My First Fail

2 min read

Well, it finally happened.  My first fail in academia.  All my life academics has come easily to me.  Outside of a few run-on sentences here and there, I’ve always been ‘book-smart’.  

Last Thursday I took my first test at language school.  I failed miserably.  I had studied and worked hard, and still failed at something that is hugely important in my line of work.

To be specific, I received the equivalent of a 46.3% on my exam.  As an educator, I know to show mastery of a subject it really requires about a 90% score at the very least.  Ideally more like 95% or higher is true mastery of a subject.

At first, I was fairly upset.  The first time I failed at something academically, are you kidding me?  I’ve prided myself on continuous learning on different subjects post college.  Look up the stats on how many people read a book after college and it’s disheartening to a reader like myself to say the least.

By the next day though, I was surprisingly grateful.  I looked at other areas of my life where I had failed miserably and realized God had used those failures to bring about some tremendous transformation in my life.

If we don’t fail at something new, we’re most likely not pushing ourselves hard enough.  How many great leaders who succeeded in the long run failed in the short run?  History has no shortage of these types of characters.

So, where do I go from here?  I recently checked out a book that looks like it has some real potential in supplementing my language school.  I’m relearning how to learn in a classroom setting as well.  Steffani is a model student so I’m trying to emulate her as well (90% on her first test, for those of you who might be wondering.)

Feedback results in improvement, it is absolutely vital in any area of life you want to improve in.  My profesora seemed surprised when I requested a short quiz every week.  Thankfully the other students agreed with me and so this last week we had a short quiz.  I got an 84%, clearly I’m improving so that’s encouraging.  

Well, I’m signing off for now, I need to go study!

For your viewing pleasure as we enter the Christmas season...

A Privileged Life

It occurred to me the other day that I lead an incredibly privileged life.  Perhaps you’re picturing a trust fund baby, a yacht, a luxury car, etc. when I say ‘privileged life.’

That’s not the type of privileged life that I have in mind.  The privilege I’m referring to is that of seeing Jesus at work in a new context.  If you follow Jesus, you lead a privileged life as well.  

You get to witness what He’s doing in your context.  It can be difficult and necessitates a certain skill in ascertaining where He’s working.  However, if we learn to cut out some of the noise around us, we can see and hear Him more clearly.

Every day on our walk to language school there are 2 things that are reminders of Him.  One I had walked by every day for two solid weeks without even noticing it in spite of its stature.  Another is more difficult to notice but is there all the same.

Somehow they both give me a clearer sense of how Jesus is already present here.  In the one, He’s hard to see if you’re not looking for Him.  In the other, He towers above without myself or anyone else noticing His glaring presence.  

Once you see the picture you will wonder how I never noticed it.  I walk by it.  Every. Single. Day.  Men are constantly being stereotyped as oblivious but I think I take the cake on this one.

For our first 3 weeks in Salamanca we were living in a flat with 3 young men.  We didn’t last too long...A) Steffani obviously didn’t feel comfortable and B) The final straw was bed bugs.  

One of our flatmates was an 18 year old Dutch guy.  We talked about religion briefly and of course Christianity came up.  

He was shocked when Steffani and I told him we attended church every Sunday.  

I asked him if any of his friends were Christians.  He replied he didn’t know any Christians, friends or otherwise.  Not a single one.  How is someone 18 and not been exposed to Christ?  In a country that has freedom of speech nonetheless?

It’s always a different thing when a statistic suddenly has a face, isn’t it?  We were told many countries in Europe have less than 2% of their population who are practicing Christians.

Gratefully, Europe may be a ‘post-Christendom society’ but it is certainly not a ‘post-Christ’ society.  That society simply doesn’t exist.  Christ is everywhere.  He is not bound by border nor by ethnicity.  

As missionaries we do not ‘bring Jesus’ to some new place or country.  

He is already there.  He is already at work.  We are simply called to point people to where He already is, right there in their midst.

Heartbroken & Confirmed

It was an interesting morning here in Salamanca.  Steffani and I took our regular walk to our language school, roughly 15 - 20 minutes.

This particular walk couldn’t have been more different than almost any other walk I’ve ever taken.  You see, a few weeks or a few months ago, I asked God to give me a heart for the lost.  It’s one of our organization’s core values after all.  It seemed like a great core value to have myself.

