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. A vision describes the concrete experience of achieving a goal. Working towards a vision increases the motivation to achieve goals as long as there is alignment. Here is my overall vision for the year along with the visions for each individual goal I’m working towards.
My 2022 Vision
I called 2022 my “Year of the Worksheet.” I wish I had made worksheets my priority sooner. This was one of my most prolific and profitable years yet. I published more products and produced more creative work than any other year before and I worked less hours than I ever have before in order to be present to the family. The focus on worksheets also let me to make connections with new people. It helped me stand out for a unique skill instead of being just any other author.
Professional Goals:
596,339/1,000,000 words for kids (A part of my #1millionwordsforkids goal) (+5,334 words)
I see a kid putting into action something she read in a book. She is 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.)
912/1,000 Resources (Videos/Worksheets) for Members of The Religion Teacher (+9 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:
29/24 Books Read (+2 including The Little Prince and The Great Mental Models)
I see myself talking to friends and family about some of my favorite books.
21/100 Non-fiction Books Started & Skimmed (+0)
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.
73/73 Books of the Bible read from beginning to end (+1 books read)—Complete!
I see myself reading the daily readings with a new perspective remembering the experience of reading the entire Bible.
92/100 30-minute workouts (+21 workouts)
I see myself working out often and having more energy and happiness around my kids and at the computer for work.
*/200 word vocabulary to learn American Sign Language (* words)
I see my son and I having conversations in sign language during our one-on-one time during the day.
*I’m no longer keeping track of the number of words in ASL I’m learning with my son. He’s doing so well that it’s really hard to keep track of all the new signs we are learning! Imagine trying to keep track of how many different words you speak every day! It’s a much more fluid process than the experience of learning vocabulary words in school.
How I Spent My Time in September 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:
- 14:31 – The Religion Teacher Email & Customer Service
- 10:56 – The Religion Teacher September Membership Launch
- 7:41 – Morning Preview
- 6:38 – Daily Review
- 3:22 – The Religion Teacher’s Our Lady Worksheet Collection
- 3:00 – Weekly Review
- 2:48 – The Religion Teacher Newsletter
- 2:43 – ToolsTeach.com Biography Worksheets (U.S. Presidents and Others)
- 2:29 – The Religion Teacher’s Bible Worksheet Collection
- 2:24 – The Religion Teacher’s Seven Sacraments Worksheet Collection
Total Time: 77:20 Hours
September 2022 Highlights & Lessons Learned
The Religion Teacher September 2022 Launch
This is the sixth year I have held a “launch” of The Religion Teacher membership website. I like to begin each school year with a series of emails and an offer to encourage new members to join for resources they can use in class.
I really enjoyed writing the emails and found myself excited about the new year. The feedback from newsletter subscribers was great, too.
The number of new member registrations, however, was good but not great. I think there were a few factors, but it’s hard to really say which made the biggest impact. The book giveaway (To Heal, Proclaim, and Teach) wasn’t directly related to the classroom so I can see it being less appealing. With the month ending on a Friday, I planned for the promotion to end on the Friday as well. The “Last Chance” emails repeatedly encourage the most sign-ups every year, but people are less motivated to take action on Fridays. The end of the week is time to finish up projects and get ready for the weekend.
Now I’m packing up books and dropping off boxes of envelopes at the post office. It’s always fun to see the names of people who joined and the many places throughout the country that I’m able to serve through the website.
New Worksheet Collections at TheReligionTeacher.com
After spending a lot of time on the U.S. President series of worksheets, I returned to some new worksheet ideas for The Religion Teacher. To be honest, I did not plan to work on these collections this year but inspiration struck and I got to work.
I’m blessed to be able to learn for a living. I get to research and create worksheets to teach others about what I’m learning along the way. This month I spent a lot of time researching the devotions and apparitions of the Virgin Mary beginning with the title “Our Lady.” I knew very little about these devotions and I have such a better understanding of why Catholics turn to Mary in prayer in these diverse ways. Like so many worksheets and videos I have created, the learning process revealed how much I still have to learn about the Catholic faith and traditions.
I also created a quick set of worksheets for the Sacraments and returned to the Old Testament to begin a series of worksheets inspired by the stories in the Book of Exodus.
I finished reading the Bible from Beginning to End
After three years, I finally finished reading the Bible from beginning to end. I set out to listen to the entire Bible from beginning to end in 2019, but I didn’t finish until this month. I don’t think reading the Bible from beginning to end is required for a Christian or even the best way to read the Bible. I will say, however, that it was helpful to get a broad look at the entire canon. It gave me a much better idea of the context for all of the books within the whole of the Bible. This vision for the project is becoming a reality: I see myself reading the daily readings with a new perspective remembering the experience of reading the entire Bible.
