goals

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How Many Books Will You Read in 2015?

Goodreads. I love Goodreads. Goodreads is where you find good reads, put all those that sit on your physical bookshelves at home and stock them into virtual shelves so you can track your progress on all the good reads that you are reading. Goodreads.

Reading is powerful. I read anything from Theology to books on Leadership. Last year, I got into reading Fiction, dabbled a bit into the Classics, read some Historical Fiction and even a bit of Mystery Thrillers. Last year, I read for sermons, for leadership development, for personal spiritual growth, for school, and for leisure. Although, this past school semester, there were two months where I only read 1 book each month, I still read. School classes were brutal. With so much entertainment in social media and TV, one has to make time to grow in knowledge by reading. It is fascinating to read sentences and paragraphs in books that ultimately move you, trigger a memory, or make you think deeper.

Maybe, in the future, I’ll write some blog posts on reading books. That’ll (for sure) drive away all the two people who skim my new blog posts. 🙂 Let’s get back to Goodreads.

According to Goodreads, they are the “world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations. [Their] mission is to help people find and share books they love.” On Goodreads you can:

  • “See which books your friends are reading.
  • Track the books you’re reading, have read, and want to read.
  • Check out your personalized book recommendations. Our recommendation engine analyzes 20 billion data points to give suggestions tailored to your literary tastes.
  • Find out if a book is a good fit for you from our community’s reviews.”

I’m telling you, it’s a great resource. I found out about this site a while back and joined it on December of 2013 and committed to use it. I organized the books I have into different shelves. As of now, I have a little over 500 books that I own and have on my shelves at home. I know this because I’ve put about 475 books on my “to-read-owned” shelf and have read 82 that are on my have “read” shelf.

This site has helped me track my progress on my reading. Seriously, reading can be a task. Although, I’ve always enjoyed reading, sometimes (often!) I would start a book and not finish it. When I entered the world of Goodreads, I found myself finishing my books. Why? Because I could track my progress and that would motivate me to finish books. I need those markers to accomplish my goals. 

Goodreads made it easier for me to read more than I have ever read. In January of last year, I accepted the 2014 Challenge and set my goal to read 35 books in the year. Because of the progress-tracking feature (which I used as virtual “pats on the back”), I was always encouraged to continue reading, finish the book, and pick another one. By the end of December 31, I had read 50 books in the year 2014. It’s not that I am a fast reader, or a super smart guy, or someone who has a book on hand at all times (well, maybe that last one is true), but I get so amped about seeing my progress that every time I see that percentage bar get close to 100%, I continue to read the book.

Click here to check out which 50 books I read last year!

This year, I am setting a goal to read at least 3-4 books per month. So, my goal is to read 40 books by December 31, 2015. How many will you read this year? Sign up to Goodreads, upload your books, become my “friend,” and let’s keep each other accountable in reaching our reading goals! click on the 2015 Reading Challenge to go to my Goodreads Profile.

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On Goals and Resolutions

Happy 2015! With every new year, there is a rush to make resolutions and goals. Some quibble over these words. Others ponder and think on them. While others, simply do anything that comes in front of them. Today I want to revisit, maybe for my own sake, the discipline of setting goals. On resolutions, John Piper, pastor for many years and author of many books, asks this question, “How do you make resolutions?” He answers it by saying, “By God’s grace. Through faith in God’s power. For God’s glory.” So, this is my hope for this year: to set goals with God in clear view, work through faith and do them for His glory.

There’s a lot of talk about goals, resolutions, plans and other great things that people want to accomplish in 2015. A lot of it is good. But, one thing I’ve learned is that when one sets a goal and does not set out a plan to accomplish it, they don’t succeed in reaching it. And by “succeed” I don’t mean accomplishing that particular goal, but rather by really working towards it. I think all of us want to succeed in accomplishing our goals, but for those who will not accomplish them at the end, the question should be, “Did I work towards accomplishing it?” Maybe you won’t succeed in meeting your goal, but it wasn’t because you were lazy and did not set actionable steps to meet it. Rather, it was because as you were trying to accomplish it, x, y, or z didn’t line up for you and you goal was rethought or tweaked on the way.

For example, maybe your goal las year was to buy a home. It was an audacious goal, a goal that would need a lot of work, so you got to working on it. During the middle of the year, you were working towards that goal and were struck by tragedy (job loss, pay cut, personal struggle, whatever…) that hindered you from meeting your goal. December 31 came and you didn’t find yourself in a home of your own. As many would like to call that a failure, I would call that somewhat of a success. Because the question was not, “did you meet your goal?” The real question is, “Did you work hard towards your goal?” Some goals you’ll accomplish, some you won’t, but all the goals you set you’ll want to work hard towards.

I have a few examples of goals that I, along with my wife, set in early 2014 that were met by the end of the year. Others were not. But, that is not to say that we didn’t try… or that we were not working hard towards accomplishing them. You try. You work hard. You go for it! So what if you didn’t get to the finish one last year?! There is still this new year. My encouragement to you is to set a goal this year and also work hard towards accomplishing it. Someone once said, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” So, stop wishing, set a goal that has a plan and work hard to accomplish it. If you don’t meet it, let it be because of legitimate factors you saw on the way to complete it that made you rethink and tweak your goal. But, never let your goal fail because you didn’t work the plan that came with that goal.

I am an avid podcaster. Maybe not as avid, but I listen to podcasts most of the time I’m driving somewhere. One podcast I listen to is Michael Hyatt’s This is Your Life. Michael Hyatt, former CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers and bestselling author, says, “25 percent of people abandon their New Year’s resolutions after one week. 60 percent abandon them within six months.” In his 10 Biggest Mistakes in Goal Setting, Hyatt gives us these mistakes that I hope to avoid this coming year in setting my goals. Here they are. I hope they are of help to you.:

Mistake 1: People don’t write their goals down.
Mistake 2: People have too many goals. 
Instead, set 5-7 goals.
Mistake 3: People only focus only on one area in their life.
Focus on you spiritual life, personal growth, family, career, hobbies, etc.
Mistake 4: People don’t make their goals specific.
Mistake 5: People don’t make their goals measurable.
How many pounds do you plan to lose? How much more money will you save? How much more/less time will you spend on…?
Mistake 6: People don’t assign a due date.
By when do yo plan to meet this goal?
Mistake 7: People don’t keep goals visible.
Print them out and put them on the fridge, use as screensaver, make a vision board, etc. 
Mistake 8: Pople don’t stretch outside their comfort zone.
Mistake 9: People don’t make compelling goals.
Compelling goals are spiritually-meaningful, intellectually-stimulating, emotionally-energizing, physically-challenging.
Mistake 10: People don’t identify the next action.
Whats the next thing I need to do to move forward with this goal?

If you are interested in listening to the full podcast, click the link below.

There is much to say on this topic. But, I’m not an expert at it. I am constantly learning from other people. Here are a few resources for you to read up on as you stare at the long road that 2015 has for you and say, “God willing, I hope to accomplish (fill in the blank).”

1. The Gospel Coalition: Don’t Just Make a Resolution, Make a Habit

2. Michael Hyatt Podcast: 10 Biggest Mistakes in Goal Setting

3. Desiring God: New Year’s Resolutions