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New Year’s goals

current events· Penny Raine article

Here we are January 1. The best day to set forth goals. If you wait till tomorrow you will probably also wait until the next day, and then the next. So do it now. Get out a notebook and write down your goals for 2009. Realistic, attainable goals. Paying off your mortgage is probably not possible but paying down $10,000 might be. Or even $1200. Losing weight a goal? Choose how much is possible for 1 year. Putting money in the bank, or paying down credit? How much? Set a goal. Want to learn a new trade, or hobby? Set yourself a goal. Somethings cannot be achieved by a number of hours or dollars invested such as improving a relationship. But a relationship will improve if you invest time in it.

After you have your goals (and you should have already been praying about this) we are ready to break them up into bites.

Remember the old saying, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time of course.”

Well take that goal and cut it up into bites. Say you want to save $2000. Well divide that by 12 months, =$166.66 per month, now break it down further into weeks, we will round off to 4 weeks. So 166.66 divided by 4 = $41.66.  And you can probably find a way to do that. Either spend $41.60 less or find a way to make $41.66 more. If that still seams too big, break it up some more. How about dividing it by 7 days, $41.66 divided by 7 =  $5.95 per day. Is that a small enough bite to chew?

You can do the same thing with time. Any trade or hobby or relationship will grow with an extra 20 minutes per day invested, or how about an hour? 1 hour daily times 7 days times 4 weeks = 28 hours a month. That would be 336 hours a year rounded off, it would actually be more. That is the equivalent of 8 and a half full time work weeks. That would be quite an investment of time, but it all started out so easy, 1 hour per day.

I have heard it said that if you do the same thing for 21 days it becomes a habit. So just think, whatever your “bite” is after a month it becomes automatic.

You could do the same thing with weight-loss. Say 1 hour on a treadmill every day. That is 336 hours a year. A nice walk on a treadmill will burn about 400 calories an hour. That would be 134400 calories per year. Since each pound of fat is equivalent to 3600 calories it would be feasible to lose 37 pounds just from that one change. Now there are lots of variables to weight-loss and metabolism but you can see my point.

So, set your goals and charge forward one bite at a time!

Comments

  1. I think the biggest thing is also to make sure your goals are measurable and to make sure you don’t hide the elephant in the closet! Otherwise, it’s the end of the year and you’re all like “shoot, I never got on the treadmill” or “dang, I spent all that money!”

    Natalies last blog post..Resolving to boost my year

  3. I love how you helped me to see how really easy it could be to save money this year. Breaking it down to a weekly goal is the perfect way to help the tempation to buy that little thing here and the cup of coffee there.. Many blessings <

  6. Penny, Thanks for sharing this! Good reminders. Did some math yesterday, to figure out how much time (in hours) is left over, after about 8 hours of sleep per night, plus about 4 hours of my teaching time (with my 3 students at home). It leaves me quite a bit … about 12 hours, per day. If I choose wisely, I can get several goals reached, … and still have plenty of time to go soul winning with our family, teach an at-home drawing and also an art history class to homeschoolers, teach calligraphy to adults & teens (once a week), plus still bake, cook from scratch, and (Lord willing) lead workshops at our church helping folks begin preparing nutrient-dense foods.
    It’s all because if we write down a plan, place it before God’s throne in prayer, asking Him humbly and meekly to use us for His great glory, and enable us by His Grace, willing for Him to conform us to His Will and character, for the salvation of souls, then He can choose to bring it to pass.
    It’s about Him, not us. (big TX grin)
    I’m ready. (I know you are!) Thank you, Penny, for sharing with us moms, each time you get to, some insights God is showing you. God is at work within you, and we appreciate what you share, Penny!
    ~ Kathy ~

  7. Great perspective. Last year our family started actually making a budget and sticking to it (thank you Dave Ramsey). We looked up this year and we had paid off almost $20,000 in debt! Why because we had a plan and we chunked at it, instead of getting overwhelmed. We still have a way to go but we are getting there. Thanks for this reminder to keep on keeping on.

    Julie Abels last blog post..Friday Favorites, Top 10 TV Characters of All Time

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