Saturday, May 4, 2013

May Goals

With each new month, I share my goals on this blog so that you, my friends, can hold me accountable.  At the end of the month, I share a report card on my progress.  I borrowed this idea from Kelli at She Learns as She Goes

My goals for May are:

Pack to go back to my hometown for the summer.  
During the school year, I am at university and live around nine or ten hours away from my family.  During the summers, I go back home to spend time with my family and work.  The biggest downside of this scenario is the packing!  Thankfully this year, I have a house, so I can leave the big stuff (furniture, winter clothes, etc.) in Aggieland and take the important stuff (summer clothes, musical instruments, etc.) back to my hometown with me.  I'm leaving on May 10, so I don't have a lot of time to do this. 

Make Bs or higher on my final exams.
This is a biggie.  I've been studying hard already.  I would appreciate any prayers about this.

Complete the Planking Challenge.
I am striving to get in better shape before the summer.  I work out whenever I can, but some days, I leave early in the morning and don't get back to my house until the early morning hours the next day.  But I've found a small exercise challenge that I am keeping every day despite my normal exercise routine.  For this challenge, I am planking (push-up position, only on forearms instead of hands) for one minute the first day, one minute and fifteen seconds the second day, and so on throughout twelve days, and ultimately end up with four minutes.  This will be my third day, and I want to finish. 

Deep clean my college bedroom before I leave for the summer.
For obvious reasons, I want to leave my room pristine before I leave for three months.

Unpack my clothes in my hometown bedroom instead of living out of a suitcase.
I hate both packing and unpacking.  After coming home, I tend to leave all of my things in a few suitcases in the corner.  Since I'll be traveling quite a bit this summer, I will need those bags and a lot more organization.

Read at least one book.
I've had this goal all year.

Pack for my family vacation. 
My family will be going on a vacation to North and South Carolina for ten days this summer!  I am excited.  But as I said above, I greatly dislike packing, so that needs to happen. 

Create an earlier-to-bed routine as I start work.
Because I'm a typical college student, I tend to stay out until two or three in the morning and wake up around ten.  Over the summer, I intern at Christian Relief Fund, so I work from 9-5.  My whole sleeping routine doesn't work out that way.  It's time to adjust to going to bed closer to eleven or twelve each night.

Start packing for Kenya.
I'm leaving for Kenya on June 20.  I welcome any prayers as I begin to prepare to go to this beautiful country.  I'll only be gone for two weeks, but my wardrobe there will be quite a bit different than what it is here.  I'll need to wear skirts or dresses the entire time, which I never wear here.  Basically, I'm gathering an amount of inexpensive long skirts and dresses to wear and leave in Kenya.   

Get all my shots and medicine in order before I leave the country. 
Since the last time I went to Kenya was four years ago, it's time to update my shots.  And man, there are a lot of them.  I also need to bring malaria and cholera medicine with me, just in case.

This is by far the most goals I have ever had in a month, but they are all important things that need to get done.  What are your goals for May?

Two years ago: It's time to surrender.

3 comments:

  1. I'm still puzzling about goals and deadlines. I've always thought of them as essential, but I can't even remember the last time I set any deadlines for any goals, or even thought in terms of goals at all! All I ever think of now is things I'm trying to learn to do. Here are some examples of what I've trying to learn to do on line:

    1. Practicing fellowship with people with ideologies contrary to mine. Currently that includes:
    - Some atheist blogs.
    - Two factional religious groups on facebook.

    2. Collaborating with another member of my faith community in exploring better ways to teach our faith on facebook. We're practicing being more friendly and outgoing, and elevating conversations. My part of that includes posting some ideas about responding to social issues, including religious prejudices.

    3. Putting myself in the line of fire of people throwing stones. Some examples are:
    - calling myself queer.
    - promoting some ideas that are unpopular in my faith community.
    - flaunting my friendship with some people who were campaigning against my faith community.

    5. Learning to consult with some bloggers about some ideas I'd like them to consider promoting on their blogs.

    6. Studying some online Web pages with ideas and resources for serving God's Kingdom on the Internet.

    7. Pondering ways to practice working with other people to improve the community life in Internet neighborhoods.

    8. Practicing and promoting better conduct on the Internet, which includes fellowship across ideological divides, and freeing ourselves from all ill will.

    9. Practicing and promoting more interaction through blogging and email, instead of limiting our interactions to social networks.

    10. Learning to be a better friend to people in my life.

    11. Writing to some friends and to some people in my family, about some things I'm practicing, and hoping for others to practice more, including:
    - Nurturing the spirit of faith and the love of God, in ourselves and others.
    - More loving devotion to the best interests of our faith communities.
    - More individual initiatives from people's hearts.
    - Learning to accompany people, in their initiatives and in the challenges they're facing in life.
    - Improving our consultation skills.
    - More and better independent investigation, in the scriptures and in relation to community issues.

    Now I might add to that:

    12. Re-learning to use goals and deadlines.

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  2. I just took a step in re-learning to use goals and deadlines! I set a goal for this week to spend two hours memorizing verses from the scriptures.

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