The Journey of a Year

At the beginning of 2013, over a couple of cups of coffee and good conversation with a friend, I set down 3 measurable goals to match my priorities. The end of the year is here, and I've made it. I put two more letters in the mail today, I finished Steinbeck's Winter of Our Discontent on Monday night, and this is my last blog post. It came down to the wire, but I finished it: 75 blog posts, 25 letters, and 25 books in one year. Here's what I learned along the way:

1. Personal pressure beats peer pressure.
I got this done for no other reason than I said I would get it done. It had nothing to do with anyone else's expectations of me. Frankly, I don't think any of us will ever live up to the expectations from others, and we know that. That's why we largely ignore them. Oh, we'll try to keep others happy, but only to a point. Ourselves, however? That's a tougher master. Too often I believe we don't require enough of ourselves; we keep our own expectations vague, if not low.

I use the term personal pressure here because I did feel the pressure. At times I was downright stressed trying to squeeze in time to follow through on this commitment, especially during the stretch run when I battled illness, fatigue, and some unexpected additions to the schedule. And that stress is good. To reach closer to who we want to be requires us to go beyond the comfortable. Some people spend their whole lives only allowing others to dictate when they step beyond the easy. Making the decision to create personal pressure allows you to guide the ship. The waters will be choppy, but you'll know exactly why you're treading them.

2. Deadlines force me to do what I want to have done but don't want to do.
A major lesson from my 2012 reading was the paradox that is our desires. That which we most want, we often least feel like doing. Exercise, reading, writing, serving - these are often high on many priority lists, but follow through is low. I realized that if I wait until I feel like it to do all that I say I want to do, none of it would ever get done. Also, it's usually when I least feel like doing something (praying, apologizing, communicating, serving my wife) that I most need to do it.

The process this year of the monthly deadline helped me to keep that dichotomy in check. Knowing that I needed 2 books, 6-7 blog posts, and 2 letters by the end of each month created built-in demands that I act regularly on that which I said is important. Most months I came to the last week and realized that I still had 2 letters to write. I rarely felt like writing them, but I was always thrilled when I put them in the mail. Despite the fact that the whole letter writing thing was what I most wanted to do, it was the hardest on which to follow through. Regular deadlines increased the urgency, forcing me to take action whether I felt like it or not.

3. You get what you emphasize.
This is an old coaching maxim, and it held true in this venture as well. I emphasized 3 goals, wrote about those 3 goals on this blog, and told people about them. I committed to following through, and I did. However, everything that wasn't part of those 3 goals became less of a priority, cast aside to the realm of "when I get a chance." My Time magazine frequency suffered. I read manageable books, not huge anthologies that wouldn't count towards my goals. More importantly, the routine of written prayer and Bible reading was anything but routine.

All three of my goals were worthy of my focus, and I'm glad I chose what I did. They all three held true to what I said I wanted - writing and relationships. If you emphasize nothing, you get nothing. And you can't emphasize everything. However, 2013 is now over, and I will move to something different. It's time for a different emphasis.

4. Numbers matter.
The best part about these goals is that they were measurable and controlled entirely by me. I've made the mistake in the past of creating the goal of being a better friend, or father, or husband, or writer, or teacher. There's no way to measure that. I could have gone a different way as well - for instance, require publishing a book or an article, or building 5 new relationships. But those aren't controllable. Sure, if factors are right, they can happen; however, they are neither certainties nor actual determinations of improvement. By putting a number of what I would do, and making sure that number was directly related to improvement on my stated priorities, I set myself up for success. There is no doubt I am a better writer after posting 75 times this year and reading 25 books. I know I've valued relationships through those letters and connections made on this blog. I can't count the improvement, but I could count my actions. The controllable numbers drove the journey.

So there it is. Done. With 3 hours to spare until the end of the year. I think I'll take the time I've got left and curl up with my wife under a blanket on the couch and watch a movie. It wasn't on my goals list, but perhaps it should have been. I want to thank all of you who have read the blog this year. It continues to be a major influence in my life, and I appreciate the opportunity to be read in yours. Here's to a productive, purposeful, and humble 2014.