Goals

Next month I'm turning 27.

Since January, I've already started telling people I'm 27 when they ask. Then I have to correct myself, "Well, I will be in March." You see, ever since I was about...maybe 23... I've wanted to be 30. I've had the idea that 30 year-olds just have it all together. So I haven't taken issue with getting another year older, and in fact, I welcome and accept it a couple months ahead of time.

But then one day at work, I received a random phone call from an individual wanting to discuss the earth's population during the time of Cain. It ended up being a long conversation and somewhere down the line, my brain must have shut off. Towards the end, the guy asked me my age and I said instantly "24." "Wait, 24?" I thought. We eventually ended the conversation and it left me sitting at my desk thinking, "24? That doesn't sound right. What year is it? When was I born?" It was a very, very strange moment. Once my brain woke back up and I figured out that I was due to turn 27, I almost couldn't believe it. I almost had a complex. 27? How can I be 27 already? I mean, being 27 means I only have three years to "get it all together", right?

What a shift in perspective. What if the "wanting to be 30" was just a sub-conscious mental cover-up when, in reality, when my guard was down, the truth came out that I think of myself as 24? Either that or ... it was a sign of early Alzheimer's.

Either way, that experience led me to decide two things:

1) I need to set some life goals for myself and

2) one of those goals has to involve strengthening my brain.

So, with this "turning one year closer to 30" mindset, I sat down to write a such a goal list and I thought I would share.

I divided my goals into four areas: mental, physical, emotional and spiritual.

Mental:

1) Memorize scripture

2) Learn a new language

3) Learn an instrument

Physical:

1) Complete a marathon

2) Complete a triathlon

3) Decrease refined sugar intake

4) Decrease processed foods

Emotional:

1) Decrease irritability/anger

2) Decrease neediness

3) Decrease negativity

Spiritual:

1) Read through the Bible and Conflict of Ages series together

2) Keep a consistent prayer time

3) Give a Bible study

I actually wrote this goal list during my prayer time one day, asking the Lord to guide me in making goals. And it has been really fun to see how He is helping me. Shortly after making the list, I had a conversation with a friend which resulted in her offering to teach me French. We started lessons this week. Also this week I happened upon David's guitar that had been tucked back into a closet for the past two years. I've started building up callouses on my poor, hurting fingers. Prior to all this, I had actually decided to start making 4am my wake-up time in order to spend an hour or two in quiet prayer and reading, setting the stage to accomplish two of my spiritual goals. David and I also just ran/walked (respectively) our first 5k of the year last Sunday, and will do another one this Sunday, setting the stage for us to build up a training schedule for a marathon. Then, our bible worker at one of our churches approached me about going on a Bible study with her, in order to train me to do my own. I accepted. I have now been on two studies and will be doing the next study this week myself. (Please pray for me!)

I just praise the Lord for His goodness. THIS has been a shift in perspective I've needed for a long time.