Working through hurdles

I apologize for taking an unintended break from my blog I have been focusing on several areas of my life that I have set goals for, but also have had a few other things that have popped up this month.

• I have announced my candidacy for Vice President of the Des Moines Education Association.
• We have been working on vacation plans for this summer with our family.  We are going to be going to Yellowstone. 
• Our internet service stopped working and we are in the process of getting it back up and running by the end of the week.  

Some of these things have been welcomed while others have created some headaches, but still moving forward on trying to accomplish my goals.  Once my internet service is back on I promise to do a better job with my blog the rest of 2014. 

30 Day Hustle Part 2

I am participating in the second round of Jon Acuff's 30 Day Hustle.  Last month I was able to accomplish a task in 30 days that I thought I was going to take most of 2014 thanks to the accountability group and all of you.  I am overjoyed to have already completed my Legacy Box for my family if something happens to me.  My goal for the second 30 days is something that seems much smaller but will be challenging as well.

What?  My goal for the next 30 days is the hustle to lose at least 8 pounds!  I know it may not sound like a lot but these are 8 pounds that I have been working on losing for a long time and I just continue to make excuses to why I cannot do it.  No more excuses!  I am going to lose those 8+ pounds and keep them off.

How?  I am going to continue my running program toward my long term goal of running a marathon this year.  On my days that I am not running I will work in some other form of exercise (cycling, kickboxing, yoga, etc.)   I have scheduled my running days onto my calendar and will be scheduling other physical activities in between.  I will also make smarter food and drink choices over the next 30 days.

Why?  Because I want to feel healthier and stronger.  I want to be able to be a good role model for my son and my students.  I know that having excess belly fat is bad for me beyond just how it looks and am committed to doing what I can to be able to stay active and be around for my family.

February Goal Update

The first month of 2014 is already over and has resulted in the completion of one of my goals, moving along the path toward achieving some and refining another.  Occasionally I will check in to share my progress, my struggles and changes I make in my goals this year.

Spiritual Goal: My spiritual goal is to connect with God each day through prayer, reading his Word and reflection.  

Each day I have committed myself to begin the day in prayer and have at least read though a chapter of the book of Proverbs.  My goal was to do that in addition to getting into the Word first thing in the morning.  I have realized that not being a morning person has hurt my chances of making this successful.  I am still committed to achieving my goal but am scheduling my quiet time in the Word to the evening instead of first thing in the morning.  For the month of February I will be focusing my additional study on the Book of John. 

Financial Goal:  For 2014, we are going to try to stretch ourselves and set a financial goal of paying off at least 60% of the debt that is remaining on our mortgage.  

We are working toward making this a reality.  One of the big changes we have made starting in January is that we canceled our escrow account to allow more of our money to go toward our mortgage each month while budgeting for our home owners insurance and taxes ourselves.  This change alone cut our debt free date by 2 months.  We now are currently less than 606 days away from being debt free!

Intellectual Goal: My intellectual goal will be to read the same three books at least once a month and spend time reflecting on the principles and applying them into my life. 
I was unable to accomplish this goal in January.  I did complete two of the books (The 5 Love Languages: Men's Edition and The Noticer Returns).  I only made it through a little more than a third of Thou Shall Prosper.  I have found that Thou Shall Prosper is not a book to read quickly so I am taking my time to complete the book and will finish it during the month of February and then putting it back on my bookshelf.  Out of the three books I started with I am only keeping The Noticer Returns by Andy Andrews in my 3 book diet for 2014.   Since I cannot commit to reading Thou Shall Prosper every month I will be replacing it with Teacherpreneurs: Innovative Teachers who Lead but Don't Leave by Barnett Berry.  I am also going to replace The 5 Love Languages with Fearless by Max Lucado. The reason for this second change is that I have read the 5 Love Languages several times and thought that the Men's Edition would give me something more to apply to my life, but it really was the same thing with a few side notes.

Relational Goal: I have set a relational goal of getting all documents created and organized that will help take care of my family if something would happen to me by creating a legacy box this year for them. 

This goal has already been completed.  I participated in the 30 day hustle with Jon Acuff and finished this goal within the first 30 days of January.  During the month of February I will be working toward reconnecting with some friends and will have a new official relational goal to post by the beginning of March. 

Physical Goal:  My physical goal is to run a marathon by the end of the year. 
I have worked toward accomplishing this goal by continuing the 10K training program.  By the end of February I should finish the 10K program and start my 1/2 marathon training program. 

