Last week I published an overview of how January went. I was pretty happy with how I had done working towards a number of my goals.

Perhaps I set myself up for a bit of a regression with that post… whatever the reason, this week came along and had a couple of major frustrations and derailments in the goals areas.

Before we go on… I’m not giving up on all of these goals I’m working on, but I sure thought about giving up on at least a few of them this week. This blog post was almost titled “why I decided to give up on all of my goals.” (That isn’t entirely true, but it was discouraging.)

Since the things I write here are basically a “look into the thoughts inside my head” a generally scary place to look, I thought I would practice some honesty and tell you how things went this week.

Nothing Seemed To Work

I don’t think I’m alone in this, but from time to time I’ll have a week (or even just a day) where it seems like nothing is working. Everything that can go wrong does go wrong.

At least that’s how it seems.

It is Friday, February 1.

The time is 6:07 a.m.

I just sat down in my chair and got my iPad and keyboard out. It is time to buckle down and work on this weekends blog post.

Before I get started I sip my “water.” It is an experimental concoction of water, lemon juice, stevia and apple cider vinegar. It’s not horrible, but it really isn’t that good. I should have stopped with the lemon juice and stevia. I need the electrolytes, but I could have just swallowed a pinch of salt instead of mixing it in my cocktail.

I’m also not 100% convinced that I need apple cider vinegar in the morning.

It feels like a lot of what I’m eating or drinking (or not eating/drinking) is an experiment these days.

In fact it feels like a lot of my life is an experiment right now.

I am by nature a pretty forgetful person.

I hardly remember what I ate for breakfast. I don’t usually eat breakfast, so that isn’t a good example, but hopefully you get the idea.

These days I’ve accepted that I have a somewhat bad memory. Especially when it comes to when things are supposed to happen. I’ve taken a few steps to ensure that I don’t forget things… especially the important things.

The last number of years I had been using Google’s Inbox app to snooze emails containing things I need to do. I could also add tasks within Google Inbox. My life and deadlines revolved around Inbox.

Unfortunately Google announced a few months ago that they were going to be discontinuing Google Inbox.

When I first heard that they were shutting down Inbox, after checking to make sure it wasn’t a joke, I may have thrown a small temper tantrum. Apparently it’s going to shut down in just a few months, which means it is time to move on.

One of my goals this year, is to travel to at least one country that I’ve never set foot in before. When I shared that in last weeks post, I also mentioned that, unless something major happens between now and then, I have tickets to fly to Budapest, Hungary next month.

When I talk to people about this trip, as with my Mexico City trip last year, the first question always seems to be “why?”

While the reasoning isn’t super complex, I thought I’d write some of the why behind this particular choice of destination. There are a ton of places around the world, why choose Budapest?

If you are like most people I know, you’ve probably been thinking some about this new year and how you’d like this year to be the year that some things change. I know I have.

Last week in my “year in review” post I said that I didn’t make any specific goals or resolutions at the beginning of last year. But this year will be different. I am going to make some goals. Not only that, I’m going to publish them here for you to read. (I do reserve the right to have some goals that I don’t publish here…)

In the past I’ve kept my goals to myself, after all they are personal things. However, I’ve heard from several sources that being public about what you are going to do increases the likelihood of you actually doing it. Besides I wish more people were honest about how things are going. We are all struggling through life. No one is perfect, even that person who you think has all parts of life figured out.

In general, living each day with the future in mind, and the “where are we going” point of view, gives you reason for doing what you’re doing right now, today. For instance, if I know that I want to walk across a continent… well, I need to be walking every day.

As a Christian I believe that everything I do here on earth should ultimately be for the furthering of God’s Kingdom. Living life with that in mind each day can be difficult because it’s not something that we can actually see. It’s a bit of an “out there” idea. However, having a simple reminder of how that should affect my day to day life… well it helps me remember why I’m here and what I should be doing.

So, now that I’ve somewhat established some of my “why” for setting goals, lets go ahead and get into them!

Hello friend. It’s good to "see" you again… I hope that you’re 2019 has started well and that you are happy and healthy.

Writing is on the list of things I want to do more of in 2019. So, a review of 2018 seemed like a good place to start.

Over the past couple of days I’ve been reading “year in review” and “year to come” posts from a lot of people. As I read them I realized, not only might it provide me with some clarity, but it would also be interesting to have such posts to look back at in 20 years.

So... 2019 is already here, but before I dive into what I want to do this year, here is a look back at 2018. Along the way I'll throw in a few thoughts about some things that I did well and some that I didn’t do too well.