It’s a bit late to post a blog about goals for the year if you’re trying to figure out new year’s resolutions, but it’s definitely not too late if you’re just curious about what I’m striving toward this year.
Read 52 books
This is lofty, but I’m on pace so far at a book per week. I nearly hit 40 books last year, so I think it’s attainable. Living overseas helps in the sense that there are less relational opportunities (because I’m an extrovert but my old age is transforming me into an introvert).
Study 12 books of the Bible
Niki and I are doing this together. One book of the Bible each month. We’ve never read the Bible on a reading plan together, so it’s been a joy to share insights with each other as we go. We tried to plan so we had a mix of Old Testament and New Testament along with different types of books. I normally read two to four chapters each day, and go through the book as many times as I can.
These are the twelve books we’re studying, one each month. [Feel free to join us, even if you’re starting next month!]
- January – Hebrews
- February – Acts
- March – Daniel
- April – Romans
- May – Leviticus
- June – Colossians
- July – Joshua
- August – 1 John
- September – Proverbs
- October – 1 Thessalonians
- November – Hosea
- December – John
Write two blogs post per week
So far, success. I even wrote ahead while we were traveling for work last month. It’s always easiest in the beginning of the year.
Design 1 new thing per month.
This is the vaguest of all, and I’m not sure how it’ll all shake out. My thing for January was the charity: water infographic. This month, I suppose you could count this blog’s recent redesign and new logo.
Save 15% of our income and put it in a Roth IRA
This will be a stretch because we had some unexpected taxes we had to pay in the beginning of the year and we had to tweak our pay to better adjust our deductions for next year, but we’re hoping our transition back to the States in late summer will lower our costs (especially housing).
Give God a higher percentage of our income this year than we did last year
We have a specific dollar amount in mind, but really our goal is to systematically and prayerfully give more money each year to help more people meet Jesus.
Host Financial Peace University
Financial Peace University (or FPU) is Dave Ramsey’s 9-week course on money management. This goal is the one I’m most unsure about. We love FPU–it saved our marriage before we were actually married. We’d love to give back and help other people financially too, it’s just a matter of finding the time to make it happen.