Our Financial Goal

Several years ago I ran across Dave Ramsey and some other Christian finance experts who were talking about why we shouldn't be using debt from a Biblical perspective and it really made me think about the bondage I had put myself and my family in.  At that point every day half of what I was earning was going toward paying for things I thought that I "had to have" or wanted before we had the money to pay for them.

That has changed.  We are on a budget and working with gazelle intensity to pay off all of our debt.

On August 27th, 2012 we paid off my final student loan which made our mortgage the only debt weighing us down from financial freedom.  Once that happened we strengthen our emergency fund then increased the amount we were putting away for retirement and college.  We then started plowing all remaining resources at our huge mortgage.

In order to push ourselves to pay off our mortgage as quickly as possible we have set a goal to pay off at least 60% of our remaining debt by the end of 2014 which would move our debt free date even sooner than our current projected debt free date of October 1st, 2015.  This is a goal that I have not achieved on paper yet, but we are going to work and pray hard to accomplish our goal.  What are some of our action steps?

1. We will look at our budget for places that we could lower spending to put extra toward our mortgage each month. 
2. We will look for opportunities that will increase our income, putting everything other than our tithe toward our mortgage. 
3. Any line item that we don't spend the total balance of during a month will be applied toward the principal of our mortgage instead of spending extra in other categories or rolling the money over to the next month. 

I believe taking these three steps, working hard and trusting God will allow us to pay off at least 60% of our remaining debt in 2014.  

What financial goals do you have in place this year?  What are your action steps to make sure you accomplish them?

Book Giveaway

Today the Meeting Our Goals facebook page reached 300 "likes".  To celebrate I am giving away a book from one of my favorite authors.  I wrote an early post about how I was being inspired by Jon Acuff this month to hustle for 30 days to achieve one of my goals sooner than I was planning and so I thought it would be fitting to give away one of his books.

The book I am giving away to mark this occasion is Gazelles, Baby Steps and 37 Other Things Dave Ramsey Taught Me about Debt by Jon Acuff.  I will be writing later this week about some of the things I have learned from Dave Ramsey when I break down my financial goal for 2014.

For now I wanted to let you know about my giveaway and wish you luck!  If you don't want to wait to see if you win the book you can buy one today on Amazon using my affiliate link above.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Intellectual Goal

My goal for 2013 was to read at least 100 books and was based on a quote contributed to Charlie Jones.  He said, "Five years from today, you will be the same person that you are today, except for the books you read and the people you meet."  I found that I read a lot of good books and learned a lot of things but really didn't have the time to apply the great principles to my life in the intentional way I would have liked to.

My intellectual goal is still based on reading because I think that by reading good books is a way I can invest into my life.  Chris Brogan started a challenge for people to go on a three book diet.  This would mean reading the same three books exclusively for one year to help the principles really take root into your life.  I am starting with three books but am giving myself the flexibility to do other reading that is required by work or for fun.  In addition, if I get to a point that I don't feel like I need to continue reading a book again this year I will replace it with another one.

The three books I am reading are The Noticer Returns by Andy Andrews, The 5 Love Languages: Men's Edition by Gary Chapman and Thou Shall Prosper by Rabbi Daniel Lapin.  Each of these books will help me in an area of my life.  My short term goal for January is to read through each book for the first time to see if they will stay on my list for the rest of the year.  If I decide to stick with the three books I will then spend February going through and reading each again with a highlighter.

Do you have any books you are planning on reading this year?

Physical Wellness Goal

The third 2014 goal I am going to break apart is my physical goal of running a marathon this year.  In October of 2012 I ran my first and only 1/2 marathon when I was at my post-high school physical fitness peak.  I then broke my foot in February of 2013 which figuratively and literally slowed me down.  Toward the end of 2013 I began my journey of getting back into shape.

I am currently working on a 10K training program and will try to find a 10K race to run sometime this winter or early spring.  I will be finishing up my program in mid-February this year and then will be ready to start working on the 10K to 1/2 Marathon training.  I am planning on running in the Dam to Dam 1/2 marathon race on Saturday, May 31st.  My goal, like when I ran in 2012, will be to finish the race in under 2 hours.  

After I complete my 1/2 marathon I will continue training for my first marathon which I plan to run on October 19th, 2014 in the Des Moines Marathon.

In order to achieve this goal I will need to stick pretty closely to be my 10K, 1/2 Marathon and Marathon training plans this year.  Through training and eating better I am hoping to get my weight down to where it was before I broke my foot which will help me with my running too.  

Have you ever ran in a distance race?  Do you have any tips for me?  

What are your fitness goals this year?  What is the first step you are going to take to achieve your goal?