14 Goals For 2014
After a year of firsts in 2013 (read “My Family’s 2013 Review”), I have made a list of things I would love to accomplish in 2014. I recently read an interview with actor Matt Damon in which he said his new years resolutions are basically the same every year. He hopes to be a better father and a better man, etc. each year. I feel his sentiment, but I also like the idea of putting some realistic goals in writing, partially to hold myself accountable during the year and partially to help me reflect back upon my life in the future.
SO HERE ARE MY 14 GOALS FOR 2014
1) Be a better man of God. This should be the #1 goal for every Christian man, not just every year, but every day that we live. To not sound too generic, I will add to this a goal of doing more self-reflecting this year so that I can put my weaknesses and temptations into God’s hands.
2) Be a better father than I ever have been before. Along with this, I want to be as involved in my children’s lives as I possibly can, even when that means sacrificing my own desires.
3) Surprise my wife Jennifer more. I do not want to be that boring old couple who are so comfortable with each other that there are no surprises. So I would like to make romantic surprises a more-regular habit this year.
4) Read more books.
5) Use this website to help people get to know God better.
6) Find a way to use my running to reach non-Christians.
7) Find new and creative ways to reach families for God both in my church and outside the church walls.
While Goals 1-7 are important, yet somewhat vague, Goals 8-14 are very intentional, specific, measurable and achievable through hard work and a great deal of help from God!
8) Run at least 1,300 miles. That is an average of 25 miles per week for 52 weeks. I know that some weeks I will run less, and many weeks I will run much more than this. If I can hit 1,300 miles for the year, that means I have maintained a consistent distance running routine all year, which will be a huge win for me.
9) Increase my average pace every single month from January through December, even if it is only be 1 second per mile.
10) Break 21:00 for a 5K run. This is a very aggressive goal for me. My fastest time in 2013 was 23:48 (7:41/mile), and my fastest time in high school was a little faster than that. To break 21 minutes, I must average 6:46/mile, or 65 seconds/mile faster than my 2013 best. I believe this is achievable, but it will take some extra speed workouts for me to get down to that kind of pace.
11) Run 1 mile in under 6:00. I haven’t done this since high school.
12) Break 49:00 (7:54/mile) for a 10K run. My best 10K in 2013 was 51:44 (8:16/mile), so I need to drop 2:45. Once again this is achievable with a regular and aggressive workout routine.
13) Run my first half-marathon, and break 2 hours. My longest run last year (or ever) without walking or taking a break was 10.0 miles on New Years Eve, which I ran in 1:34:07 (9:25/mile). I hear that once you can run 10 miles, you can run a half-marathon, however I need to not only add the extra 3.1 miles, but also drop the pace by 16 seconds per mile to 9:09/mile.
14) Weigh less on my 30th birthday than I did on my wedding day in 2007. I need to get down to about 155 lbs, which would put my total weight loss at 65 lbs between August 1, 2013 and May 15, 2014. I still have a ways to go to achieve this goal!