My 2022 Goals & Visions
In addition to the concrete goals I’m working towards this year, I’m also sharing the vision for why the goals exist in the first place. I find a vision to be much more motivating than a goal, but a goal to be much easier to act upon than a vision.
Professional Goals:
555,655/1,000,000 words for kids (A part of my #1millionwordsforkids goal) (+3,045 words)
I see a kid putting into action something they read in a book. They are trying to overcome a challenge in a new way with a positive attitude. She surprises her parents and explains where she learned it: that book by Jared Dees. (Or: that worksheet…that video…that exercise with Jared Dees.)
762/1,000 Resources (Videos/Worksheets) for Members of The Religion Teacher (+14 resources)
I see a teacher showing The Religion Teacher videos and using worksheets that get kids thinking and praying in class. They experience something with those resources that keeps them thinking the rest of the day: an encounter with Christ. The teacher returns to lesson planning feeling less overwhelmed and more excited to teach the next class.
Personal Goals:
3/24 Books Read (+3 books including Project: Hail Mary by Andy Weir, The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan, and Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman)
I see myself talking to friends and family about some of my favorite books.
7/100 Non-fiction Books Started & Skimmed (including Financial Freedom, Quit Like a Millionaire, and 10 Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Today)
I see myself talking about non-fiction books on social media and during interviews because these books helped me improve my life and create my own work.
50/73 Books of the Bible read from beginning to end (+2 books read)
I see myself reading the daily readings with a new perspective remembering the experience of reading the entire Bible.
5/100 30-minute workouts (+10 workouts)
I see myself with more energy and happiness around my kids and at the computer for work.
11/200 word vocabulary (Learn American Sign Language)
I see my son and I having conversations in sign language during our one-on-one time during the day.
How I Spent My Time in January 2022
I track every minute of time I spend working on projects using an app called Toggl (here is why). Here is a list of the top ten projects I spent the most time on last month:
- 14:04 – The Religion Teacher January 2022 Membership Launch
- 11:48 – The Religion Teacher Email & Customer Service
- 5:32 – Daily Review
- 4:12 – The Religion Teacher’s Beatitudes Worksheet Collection
- 3:16 – Weekly Review
- 3:06 – The Religion Teacher Member Videos and Graphic Organizers
- 2:52 – Morning Preview
- 2:42 – New Website Host Transition
- 2:38 – The Religion Teacher Newsletter
- 2:31 – Project Reports
Total Time: 74:11 Hours
January 2022 Highlights & Lessons Learned
Goals vs. Visions
Everyone knows that it is important to set goals, but I find a vision to be much more meaningful and motivating.
I’ve been using a process called vision-setting (vs. goal-setting) for awhile now, but I haven’t written enough about the impact it has had on me.
Reaching a goal can be very anticlimatic. We can become so fixated on hitting a milestone that we forget the mountain we were striving for in the first place.
The solution I have found to this underwhelming feelings about goals is to work towards visions instead.
I set a vision for every project I create. It helps me know what the experience of that book, product, presentation, etc. will be like for the people experiencing it. With that vision in mind, the work becomes better. I’m able to have a much clearer idea of what I need to do and why I need to do it.
Here is a little background about each of the goals and visions I set for the year.
It was pretty simple.
I looked at my goals and then visualized what success would actually look and feel like. I started with a few sentence starters: “I see . . .” and “I see myself . . .”
Over time I may take these long statements and simplify them into something I can easily remember and quickly imagine. For now, I’ll keep the vision statements long and test them out.
I’ll expand on each vision below:
Professional Goals and Visions:
- 1 Million Words for Kids: The point isn’t just to write for writing’s sake. I want to write practical books for kids that help them overcome real challenges in their lives. I’m not interested in entertaining kids for the sake of entertainment. I want to entertain them as they grow in confidence, character, and a relationship with Christ.
- 1,000 Resources for The Religion Teacher Members: 1,000 is a completely arbitrary number, but it is big and audacious and I love the idea of hitting that milestone. But why? Because I want teachers to find resources at The Religion Teacher that they actually use in class to help kids encounter Christ.
Personal Goals and Visions:
- 24 Books Read: I really scaled back this goal again this year because I wanted to focus on starting not finishing books. I have so many books that I want to read, but not enough time to read them. I want to find at least two books a month worth the time to actually finish and enjoy talking about with friends.
- 100 Non-fiction Books Started and Skimmed: I have hundreds of non-fiction books in my Kindle library that I want to read. Most of these books come highly recommended. I want to get to all of them, but there is so little time to read. So I set this goal to forgive myself for not finishing books. Instead, I’m going to read the introduction and skim the rest of the book to be able to summarize and talk intelligently about the ideas in each book. I’m already seeing a big benefit to this approach. The books I skimmed in January really helped me rethink our financial goals the years ahead. I ended January and began February batch-reading a bunch of books on healthy eating and it is already making changes in my life.
- 73 Books of the Bible: This is a goal from 2019 that I’m finally getting close to completing! Why is it important? Because I have found my daily Bible reading prayer practice greatly improved by reading the many books of the Bible from beginning to end.
- 100 30-Minute Workouts: I’m a full-time author and full-time dad. I don’t have a lot of time to exercise. That’s why 30-minutes is short enough to feel doable. The vision, however, has already shifted my perspective on health. Instead of focusing on a six-pack abs, I’m focused on energy. The vision had led me to think beyond exercise into coming up with better eating habits.
- 200-word Sign Language Vocabulary: My son has Down syndrome and speech is a big challenge for him. We have already been utterly amazed by the power of sign language. At 18 months he can’t sound out words very well, but he communicates VERY well with sign language. I realized, however, that his vocabulary is limited by my own vocabulary. The faster I can master American Sign Language, the faster he will too. I’m excited to talk with him using sign language during our one-on-one time during the day.
