Why I Did Not Meet My 2012 Goals

Last year around this time, I wrote down some goals for 2012.  I even published them on this very blog and went about my business to complete them.  Guess what?

Failure.

I didn’t hit one of them.

There could be many reasons, but I want to list them, in no particular order, so that you might benefit and do better in 2013 than I did in 2012.

I made goals just for the sake of having goals.

Somehow I bought into the idea that I had to have some goals.  I had to write something down.  What I discovered over this past year is that the only thing worse than having no goal is having the wrong goal.  Sure, it’s awesome to have a road map, but just because you take a road on a map doesn’t mean you end up where you want to or where you should.

These were only my goals.

Don’t misunderstand me.  We should have our own goals.  However, they should be unified with family goals.  They should be supported by family.  They should even….stay with me for a second….be shared with family.  Goals are meant to be shared, supported and celebrated.

These were not God’s goals.

I made a mistake.  I set some goals and asked God to bless them.  Ouch.  That hurts to even write.  However, it’s true.  So, I’m doing it a bit different this year.  I’m praying and asking Him for my goals.  A week before 2013 and I have one so far.  That’s ok.  If that’s all the Lord gives me, that will be fine.  I’m reviewing the areas of my life that I would like to set goals for and asking if He has a goal for me in that area.  If I get one, good.  If not, then I’m cool with that.  We’ll see what He does.

Tomorrow begins 2013.  My prayer is that it will be successful because I have more at stake in these goals.

Do you have any goals for 2013?  Would you like to share them?  I would love to pray that you will achieve them this year.

Yeah, About Those Goals

I often talk big and make ideal statements.  I lay out how I should be living based on what I read in the Bible.  I write this blog where I discuss where faith and life meet each other in our lives.

The problem is that I have a problem living out what I write and say.  I write and talk about how I want things to be and how they should be.  Living them out?  That’s another story.

One of those areas is my prayer life.  If you have been reading me for a while then you probably know that one of my favorite verse is Psalm 37:4.  Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.

My assumption has always been that if I pursue Him, my desires will flow from Him.  The problem is whether or not I actually believe that on a daily basis.

Do I really pursue Him and delight in Him, so that my desires will flow from Him and I will desire what He desires.  Rather than to be or not to be, that is the question.

I wrote down some goals at the beginning of this year.  Why?  Because I thought that my goals, my desires, were flowing from Him.

I haven’t achieved one of those goals this year.

Now, someone could say that I haven’t worked hard enough at those goals.  I haven’t put in the effort.  Maybe that’s so.  But maybe, just maybe, those goals didn’t come from Him, but they only came from me.

They weren’t bad goals.  They just weren’t, as I now believe, streaming from His fountain.

So, if you read my goals that I listed out at the beginning of 2012 or if you go back and read them, they’re scrapped.  I have thrown them on the heap of my desires.

I have one goal right now.  Pursuing Him.  Filling up on Him.  Asking Him to make His desires my desires.

Do I still have desires and goals?  Yes.  But I don’t want to pursue them.  I’m taking them to Him.  I’m laying them at His throne.

I’m asking Him to fill me up with the desires He has for me.  I’m asking Him to give me my goals.

I don’t expect a list of 10 things He wants me to pursue over the next one, three and five years.

Here’s what I expect.  I expect that He wants to be my number one.  If that’s the case, then I think anything else I do will correspond with that.

I don’t think it’s any harder than that.

Happy New Year?

Most of us stayed up until midnight last night.  Many of us watched the ball drop and, bless his heart, listen to Dick Clark count down until the clock struck midnight.

Many people have made their New Year Resolutions.  Most will fail by the end of the week.

I don’t make New Year Resolutions.  I set some goals and if you want to know what they are you can check this post out from last week and year.

I found this post helpful in thinking about resolutions.

I don’t think resolutions should be made at the beginning of the year.

I think resolutions should be made daily.  A daily reSolution.  A daily reNewal.

I don’t think we really have the reSolution anyway.  I don’t think we are the ones to reSolve anything.

I believe there is One that does though.  He is the reSolution that we should go to daily.  He is the one that can reSolve what’s going on in our lives.

Is this going to be a Happy New Year?  I don’t know for sure, but I know where it lies.

My happiness lies in the renewal I have daily in Christ.

My resolution is found daily in Christ.

My resolve can be found in Christ.

That will truly make a Happy New Year.

Will your resolution actually reSolve anything?  Will you actually make a reSolution?  Will you find reNewal this year?

140 Words (More or Less) About My 2012 Goals

It’s Twitterific Thursday, where I write something in 140 words, more or less.  Today I share some of my 2012 goals.

Today I want to share my six 2012 goals with the multitudes of Deucology readers.  Some of you may ask, “Why six?”  My smart-aleck answer is because there aren’t seven.  Seriously, though, I can’t really answer that question.  These are six key things I want to achieve this year.  They aren’t my only goals, but they are the ones I want to share with you.  So, if you’ve made it this far, here are my 2012 goals.

• Run my first marathon at the Kiawah Marathon on December 8.
• Attend Bryan Allain’s  Killer Tribes conference on March 31.
• Have an idea for a book that I have outlined by July 1.
• Read the entire Chronicles of Narnia series by December 31.
• Lose 30 pounds by December 31.
• Read the Bible beginning March 1 by October 31.

What are your goals for 2012?