Sometimes it can be so easy and tempting to be lulled into a lukewarm faith, can’t it?  We love spending time with other believers.  This is not unique to our subculture or even our country for that matter.  One of the things I’ve noticed at our cafe during breaks at language school is how Chinese people hang with other Chinese, Dutch people hang with other Dutch, etc.

Anyway, God answered that simple prayer this morning on the way to school.  For some reason I started looking at people in a whole different light.  Back in March, a seasoned missionary here informed us Christians make up less than 2% of the population here.

For some reason that hit me in the gut today.  When we passed a group of 10 people I mused to Steffani, “Only 1 of those 10 people are Christian, maybe.”  We passed at least 100 people on the way to language school.  2 or less of those know Christ as their Savior.

This is incredible motivation to work as hard as I can to learn Spanish and speak it fluently.  It’s truly a blessing to be able to focus exclusively on language learning for 6 months.  Many missionaries don’t take the time to do so and inevitably regret it later when they can’t find the words to express themselves.  It can truly be a handicap later on in mission work.

Three quarters of the way to our destination I had another thought.  In my mind I was thinking about how many people are without Christ in this country.  Immediately it occurred to me that was why God put us here in the first place.

Not everyone is built for living overseas.  Personally though, I feel more confirmed than ever before.  A friend mentioned to us after our last church service at our home church that we are truly built for this unique experience.  Right now, I couldn’t agree more with that sentiment.

Heartbroken and confirmed; it’s a good place to be.  Undoubtedly there will be periods of doubt in the future about whether this was a mistake.  Hopefully I can look back at this post and be reminded of why we’re here.  It’s not about us and our comfort.  We’re here to be witnesses to Christ and point as many people to Him as He graciously allows us to.

Maranatha!  Come, Lord Jesus!

First Days in Spain

2 minute read

We made it to Spain safely after a 12 hour flight including a 2 hour layover in Philly.  After a 3 hour "nap" we talked with our teammates who we will be helping here in Talayuela, Spain.  After tapas we went to bed hoping we wouldn’t wake up in the middle of the noche.  Suffice it to say, we definitely didn’t wake up.  Jet lag was in full force as we both slept longer than just about any human besides a baby should.

Our friends here have 4 boys, 4!  I can’t even imagine!  They are aged 4 to 13.  They’re wonderful with their hospitality as they were in March and we look forward to working with them after language school.  On Wednesday we head to Salamanca to get situated before we start language school a week from tomorrow!

Yesterday we attended church with our friends, a small church plant they’ve started here.  Everyone was very warm and inviting.  They were also patient with us as we tried to use our Spanish.  As a student told me years ago, “Mr. Hemming, your Spanish is, um…”  To which I replied, “broken?”  This indeed was the case.  Obviously language school will help us a lot with this.

Today after I woke up from my travel induced coma, I spent some time reading and chatting with our friend Ingrid, catching up on what’s happened since March.  Well, the first thing I did was eat some delicious bread and cheese, I don’t exactly do too well without food for very long.  

In the afternoon Steffani and I went for a walk to explore the town a little.  A couple hours later I went on a walk with the two older boys to practice my Spanish with them as they practiced their English with me.

Life is going well so far here in Espana, on the other side of the pond.  It is much cooler here than in Florida.  Steffani is loving it and I’m enjoying it as well.  In the winter though, we’ll see how well I handle that since my mom has taken to calling me a pansy whenever I’m in the Midwest for Christmas  :)

Well, just wanted to write a quick update for those of you who might be wondering if we arrived safely.  Take care and have a great Monday!!!

What I've learned so far

3 minute read

Tuesday morning we were sent off by our mission sending agency, New Mission Systems International.  We had a breakfast, devotional time lead by our CEO, followed by a laying on of hands and prayers over our upcoming move to Spain (on Saturday!)  

It was a humbling time all the way around, but I wanted to focus on one thing in particular.

When we were sharing our hearts for our future ministry in Spain, a colleague asked a question I wasn’t expecting.  “What have you learned since you’ve been on this journey of missionary work?”  It caught me off guard to be honest, but it was a great question and one I wanted to put a little more thought into when I had a chance.

So, here goes, what I’ve learned so far on this missionary journey…

God is Faithful

First and foremost, God is faithful.  For some reason, I still stress about not having enough money for this or that.  This especially proved true in the middle of our partnership development time.  There were so many times I felt like throwing in the towel, and then we’d get an unexpected new partner or even an anonymous one time gift out of nowhere.  

