2014 & January Goals!
Before I begin, thank you so my best friend and husband for your sweet blogpost yesterday. I love you. You made my birthday wonderful.
•••
2014 Goals
My #1 goal for 2014: to restore margin and achieve a more balanced life. I want to
LIVE more: living out adventures, memories, and experiences. to spend more time outside, running, resting, and feeling alive.
to GIVE more: giving to my church and to ministries that are making a difference, sharing the gospel, and meeting real needs. I don’t want to fund buildings, I want to fund changed lives.
and to DO more: doing focused work daily, work that matters, work with boundaries. I want to do greater things than I think I’m capable of, that inspire others to take hold of life and run.
While this list may appear longer, it is more robust – focusing on things that will restore my time and health. Here’s to a beautiful 2014.
Read 20 books (I’d love to hear your recommendations!)
Write letters to our 3 sponsored kids monthly
Make the art and organization of my home purposeful and meaningful
Complete a triathlon
Declutter every space in my home and studio
Memorize a verse each month and truly meditate on it. I want scripture to fill the empty space in my head, not Instagram or social media like it to often does currently.
Run a half marathon (I’ll be starting from scratch, friends. Let me know if you want to join me from the ground up!)
Eat desserts 2x-3x week (not daily. desserts are meant to be special!)
Fast from social media 2 days/week.
Embrace clipless petals on my road bike. I can do this! (scared!)
Have an intentional, guiltless Sabbath once a week. I say I do this, but in reality I just don’t. Time to change that.
Go camping in Boone with friends
Read the entire Bible with Will
Simplify and streamline the organization and workflow of my business (I’m looking at you ShootQ & Drobo!)
Implement business structure given in The Advantage
Shoot in film
Take our boat out and go water skiing at least 5 times this summer
Photograph less weddings as Callie and Elizabeth photograph more
Host a workshop, mentor photographers, & speak more in general. (After Making Things Happen and my Influence-net talk, I have learned I really love teaching. A lot.)
Do the hard work to correct my posture. This includes a personal trainer + chiropractic care + daily exercises at home.
Plan a vacation to the Beaufort house
Continue to learn to play the guitar and fill in at youth group when I can
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January Goals
Finish Margin, a current novel, and Descending into Greatness
Don’t run. Instead, eat really well and focus on strength training and ankle exercises so I can be cleared by the Doctor to run again at my next appointment. (Yep, still recovering from my ankle sprain in July!)
Complete a 30 day sugar fast
Research and decide on 2 ministries we want to contribute to regularly
Fly with my 4 year old triplet nephews to Raleigh, host them for 3 days, then fly them back to Nashville. Oh boy, this is gonna be good!
Setup the Drobo
Buy a backup Contax
Write out new workflow for weddings and shoots
Declutter : under our bed + under the guest bed + all bedside tables
•••
I was driving down a highway in Raleigh today, and I thought to myself, this is a perfect January 1st. Crisp air to breathe in deep, partly cloudy, bare trees, very few cars out. As I drove through my neighborhood, I saw people running, walking their dogs, being with family. I just love New Year’s day. Besides the fact that it’s the day after my birthday, it is one of my favorite holidays. I believe the Lord loves it too, because He loves new things, new seasons, a fresh start.
“…I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14
He knows we need it, and each year it is so good to start afresh.
Can I just be real for a second? This year, goal-setting was a more challenging task for me. I don’t have a clear picture of 2014, and I don’t feel completely prepared to be writing this post. One thing I do know – if I don’t feel like it, and if I don’t write it down, I won’t accomplish what is most important to me. So here I sit, wrestling with this deadline and my goals and my heart, trying to make sense of it all. I remind myself – DONE is better than perfect. (Download this from my dear friend Lara!)
I will be spending more time in the next few weeks continuing to work through my new 2014 Powersheets from Lara. I must say, these have been so helpful in this year I’ve felt a bit stuck. What a gift Lara is – I am so grateful for her! They have been worth every penny so far, even though I haven’t finished with them yet. I will be posting more in the next few weeks some things that have worked for me and some thing that didn’t in 2013. I think this is such a valuable exercise, and I know it will continue to bring me clarity.
Setting goals in the beginning of the year is usually one of my favorite things to do. I shut down the computer and write in my journal for weeks leading up to the new year, praying and meditating on the good changes I want to see in my life. Sometimes it comes easy to me, other times it takes work – thoughtful, careful work to map out where I really want to go. It’s not always fun to face where we currently sit in this life, and to look forward, but is good. It is healthy.
One thing I’ve learned in the last few years of setting goals? If I don’t take time to set them (and to blog them for my own accountability!), the urgent always overrides the important. Even though I feel unprepared, DONE really is better than perfect.
So friends, here’s to restored margin and restore balance!
Here’s to meaningful work, intentional time with those we love, and taking the time to rest
Here’s to filling our minds and hearts with Scripture, to putting our phones down, to writing more letters
Here’s to taking care of our bodies, running races, healing my ankle and breaking records
Here’s to living in a place of contentment, simplicity, and gratitude
Here’s to 2014!