Goals.

For several years, I've come up with general/scattered goals I want to accomplish each year. Lose weight. Journal consistently. Searchingly read my Bible each day instead of treating it like a routine (I struggle so much with this, especially when I'm struggling personally. When I need Him the most, I run the most. How silly I can be sometimes). Go running 3x a week. Etc. Etc. Etc.

But I never take the time to write them down. To share them with others (and thus prompting accountability). This year, I chose to be different.

I got this awesome planner.

I started (gasp!) planning things.

Mapping out my year.

Each month has a Bible reading schedule, a running schedule, books to read that month, special notes for that particular month, and a quote and verse of the month. And hopefully, as I utilize my planner for all aspects of my life (and not just homework) and most importantly go in God's strength, I will be able to fulfill my goals for this year.

And, as the wonderful Kim Rackley from KimzKitchen has done in a recent blog post (so, yes, I kind of stole your idea, but something tells me that's okay;), here are my goals for 2014:

Personal

1. Pray daily for those I love (and those that are harder to love).

2. Minimize/annihilate my consumption of sweets/unnecessaries.

3. Train for a 5k, 10k, and then a half marathon.

4. Run a 5k and 10k.

5. Read all of my "books of the month"--even while in school.

6. Make a real effort to take time to have meals with the people in my life.

7. Actively save money towards a car/apartment.

8. Go home more.

Educational

1. Achieve a 4.0 GPA both semesters (and during summer sessions).

2. Transition to solely handwritten notes.

3. Utilize hard copies over digital whenever I can (re: assignments, etc.)

4. Create daily homework checklists.

5. Begin actively seeking options for grad school.

Professional

1. Keep my resume up to date.

2. Blog consistently.

3. Remain aware of what is going on in the world around (and not-so-around) me.

What are you goals for this year? Is there anything you are doing differently this year to ensure that you will actually achieve them? Share them in a comment, write a blog post of your own, put up a sign in your window, send out smoke signals and carrier pigeons, shout it on a mountain top, go all "Rose-like" and obsess over lists and plans. You know, whatever floats your boat. ;)

For accountability's sake, I will be updating how I'm doing with my goals somewhere around the end of each month. I will be honest, with winter break and not having just my schedule to juggle, I've had a bit of a rough start. But you learn more from failure than you do from success. And this year will go exactly how God plans for it to go. And I can't imagine a year any better than that.

Happy January. May the rest of your year be great.