Sunday, March 4, 2012

A Lifetime of Goals

Do you have on-going goals for yourself?

I sure do... I ALWAYS have a running list of things I want to do, be, learn, create in my head...

I read about others' goals in their blogs -- 30 Before 30, Three Goals This Month, New Year's Resolutions, the titles may be different, but the concepts are the same -- "these are my goals for the year/years/eventually"

I wrote down some goals my freshman year of college... I don't have them with me at the moment, but I remember re-reading them a few years ago, and I was surprised at how many of what I wrote at age 18 were either things I had accomplished, or things I still hoped to do someday.  I think I was surprised by how little I had changed over the years.

So, thinking about some goals for the next 50 years:
  • Learn to play guitar
  • Once again become proficient playing the harp
  • Develop a regular exercise routine and stick with it for years
  • Run a marathon
  • Compete in a triathlon
  • Read through the Bible cover-to-cover
  • Perform in a musical
  • Remain married to Chris until death parts us
  •  Learn to sew well enough to sew curtains, kids clothes, crafts
  • Learn to knit
  • Learn to quilt
  • Become a better cook -- and enjoy being creative in the kitchen
  • Be more organized in the home -- papers, filing, cleaning schedule, laundry schedule
  • Visit Egypt
  • Serve on several missions trips (foreign and domestic)
  • See University of Michigan play in the Rose Bowl
  • Become an accomplished photographer -- possibly begin a photography business
  • Visit many countries throughout Asia
  • Have several children (a "large" family)
  • Work to support child and animal adoptions
  • Work with adults with visual impairments
  • Learn to garden, and grow a vegetable garden
  • Learn how to do my own blog designs
  • Visit all 30 Major League Baseball Parks
  • Experience natural childbirth (hopefully)
  • Take our children on road trips around the country to National Parks, Monuments, and more
  • Donate my hair to locks of love many times
  • Visit a few countries in Africa
  • Learn to be a mother (when the time comes, I will probably have a long list of goals for motherhood by itself...)
  • Visit Australia
  • Attend the US OPEN Tennis Tournament with my mom
  • Attend the CMA Music Awards in Nashville with my mom, cousin and aunt
  • Be a stay-at-home-wife, mom and homemaker
  • Learn conversational Spanish
  • Get an elk on a hunting trip
  • Be the most amazing wife to Chris he could ever hope for
  • Run the circumference of Mackinac Island
  • Take Chris to NYC, Washington DC, Lexington, Alaska
  • Learn to bake unbelievably delicious cupcakes and cookies
  • Become an "early-riser" for at least a season of my life (maybe the new-baby season?)
  • Pray Chris through graduate school -- however many degrees that may be
  • Work towards becoming the Proverbs 31 Wife -- a lifetime process!
  • Be the best mom I can be to our animals (not let them get lost in the shuffle of children)
  • Earn my Orientation and Mobility certification
  • Become a "crafty" Mom -- both in home decor, and children's crafts
  • Be a regular blood donor
  • Learn to love those around me
  • Hike the fifty-four 14ers in Colorado (3 down, 51 to go)
  • Read Centennial
There they are, 49 before 75... that is 49 goals before age 75 :-D

I'm sure there are more... and there will be more -- some goals may be met within a year, some goals may take me a lifetime.  But, I don't think I could ever survive without goals -- always new goals.
When Chris and I have little disagreements in our new marriage, we always come back to the phrase, "We have 60 years to get the hang of this".  Marriage and life are very similar -- they are both lifelong processes -- always adjustments, challenges, goals, habits, improvements.  I can't imagine not having a mental list of prayerful improvements for myself.
God is SO FAR from finished with me and I am so grateful that He will never give up.

What are some of your on-going goals?

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1 comment:

  1. I read Centennial, its a little heartbreaking. However that might make you want to read it all the more. There are parts of it you may really like and parts you wish you had not encountered. So it goes with James A Michener's work. I think I brought this up because I was genuinely surprised to have done something on your list!

    God bless you guys. (If you read Centennial, you'll have to read Texas or Hawaii next. Poland is good too)

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