[Goals: 2013]

My 2013 Goals

Spiritual 

• Fall more deeply in love with Jesus. Continue to be reminded of God's grace. Be amazed by what God is doing on a daily basis. 

Mental 

• Work towards having 30 minutes for rest each day. This means doing something - or nothing - that I enjoy doing that isn't productive. 
• Journal my thoughts, especially when it's hard. 
• Read 15 books. 

Relational

• Meet with Molly on a regular basis to talk and continue to build our friendship.
• Write one letter each week. 

Physical 

• Run 365 miles. 
• Complete the Whole30 challenge. 

Professional 

• Make money off of something I love to do, whether it is blogging, photography, crafting, or baking. 

Financial 

• Complete my college savings goals. This includes setting aside enough money to pay for tuition, travel, and unexpected purchases. 

Reflection on My 2012 Goals 

Spiritual - Read my bible at least 5x/week. Interestingly enough, I had a talk with a fellow Christian last night about this topic. I think that reading my bible is one way that I was taught to judge how "good" of a Christian I am. This is a total lie, God just wants us to spend time with him and hear from him, and his word is one way we can do this. I am not discounting the importance of spending time reading the bible, I just think that I have put too much of my identity in reading the bible, which is something I do rather than who I am. 

Mental - Read 10 books. Hey-oh! I read sixteen books this year! Six of which were for school, which really got me into reading again. I would have to say my absolute favorite would be The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis, followed by Rules by Cynthia Lord.

Relational - I know that I want more intentional/meaningful conversations in my relationships, and I think there are two important things that need to happen in order to accomplish this. 1. I need to be open and willing to share if I expect others to share. 2. I need to listen. I struggle with this so much, but I need to really focus on the person and conversation at hand and truly listen to that person and tune in to them. I have been improving quite a bit at this with a very select few of my relationships. I have started to pray that God would give me chances to have more meaningful conversations. I have also learned to talk more slowly, to really think about what I'm saying before I say it, and to make sure I am being as honest as possible. This really only happens during my very meaningful conversations though.

Physical - Run a 5K and finish it. 5k? Check. Triathlon? Check. Half Marathon? Check. 

Professional - Get a job this summer that fulfills the following: 1. Is not lifeguarding at the YMCA 2. Allows me to travel for at least 1 week. Well I must admit I did work at the YMCA this summer, but it was the best summer staff team I've worked with. We bonded quite a bit and I really loved teaching my upper level classes and just being around the staff. My favorite parts were lifeguarding olympics, baked good Wednesdays, and bowling. Also, I did get to travel to Texas for a week!

Financial - Stick to my weekly budget and begin saving for a camera. I was able to purchase my camera in June due to some solid budgeting and the fact that I am blessed to have financial assistance for tuition. However, I did not do the best job sticking to my weekly budget.