2020 Goals

We were visiting family in Washington over the holidays and I had enough downtime (with helpful grandparents around) to do quite a bit of reflection and goal-setting for the new year. I typically set goals each January, but I have never spent so much time looking back on the past year to analyze my gains and losses and figure out my hopes for the year ahead. Two resources that helped me do this: Jefferson Bethke’s End of Year Summit podcast and Don Whitney’s “Ten Questions for a New Year.”

Before I came up with the goals on the list below, I divided my life into categories (spiritual, marriage, parenting, health, finances, etc.) and assessed my gains and losses in every category during 2019. After listing gains and losses, I summarized any “lessons learned” in each area. My goals for this new year naturally evolved from my reflection list for last year. I also spent time naming favorite memories, trips, movies, and meals to recount God’s grace for 2019.

As I planned for the year ahead, I realized I had specific goals in each category (which are measurable items) and then I have rhythms I would like to implement on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Rhythms are different than goals. They aren’t necessarily measurable (unless I track how often I do them) but they are habits I would like to build, so when I look back on 2020, I can say I did these actions “most” of the time. A great book on forming habits in the Christian life is The Common Rule. I highly recommend it.