He has proved Himself faithful and more than able to provide all we need.  Every. Single. Time.  My flesh certainly can still get in the way and cause unnecessary worry, but I don’t have to look back too far to see how He provided what we needed at just the right time.

Be Teachable

Early on in our relationship, I told my mom how one of the traits I admired most about Steffani was her teachability.  I’ve always admired that trait in others and wouldn’t have married her had she not possessed that quality.  Similarly, I’ve always tried to cultivate a teachable spirit myself.  This has proved more difficult in this season than times past.  

I have my own plans of what I think should happen and then I have people who have been in missions work for a lifetime tell me I’ve basically dead wrong.  Afterwards I have two options; choose to listen and be teachable, or do whatever I was going to do in the first place.  

It’s of upmost importance to listen to those who have traveled the path before you. This isn’t to say you never make your own decision, but rather that you seek the counsel of wise advisors before moving forward.

Fight Entitlement

At all costs, with everything you’ve got.  My generation (millenial) has been accused of having an entitlement mindset.  There is certainly truth to this observation, but I would also argue entitlement goes across generational lines.  

Whenever someone says “I deserve _____” that’s a pretty clear indictment that they have some sense of entitlement.  My parents did a great job at instilling in me the idea that we don’t deserve anything.  What they meant by this statement isn’t that working hard isn’t worth it, but rather that everything we have is a gift from God.  

Furthermore it can all be stripped away in the blink of an eye for no obvious reason as it was in the story of Job.  

Prioritize Your Life

People know the right things to say when asked about their priorities, but do our lives reflect what we say are our priorities?  If someone followed you around all day would their observations about your priorities line up with what you claim they are?  Are we investing our time in what we say is most important in our lives?  

Something that has helped me with this is a simple habit tracker app and Google Calendar.  I have daily habits and a tracker to make sure I do them all.  For some reason a row of X’s is deeply satisfying to me.  I have Google Calendar reminders to see if I’m doing things to make Steffani feel special.

There are several other lessons I’ve learned this season, but those are the four main ones.  

What have you learned lately in your current stage of life?

Missions and Slacklining

Now, what does slacklining have to do with missions?  (*Note - if you don't know what slacklining is, watch the videos first. Be forewarned though, they are not for the faint of heart :) )

A whole lot actually.  If I see a slackline video come across my Twitter feed, I almost always watch it; I just can’t help myself.  They’re these crazy videos of people who are absolutely fearless, or so we think.  The truth is, they have simply learned how to live with the fear and conquer it.

Overseas missions is similar.  Our CEO asked me yesterday what I feared the most about moving to Spain in 2 short weeks.  I responded that I don’t really have a lot of fear to speak of; I have concerns of course, but not really fears.  Other people posed this question to me when I went to Myanmar and I said the same thing, but quickly switched after I remembered how my good friend Ryan drove in Myanmar and how it always scared me a bit.

Anyway, fears come and go.  It seems like I have more anxiety than fear these days.  Not a lot to be sure, but enough that it can grab my attention.  I know Jesus will work everything out for our good, but sometimes I take my eyes off Him and onto myself; similar to taking your eyes off the slackline.  If you watch the Go Pro video embedded in particular, you will see what I mean.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus, as the old hymn goes, and the things of Earth will grow strangely dim.  For me that relates primarily to the worries of life.  It’s extremely difficult to do; our worries can surface to the front of our minds in about a nanosecond.  Turning our eyes upon Jesus on the other hand, now that’s a real discipline to cultivate.  Some people practice what’s called contemplative meditation, others connect better with interacting with Scripture by reading and journaling in response to what they read.  Whatever it takes, it’s worth it to center yourself around the teachings of Christ.

That’s what I’m trying to remember in this season of transition.  Everything around me is about to change dramatically, so now more than ever it is vital to center myself on Jesus and His love for me.  The old saying that the only constant in life is change fails at the most basic level.  Jesus is the ultimate constant in our life.  He is there in the midst of our ever-changing lives.

Ethnocentrism

The past four plus weeks my beautiful wife and I have spent in North Carolina at a training for missionaries.  The first four weeks was a class called equipping and we just began a 2 week class for language acquisition.  I wanted to write some ideas I gained from the equipping class to hopefully embed them in my memories before I lose them.

One of the main takeaways I had was the idea of ethnocentrism.  It’s a big fancy word that essentially means when one thinks their ethnicity is better than everyone else’s.  You hear it expressed in sayings such as, “America is the best country this world has ever seen.”  Or, “If other countries were just more like us they would be so much better off.”  

