Action steps for 2010

Photo by 1Happysnapper

Last week I told you about my single goal for 2010. This week I’m talking about the how. My approach consists of two things:

1. Honing 3 daily habits to help me tackle my 2010 goal of not hindering, but enhancing Christ’s legacy.
2. Brainstorming straightforward, concrete ways I can make it happen.

Honing 3 Daily Habits

These aren’t things to start and check off my list, these are things I’m already doing but doing in a haphazard sort of way. In 2010, it’s all about focus, keeping the goal in the forefront of my mind.

Analogy: I have this very cool new friend (that would be you, Dottie Lynn). We discovered recently that we are both runners. It’s always nice to find someone who shares a common interest, but there’s a big difference between her running and mine. I run willy-nilly; she runs half-marathons and is about to run her first marathon. She runs with a goal in mind, I just run. She grows, I maintain. Enough said.

My 3 Daily Habits

1. Read the how-to manual regularly.
2. Consult with my life coach daily.
3. Share what I know with others.

Breaking Down My 3 Daily Habits

1. When I want to know how my washing machine works or how to fix it, I read the manual written by the guy who made the thing. When I want to know how to do life or how to fix it, I read the manual written by the Guy who made life: the Bible. It’s all there, I just need to spend time looking for it.
2. When I have a question, need advice or want to share something good, I phone a friend. If I want all the right answers from someone who is always on my side, God’s the Man.
3. As lame as I feel sometimes, I’ve got plenty to offer. Denying that serves no one. I want to live generously, sharing what I have and what I know with as many people as possible.

Ways to Make It Happen

I’ve got lots of roles and responsibilities — wife, mom, blogger, home manager, volunteer, homeschooler, disciple — to name a few. I could write down a list of things to do for each, but that’s too much to keep track of. Instead of asking, How can I improve in my roles in 2010 and what are the things I need to do in order to accomplish that?, I prefer to wake up each day and ask: Knowing my responsibilities and what faces me *today*, how can I best let Christ ripple through me?

My list is dynamic and will change. These are only ideas I may or may not choose to do, depending on where I am led over the course of the year and how my days pan out.

The main problem I see with traditional resolutions and goals is that we make a list of what we will accomplish, but then life happens. The resolutions and goals we had at the start of the year so often become irrelevant as the year wears on, so we abandon them. We get off track and then we have nothing to aim at…and we hit it every time.

Here are some of my ideas for my biggie roles:

Wife & Mom

• Spend a few minutes and put 12 dates with my husband on the calendar, once a month, for the year. Arrange child care as each approaches.
• Ask my kids what they’d like to do together, just me and them. Schedule our first one-on-one outing for each.
• Read the book, The Five Love Languages and The Five Love Languages of Children by Dr. Gary Chapman so I can better communicate my love for them.
• Pray specifically and deliberately for each. I might start by printing out 31 Days of Praying for Your Husband and 31 Biblical Virtues to Pray for Your Children and incorporating them into my daily prayer list.
• Follow Hayley’s advice and start a weekly “Family Night” of a movie and popcorn. For ideas, I might start with 11 Great Family Movies suggested by Simple Mom (and don’t forget the ones mentioned in the comments).

Home Manager

• Finish decorating the house to foster a sense of settled-ness and peace. Start by painting — talk about a huge impact for little cost. (I just finished painting our living/dining room last week. Feels great. Next up? The laundry room which is waiting to be doused with that tangerine paint sitting on the shelf.) Make decorating the kids’ rooms a fun, collaborative effort. Go get that headboard from mom & dad and make our master bedroom our sanctuary.
• Get back on track with Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps. We’ve already finished Baby Step 1, Baby Step 2 and most of Baby Step 3. We’ve come a long way! I read The Total Money Makeover for the second time when I had the swine flu and now we’re fired up and inspired!
• Plan my weekly menus. I test drove my new menu planning system last week and it worked great. My biggest discovery? It’s not hard at all. In fact, planning the meals is a whole lot easier than not planning them because it eliminates the “it’s 5′clock and I don’t know what to make for dinner” issue. It also eliminates the “it’s 5′oclock and I don’t have all the ingredients” issue. (I’ll be sharing my menu planning system later.)
• Implement my adapted Flylady cleaning system. This is all about keeping the house perpetually clean by doing a couple simple chores each day. (Another system I’ll be sharing later on.)

Blogger

• This blog is about to transform right before your eyes and I am stoked! Now that our youngest is older and our older ones are in school 2 days a week, I’m finding myself with a bit more time on my hands. First item of business? Schedule computer time to increase productivity and decrease the tendency to waste time online. Also, and more importantly, I think a schedule will more likely keep me from using the internet as an escape. I want to be not only physically, but emotionally present with my children.
• Redesign the site. I’ve already been working on this and I’m just now putting the finishing touches on my new design. I can’t wait to reveal it in the next few weeks!
• Offer some useful information to you, my readers. Until now, this site has been mostly a place for me to reflect (read: navel-gaze). There’s a place for “reflection” for sure, but finding helpful tips and tidbits online is one of my favorite things to do and I have collected BOATLOADS of very cool resources. So often my friends and family ask me if I “know where they can find information about ______” and very often I do…well…since I am an internet surfing connoisseur.

And the list of possibilities are endless…

But no matter what I do or don’t do or which route I take, I’ll be satisfied if at the end of 2010, I can look back and say that I made great strides in the race set before me and by God’s grace, Christ rippled just a bit more easily through me.

Related posts:

1. My single goal for 2010
2. trying new things
3. Got any good scheduling tips?
4. Alright, alright. I’ll post! I’ll post!
5. taking action