Lists on Lists on Lists

If you know me at all, you know that I love a good list. And I love setting goals and new beginnings so New Year's resolutions were essentially designed for me! On December 30 I had some friends over to reflect on 2016 discuss our goals for the upcoming year. I'll talk about that dinner in its own separate post, but it was a good time to get me started thinking on my resolutions.

I tend to stick to categories: spiritual, physical, mental, financial, professional, personal. I have a few resolutions for each category, which probably means that I have way too many, but I'm going to go with it anyway.

My word for the year is:

I feel like this is going to be a big year. A lot has been stirring over the past few months, and there is a change coming. I'm not exactly sure what that means or what it's going to look like, but I'm excited to lean into God with faith and find out.

I'm not going to share a list of all my goals like I have in the past. For no real reason. I just don't really feel like it. Maybe I will later on. Who knows? But here's a general idea:

Spiritually, I want to be more consistent with my prayer life. I am currently reading through the Bible and I feel like it has been so beneficial so far. Something that started as a goal and checklist has become something that I desire and that I miss if I go without it for a day. But I feel like my prayer life has been slacking and I want to feel the same way about prayer that I do about getting in the Word! I also need to figure out this whole church thing. Ugh! I don't think I've even talked about that here, but I feel unsettled and I don't entirely know why. I'm planning to do some studying and prayer and try to figure it out. I'll write about the whole story and my thoughts when I get around to it.

Physically, I super slacked the past month or so on working out. Again, I blame Molly. And the cold. But Molly can officially start going to daycare in February and so I won't feel guilty about her being in her kennel all day. But I'm working on getting better about it and not waiting until February- even if it's taking her out for walks, which I've actually gotten to do because it's been in the 60s! I'm committing to running 300 miles again this year. And I've signed up for the Winter Off Road Series again so I'm excited!

I usually always make some sort of financial resolutions and, looking back now, I seem to always fail at them. Although, in my defense, last year my financial goals were to pay off a certain amount of debt and then I bought a house so things got pushed around. But this year, I really do want to focus on being a better steward of my money and being more cognizant of where my money is goin. I was talking with some friends about this and one of them suggested the app WellSpent. I've only been using it for about a week but so far I really like it. I'm hoping it will help hold me accountable to where my money is going and unnecessary spending.

Life is chaotic! Professionally, I would love to do some research. And go back to school (or at least take some classes) but I don't think that is feasible right now. So for now I want to read more. Journal articles, references, abstracts –just to stay on top new research and evidence.

On the vein of reading more, I want to read 20 books this year. I have had this goal in the past and really enjoyed it, but I thought my reading has slacked off I'm hoping that this will help. I also want to journal more. And work on my book, My Life on Repeat: The Story of Love, Scandal, and DejaVu. It's been on the virtual to do list for a while now...

I don't really have any specific personal resolutions this year –other than to finish my 30 x 30 list. Sheesh! So much left to do...

It's a new year! Let's see how this goes.

Do you have any resolutions for 2017?