It’s time to wrap up this series I wrote in the month of January. It was a great exercise to take a look at what I aimed to do at the beginning of 2010, and what I actually ended up doing! Some great lessons learned a long the way. By the way, this is a GREAT exercise for anyone to do on an annual basis, it helps cultivate focus in your life and implant the lessons you’ve learned in the past year. Leaders take note!
Now that I’ve taken a look back, it’s time to take a look forward for 2011. What does this next year hold for me as I consider what I know and what I hope to see happen (in no particular order)?
- I’m going on two missions trips this year. I’m actually flying out for Malawi (already here at the time of publishing this) and will be going to Ukraine for almost 2 weeks at the end of April. Missions trips always shake up my world and give me a HUGE appreciation for the work our missionaries do all over the world. I volunteer my web development skills for this, and this, because of a missions trip.
- I’ll be continuing to develop and grow OrganizeSeries.com and also have the potential for some other partnerships with people in the WordPress community that I’m exploring. In case you haven’t discovered yet, I have a great passion for web development and coding. To me, code is poetry.
- I want to continue to develop as a leader. I’ve made a personal commitment to read 10 books this year and this will join all the other reading I do through my feed reader. If you want to follow along with what I’m reading (and have read) you can check out my anobii page.
- My wife and I will continue on the positive path we’ve taken for our financial health as a family and will work on paying down more of our debt. It currently looks like a three year plan but I’m hoping to shorten that with the extra income from the business I’m developing.
- There are some big things personally I wrestled a bit with last year and this year I hope to come to some clear decisions regarding that. A big part of the process is prayer, listening to the wise, and listening to the wisest (God). So if you know me well, keep me in prayer this year – the decision will have huge implications for me and my family.
- I’m looking forward to seeing what God has in store for my church this year -> really working on accomplishing my ministry goals for what I do there.
- I’ve made the decision to spend some time working on my physical health. Working at a desk during the day and the development work I’ve been doing in the evenings (usually sitting with my laptop on a couch) is taking its toll on my physically and I’ve been in the worst shape of my life. I don’t like it. I know it’s not healthy. I don’t want to die young. I love my family. Soo, I’ve committed to start taking care of my body better this year and am watching my calories. I’m also going to try to squeeze in some physical activity through the week to get the exercise I need. The great thing is, my wife is joining me on this one. It’s so much easier doing this kind of thing when someone you love is doing it with you!
I look forward to coming back and reviewing this list in 2012. What about you? What kinds of things are you working on in 2011 – I’d love to hear from you!