2016 Goals: The Year of Growth

2016. The year of growth!

Usually I talk about consistency, patience, focus and hard work. Not this year. This year I want to grow. I want to grow spiritually, my business, my knowledge, my gratitude. I walked into the year with a cold and as a result had a really downer attitude as well (the stock market's going to crash, interest rates will rise, VR will be ho-hum, etc). Let's just say it made for an interesting prediction show on our podcast where I didn't see many bright spots (P.S. We have a new parallax site design, check it out).

But now I'm feeling better and ready to grow! First up, my verse for the year.

Verse
My Aunt Valerie and Uncle Bob came to visit Elinor last year (and me too, but mostly Elinor). During their stay we got into a great discussion about the nature of God. Most likely because of that conversation, they shared a verse with me in December which I'd like to adopt for this year:

Psalm 119:68: "You are good and do good; teach me your statutes."

It's a great reminder that God is good and that I also need to grow in my understanding of His desires for me. Which leads me right into my first goal...

Faith Focus

1) Memorize 52 Bible verses
Last year I memorized 52 verses, and I'd like to do that again. The trick is finding the time to do it now that I'm coming into the office more regularly.

Health Focus

2) Weigh 160
I guess this is a negative growth goal... I'd rather set a % body fat goal, but I don't own one of those fancy scales. So, for now I'll stick with weight. I'm currently hovering around 175. So 15 pounds. To accomplish this I have 2 sub goals:

• Jessi and I are going to complete 1 P90X cycle (it's 90 days). A friend (thanks Lee!) gave us the DVDs and booklet. We're currently getting the needed equipment and will start in February.

• During that time I also plan to count my calories each day. That way I'm paying attention to what I eat at the same time. This will set me up for my next goal. If it goes well, I'll look to do another cycle during the fall when cookies and desserts start to become regular occurrences.

3) Fast for 1 week (water only)
I'm fascinated by fasting. I know there are health and spiritual benefits to doing it, which I hope to reap, but that's not the main reason if I'm honest. It simply sounds like a fun challenge. I currently skip breakfast every morning and will regularly forget to eat until 3 or 4pm. So I think I can do this. Of course, when I do eat, I tend to consume more than I should (especially in social settings).

According to the very limited research I've done, I'll want to get my body into Ketosis before starting the fast to help reduce the hunger pains the first couple of days. During the fast I'll want to take it easy on exercising and working. Afterwards, I'll need to ease back into eating a normal diet.

If you have any suggestions (like giving my co-workers a heads up I might be hangry all week) or resources, I'd like to hear about them. I'm aiming for summer time (I think?).

Business Focus

4) Grow ProDIYLandlord
Professional DIY Landlord is my website that helps landlords manage their rentals professionally: to maximize long term cash flow and minimize headaches. I want to grow it's impact. To do that, I have 3 sub goals:

• Write 1 post  every 2 weeks (26 total). Creating new content will help attract new readers. I have plenty of topics to cover and need to carve out time to write regularly.

• Grow the email list to 1,000 subscribers. I plan to do this by regularly promoting my new posts.

• Research what product/service/class I can provide. I started talking to other landlords about their struggles and plan to use those insights to test new ideas. The books I plan to read will help with this goal.

Social Focus

5) Send 1 thank you note each week (52 times)

I'm excited for this goal. One personal growth area for me is gratitude. I take too much for granted and don't say thank you enough. So this year I want to get more comfortable with regularly saying thank you and genuinely improve the way I say thank you. 

I'd like to send actual cards, but I don't know many people's physical addresses. What do you think? Should I stick to email/Facebook/text or go for physical cards?

Education Focus

6) Read 12 books

Jim Rohn famously said "You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." This is so true. My plan is to spend 10-20 minutes each evening with an author who took the time to record their knowledge on paper. Specifically, I'm focusing on starting and running businesses so I can grow in my knowledge and confidence.

Those are my goals. Feel free to ask about them any time during the year.

Image inspiration: riversideconnect.org