2010 Goals

I don't know about you, but this year has taken off like a rocket for Jessi and I. We started the year in Michigan with Jessi's Aunt (A Qik video). Then we headed home and remodeled one of the kitchens of our duplex with my family (Another Qik video). We advertised it for rent and just found our new tenants yesterday.

Somehow I also managed to sit back and reflect on what I want to accomplish this year. My friend, Biraj, said I should post them to my blog, so here it is.

In an attempt to create SMART goals, I tried to get pretty specific. I explain what it is and my plan to accomplish them. Furthermore, these are in order of importance.

1) Read Bible 3x/week

As the foundation for all my decisions, I need to spend more time in the Word. Last year I said something about being more "consistent". This year I want to be more concrete. Eventually, I'll be up to every day, but right now it'll follow my workout schedule. So, when I do my push-ups and crunches, I'll read between reps.

2) Share the Gospel with 1 person

Our church has been talking about the importance of not only living a Christian life, but sharing our faith with others too. I'm not 100% sure how to accomplish this goal yet, but it's something I want to do. It'll start with building genuine relationships and taking advantage of opportunities when they present themselves. I still need to work on the "take advantage" part and will spend time developing that.

3) Hug more people

Hugging people is so much fun because it's so personal and better communicates how I feel about them. I don't even do this enough with Jessi. I realize it isn't exactly SMART, but it sounds weird to say, "hug at least 3 people a week" (IMO).

4) Communicate my excitement!!

I think this goal relates to hugging pretty closely. I need to improve sharing my emotions with others. I've had a couple people doubt my excitement because I can be pretty placid when I am actually excited. I'm not 100% sure what this looks like, but I do know how I acted when Jessi and I went to Disneyland (I was visually excited) and Jessi herself gives a good example of what it looks like to be excited about something.

5) Achieve ZERO short-term debt

Thankfully, we don't have a lot of short-term debt. However, Jessi and I started taking a finance class put on by our church and this is one of the goals laid out in it. I think it's achievable. The way I typically spend money is to use my credit card and then pay it off that month (or shortly after). It worked really well until we started doing repairs on our duplex. Now I need to pay off those repairs and make a shift from spending on credit to spending from a checking account, which requires a shift which income I spend. Without getting too mathy, we should be able to accomplish this because our expenses are less than our income. It will just take time and smart choices each month.

6) Find 3 business builders

Our Univera business has been fairly stagnant the last two months and now that our duplex is starting to switch over to autopilot I need to focus more here. Again, this will start out with building genuine relationships and if Univera fills a need for someone, present the business to them. I also need to get better at being rejected so I can engage people without fear.

7) Level 4 conversation 4x/week

Have you noticed a trend yet? Lots of my goals this year revolve around building and maintaining relationships. It's become very apparent that I'm OK at it, and if I truly want to be successful, I need to include others and build them up in the process. I don't remember where I learned the 4 levels, but here they are:

Level 1: Superficial (ex: talk about the weather)

Level 2: Facts (ex: talk about what you do for a living)

Level 3: Opinion (ex: talk about what you think about the latest political bill)

Level 4: Deep Insight (share something personal)

You typically need to work down each level before you can learn something special. I worked on this a lot the second part of last year and am looking to further improve. This will lead to having deeper, higher quality relationships instead of just a bunch of superficial ones.

8) Find 3 customers

Finally, I want a obtain 3 new Univera customers. I'm pretty sure this will happen naturally as the other goals develop over time, but I wanted to explicitly remember to do this.

That's it. It should be a fun year, and a busy year. By accomplishing these goals I believe I will be living a rich life and a life on purpose for God.