Well, if you are going to make resolutions, you should at least see how you’re doing periodically. Here’s a rundown on mine:
- Pray the daily office using Phyllis Tickle’s The Divine Hours: Not going so well. I was doing okay early in the year, but I never found a rhythm. I think I need to just pick one office a day to commit to and then add other offices as I go.
- Read through the Bible in 2007: I’m cheating a little on this one. Right now I’m doing the NT on CD using The Bible Experience. It’s kind of cool. I’ve listened from John through half of Hebrews. Hopefully I can get some OT reading in.
- Pray more for the youth ministry: Definitely doing better. Always room for improvement.
- Read less blogs: A+ on this. I probably cut by blog reading down by 1/4 or so. I can read my day’s feeds in about ten minutes on average now.
- Teach myself Greek: As expected, 0% progress on this so far. See #12.
- Read a book every two weeks: So far so good. I’ve finished four books in 2007 so far.
- Spend 30 minutes a day in the office reading youth ministry books: Ehh, I sort of decided this is a bad idea. I read so much at home that I need to do other things while I’m actually in the office.
- Talk with Rusty and Noah weekly: This is one of the highlights of my week.
- Write more blogs: Doing decent. I’m trying to post once a week on my Neo-Youth Ministry Series.
- Submit at least 1 article for publication: I’ve submitted a book review to a youth ministry website. I figure since I have no credibility I have to start small. It makes sense since I read so much to make my reading a source of my writing. I still want to submit an article to Group Magazine that has been floating in my head the last few years. Maybe it’ll happen.
- Clean the house at least 20 minutes a day: I’m cleaning more often than I was, but not every day.
- Be more productive with my time in the office: I am being more productive, but it’s mainly just willpower rather than finding a good rhythm for work, which is what I was hoping to do. Either way, I tend to feel better at the end of the week than I did before. I still have a ways to go, though. If I’m going to learn Greek, I need to be able to forget about work for Fridays so I can have some free time for Greek. Even if I have a tiny task I need to get done Friday, it really hangs over my head and messes up my “day off”.
So, there you have it. I’m not meeting every goal yet, but it could be a lot worse. I’m fairly pleased overall. If I can get even better with my time in the office and spend Fridays doing some hardcore Greek, I’ll be a really happy man.
