The first month of the new year is awfully close to being over already. Amazing, isn’t it? But it isn’t too late for me to share a few of my goals for this year. So here goes:
Read Through the New Testament Three Times
In 1997, I began the practice of reading through the entire Bible in odd-numbered years and reading through the New Testament multiple times in even-numbered years.
Last year I used a chronological One Year Bible in the New Living Translation. This year I’m going to use three different translations, although I haven’t decided for certain what the second and third will be yet.
My first read-through is with The Passion Translation. Our teaching pastor at church has shared from it a number of times in the past year or two, and it is lovely.
Today, January 24th, I’ve just begun the Book of Luke. The plan calls for me to finish Revelation at the end of April. Then I’ll start over again in a new translation in May.
Read at Least 24 Books in 2018
I drastically reduced my reading goal for 2018. In the past few years, I’ve read over 50 books (one year over 60), but this year, I knew that wasn’t realistic. First because my reading time is going to be even more limited than usual, and second because I have some enormous books in my TBR. One is a biography of Martin Luther by Eric Metaxas (20+ reading hours, according to Audible). Then there is the Last Lion trilogy, a biography of Winston Churchill. The shortest of the three books is over 36 reading hours; the longest is over 53 reading hours. I expect the Churchill biographies to spill over into 2019 because I’ll need some fiction breaks in-between.
Knock Out 5 of my Remaining 7 Core Requirements
Due to my corneal surgery, I took off the 2017 fall term from college, but I am back at it in 2018. My ultimate college goal, as I have shared before (tongue in cheek), is to get my degree before I need a walker to go up to get it. Seriously though, it takes a l-o-n-g, l-o-n-g time to earn 60 credits when you only take a few credit hours per semester.
In this current spring term, I am taking an environmental science class with lab and an international film and literature class. These classes are fulfilling one of my science requirements plus my ethical reasoning requirement and my global perspective requirement (7 credits total). I confess that science is not my cup of tea so I’m not having a lot of fun with it. But it gets me to my goal, so I press on.
Stay Active And Maintain My Weight
Between August 2015 and October 2017, I managed to lose over 20 pounds. And in the fall of 2017, I renewed my goal to exercise daily. I do that mostly on the treadmill. I am a fair weather walker, not liking to be hot or cold. The treadmill allows me to watch something on my iPad that holds my interest plus run a fan when I need it. Yes, I’m spoiled. But the results have proven it is the right formula for me.
Thus, my goal for 2018 is to maintain my weight loss and to continue to get daily exercise. I’m very grateful for my Apple Watch activity app. It keeps me motivated as I try to close all three circles every day (Move calories burned, Stand hours, and Exercise minutes).
Write. Write. Write.
As I write this blog post, I am racing toward the finish line on the first book in a new series. This year I’ll also be completing the second book and writing the better portion of the third before the end of December.
My goal for my writing is to write every single day except Sundays.
So there you have it. My goals for 2018.
Have you set goals for the year? Care to share?
~robin
Robin Lee Hatcher
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