track of how many in each continent. In total, through the 11 months as a squad, we saw about 1,015 people pray to receive Jesus! That is SOO WORTH CELEBRATING! That’s 1,015 more souls that have accepted the Love of God and eternity with Him! Praise the Lord with me for just a moment! *cue the applause*
- I wanted to run at least a 5K (3.1 miles) in every country this year. And I DID IT!!! Now, understand that some of those locations were VERY hilly (such as Colombia and the 10k race in Rwanda), suuuuper hot (India and Uganda), or at an extremely high altitude than what I’m used to (shout out to Ecuador and Ethiopia). So, at times, I had to break to breathe… but still I ran it in one setting because God IS good and gave me the strength and endurance I needed! I also have to clarify that the final month was split between Portugal and Spain, and although I didn’t run it in Portugal, I did walk a 5k (and then the 250k on the Camino) and then ran a full 5k when I got to Santiago. Hooray!! Thank you, Lord, for helping me with this goal because it was suuure challenging at times! Also, I have to thank my aMAZing friends because most of these runs were done with a companion or two… or five!
- I wanted to try a new food in every country. Yup. If ya know me, ya know I LOVE trying new foods! This honestly wasn’t a hard one for me to accomplish and I think I completed this goal without even trying.
- The last one I wanted to mention, which I have almost accomplished, was creating a dance video with clips of me dancing with the native people in each country we visited. I did get clips of dancing in every country (although some clips I’m still trying to locate), now I just need to splice and slice and put them all together for our viewing pleasure. That will have to come later…
Now, I can’t end this blog post without sharing some of my new goals for 2020. I want to do better about creating daily and weekly habits, and therefore my “resolutions” or rather challenges to myself, are those that I have prayed about and feel are things I can and should focus on this year.
DRUM ROLL, PLEASE!
- Spend time reading the Bible daily! Preferably a habit I want to continue to develop in my mornings. This is something that has fluctuated a lot over the years. There are seasons I have been in the Word consistently, and season where I’ve only cracked open my Bible maybe once a week, at church. And this is something that God has been highlighting the importance of a lot lately, so it is now a focus for this year.
- Spending time in prayer for those on my list, daily. During the race, God had me make a monthly prayer calendar with specific people and situations I was praying for daily. Some months I was slackin’ but regardless, God has made it known that He wants me to make this a daily habit. There’s actually a LOT God has been teaching me on prayer this year… which will probably become a blog post of its own.
- Fill a jar or journal, writing at least one thing each day of which God has blessed me. I want to have a heart of gratitude and thankfulness to my Papa! And I figured, how awesome would it be to read 366 blessings I acknowledged by this time next year?!
- Write a “thank-you” card, encouraging note, or scripture verse and send it to someone each week. This is where I want to look and act more like Jesus. I absolutely LOVE getting cards and encouraging words from friends and family! This is THE #1 THING I enjoy receiving above all else (so you’re welcome to do the same)! I plan to specifically ask the Lord who He want’s to encourage weekly… and maybe that’ll be you!
- Run/walk/bike at least 39 miles a WEEK. I know… this sounds kinda crazy. Honestly, this is the most intimidating one for me. But, I recently saw a Facebook post from my cousin (shout out to Charis) that her goal for 2020 was to go 2,020 miles by the end of the year. That’s an average of 5.5 miles a day or almost 39 miles a week (you go girl!). I don’t know if I could keep up running that each day, so I decided to add biking for my personal goal, just in case I was several days behind and needed a jumpstart to stay in the game. This is one of those cases where I need to make sure the goal fits me and my schedule, otherwise I’ll give up too easily. And this goal is simply to get in the habit of staying fit, making my body a healthy temple in which the Lord will live and use.
So… HERE GOES!! Come at me, 2020!
That concludes my goal reflection for this past year, along with my new goals for 2020! Thank you so much for reading and celebrating with me!
Also, now that you know my top 5 goals for this coming year, you are welcome to ask me about them anytime! Keep me accountable!
I’m also curious, what goals/challenges/resolutions do you have for 2020? Please share in the comments below!!
