Year after year, I set my yearly goals—my resolutions, if you will. This is a time that I sit and focus on what I have done in the past, what has worked, what has not, and how I want to focus on the future. As the goals of others have posted, I have really thought about what goals I want to set for the year.
A goal is an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envisions, plans, and commits to achieve. I love to write my goals down at the beginning of the year, read them throughout the year, and then commit.
For example, last year I committed to running races I had never done before. Through that commitment, I was able to hit two birds with one stone in doing the Disneyland double dare challenge (races I’d never done and trip to California just us). Not only did I get those done, but I really hit the races goal out of the water. Instead of running two races, I ran over five races throughout the year.
So what does this mean? What goals do I want to accomplish this year?
A friend recently talked about how she splits her goals into four categories: spiritual, family, health, and professional. The light ignited and I thought that is what I want to focus on. Four simple goals that for now can seem like they are little, but throughout the year, they will grow and become more.
Like my race goal last year, I will say two race (for example) but it will turn into something more. Sometimes we set goals for ourselves and they are great at the beginning of the year, but as the year goes on, we tend to fall away from them. This is never the case for me. If I fall, I pick myself back up. This is the year of no more excuses.
Spiritual – Keep It Simple
Many years I have tried to focus on one thing: temple attendance, working on my teaching ability, etc. By why do I think I have to focus on one thing? Really, this year I want to focus keeping it simple: scriptures, prayer, Family Home Evening. These are things we should be doing daily, but I don’t. Will I get them to 100% right away? Probably not. I want to get these back in habit and have my kids know that these things are important to me, so it will be important to them.
Family – It’s Not Me, It’s We
My wife and I went to see The Greatest Showman and it really sparked my thoughts. For years it has always been me. I am the showman trying to be the center of attention. Having kids has changed that completely. Not only that, but being married changes it too. It’s not longer what you want, but what we want. You are a team and we have the best team out there.
Health – Ditching The Dad Bod
Dad bod is a thing of the past. When you hear the term dad bod, why does it have to be associated with unhealthy beer guts? Two moments recently made me think about this. My son wanted to go swimming this winter. Suddenly, my eyes popped out of my head. My body is not summer ready, but I didn’t want him to think I didn’t care. We went, had fun, but I felt uncomfortable and knew I needed a change. No matter what it’s going to take, I will ditch the dad bod.
Professional – Lets Get Serious
Never have I ever been taken seriously. That has been great, but when it comes to professionalism, it is time to make some changes. In my work life and blogging life, I need to get serious and show people that I can be taken seriously. How am I going to do this? Well, you’ll just have to wait and find out.
Really, it’s time to start making some changes and I am excited for what 2018 has in store for me, my family, and The Modern Dad.
