Confession: I wrote an entire post in January of this year with all of my goals for 2019. That’s how long it’s been since I published a single blog post. For a million reasons I could share, but mostly because of fear. Fear that no one wants to read anything I write. Fear that I can’t keep up. Fear that I’ll open myself and my family up to scrutiny and that it will crush me. FEAR.
But do you know what fear is? Fear is a liar. We sing about fear pretty often in church, and anytime it is mentioned I perk up. We sing about how it lies to us, how we don’t have to be slaves to it, and how God rescues us from our fears. And yet…here we are. I have spent another year not doing something because I felt fearful.
When I was about 7 or 8 years old, we had a big Fourth of July party at the neighbors house. After dark it was time for fireworks, and at some point, a firework got sent in a less-than-ideal direction. Everyone was fine, but I yelled out “That is NOT safe!” for the entire gathering to hear. While everyone else laughed, my reaction even as a young girl was to note for everyone that the safety of the situation was lacking. It became a family joke over the years, and we still say it to each other and we always laugh because it really is pretty funny.
But when I think about fear, I think about that phrase “That is NOT safe!”. And if I’m honest, that’s how I live sometimes – usually about a certain thing, not my whole life. I can be full of faith and confidence in one area of my life while fear is crippling me in another. I am done with letting fear hold me back when it comes to blogging and writing.
So let’s talk about goals for this last quarter of the year. If you’re like me and haven’t fully committed to some of your goals (or any goals this year) – we still have time! I’m not waiting for January to start all over…I’m starting now! My encouragement to you is that you can start too!
Before I share my goals you should know – I actually really enjoy setting goals, but sharing them with the world and being accountable to them? That felt daunting. So I’m not saying I didn’t do any of these the first 3/4 of the year, just that this is what I’m aiming for in the last 1/4.
Alright, so here we go. All of my goals tie back to my word for the year: Worship. If you want to read more about that, you can see how I arrived at the word and what it means to me for 2019 here.
- Once a month date night. This is one we’ve been able to mostly keep up with this year. I had been feeling guilty because we don’t do weekly date nights, but just to be honest, weekly is overwhelming to us. Our family schedule is such that we feel like once a week is more than we even want. I should say that most weeks we get to have a quick dinner together without our kids because we have an amazing support system of grandparents that have committed to watching our kids one day a week (so I can work) and one evening a week (so Justin and I can go to our individual Tuesday night things). I think if we didn’t have that, a specific weekly date night might feel more important for us. If you’re curious about how this ties into my word – worship – I think that part of worshiping with my life entails loving my people well :).
- Workout 3-4 times a week. This is a huge one for me, and one that I’ve been able to implement already this year. I cannot tell you how much better I feel physically than I did in January! I know for a fact that I cannot express worship on stage the way God is telling me to without being relatively in shape, and I have seen that to be true as far as my stamina during worship. I also can’t live out a whole life of worship to Him without being in the best physical condition I can be in. For sure I am not trying to be a body-builder, but I think it’s important for me to be effective in the Kingdom.
- Do my vocal exercises 3-4 times a week. I had someone give me some vocal exercises last summer and I had started working through them a few times a week last fall. I saw benefits pretty quickly, but when I had to do a phone upgrade (that is seriously quite the story!), I had to take them off my phone. I literally JUST got them put back on my phone last week, so that should tell you how well this goal has been going this year (ahem…not well). This goal of 3-4 times a week allows for a rehearsal once a week and helping to lead worship once a week, and I’d still get a day to let my voice rest.
- Post 1 blog post a week through the end of 2019. You can probably tell this is the one I need to work on most, so here goes nothing! Because I have felt such a pressing to do this blog thing for years, I know I need to be obedient to what God has said. That’s worship – doing something God says even when it doesn’t fully make sense to me and even though it’s scary!
- Finish 6 more books this year. 3 fiction and 3 non-fiction. If you had asked me as a child/teenager what my hobby was – I would’ve always said reading. Somewhere along the way, I stopped reading and I really wanted to pick it back up this year. I am better at my whole life when I take some time for myself. I also got a Kindle for Christmas and I have loved putting it to good use this year!
As you can see, I don’t have a ton of goals – just 5 to be exact. There are a ton of other things I want to do, but they don’t seem like the most important things for this last quarter of the year. Will we do fun stuff as a family? Sure! Do we have other things we really want for our business, or our family? Sure! But the truth is that I can only do so much, and I know that if I look back in a few months and these 5 things are accomplished (or mostly accomplished, because #grace) I will feel like it was a successful end to the year.
Did you set goals for this year? Are you going to set some 4th quarter goals with me? What are the biggest things you want to accomplish or that you feel God is pushing you toward in this last quarter of 2019? Tell me below – I’d love to know!
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