You see ethnocentrism more clearly every time you go overseas, at least in my previous experiences.  The real key is to recognize it in yourself when you’re overseas and take steps to overcome it in your own life before you wreak damage abroad.  It’s a perfectly natural response to being raised in a certain culture and in a certain way.  Of course you think it’s the best, that’s how you were raised.

We had a sort of refrain throughout the four weeks; not right, not wrong, just different.  One of the best things you can do as a missionary is to suspend judgement when you first arrive somewhere.  Realize that other cultures have a completely different way of doing life and that for the most part it’s just different.

One of our facilitators pointed out that ethnocentrism is the dominant viewpoint at our state department.  This leads to a lot of obvious problems; who wants to be viewed paternalistically in diplomatic relations?  If we’re so focused on helping other countries be more like America, is it any wonder many of them hate us?

I served at a Christian youth hostel in Amsterdam back in 2007 for a summer.  I had a wonderful time and remember thinking for the first time America really does some things backward.  However, I feel like I have come full circle to where I can now appreciate some things that America does very well at while also realizing we fall short in many areas too.

The key to overcoming ethnocentrism in my opinion is to learn to value another’s culture.  Be open to the idea that maybe another culture’s way of doing something might even be better than your own.  Look for things in your new culture that you can appreciate as being wildly different but yet can still teach you something.

That’s part of the beauty of the Church as described in the New Testament.  It’s no longer ethnocentric but rather Christ-centric.  There is no longer Jew or Gentile in this Church that Jesus has established.  All are welcome to partake of His body and blood.  In the second coming every nation, tribe and tongue will bow at His knee.  There’s no room for ethnocentrism in this new understanding of God’s people.

Beautiful Wife, Beautiful Life

Everyone knows the cliche ‘Happy Wife, Happy Life’ so I decided to play on that knowledge for this blog.  I’ve only been married for a year and a half so this entry may be way off base.  The longer I’m married the more I realize I truly have such a small amount of experience compared to most others my age.  I didn’t get married until I was 32 and my wife was 30 whereas many of my friends got married in their early to mid 20’s.  What can I say?  I was a late, very resistant bloomer  :)  Thankfully, Steffani was still there when I finally woke up to the fact that marriage is a good thing from God.  Now I just need to realize the same thing about children, but not yet  :)

Anyway, I married a beautiful woman, definitely out of my league.  I like to introduce her as my better two-thirds.  A friend of mine told me that when I introduced her as my better half and I loved it so much I made it my own.  Steffani is an incredible woman, more than I could have hoped for.

She’s beautiful inside and out, which can be a rare combination these days.  Life certainly isn’t easy, but it is beautiful.  The fact that God blessed me with her is one of the primary reasons life is beautiful.  Having someone to share life with is beautiful.  I enjoyed my single days in my 20’s to the fullest possible potential.  But I do have to admit I enjoy being married more.  Those of you who knew me in those single days are probably chuckling as you read that last statement.  

For about a decade I was convinced marriage was the worst possible idea and was the equivalent of having an anchor tied to your feet constantly.  I’m happy to report that rarely do I feel that way now.  Sometimes I miss the freedom associated with singleness but those times are greatly outweighed by the joy I have in marriage.

I don’t believe Steffani ‘completes me’ by the way, for whatever that’s worth.  I think the best marriages are when both people are ‘whole’ persons before the wedding day.  Your spouse will never be your savior.  Jesus alone is Savior, life just goes better when we remember that.

Please don’t be misled here.  Steffani and I have our fair share of squabbles to be sure.  We try to fight fairly but don’t always succeed.  Has anyone else seen their own immaturity come out when they fight with their spouse, or is it just me?  ;)  One of the best lessons I’ve learned so far though is to apologize quickly and don’t wait for the other to apologize first.

We’re at a training for overseas missionaries right now and it’s incredibly valuable and will be a great resource for the field.  There’s so much we wouldn’t have thought about on our own had we not gone through a training like this.  Overseas living is just different and there’s a lot to think about going into it.  

Thank God I waited until I was married before I went into missions full time.  Many people go into missions full time as single people and do great at it.  I don’t think I would have had a good chance at thriving if I went full time as a single person.  It will still be very difficult for sure, but at least I’ll have a beautiful wife by my side.  With her, life is and will continue to be beautiful, no matter how hard it gets.

Deliberate Practice

I’m currently reading a book titled Peak: Secrets From the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool.  It is primarily focused on how experts in any field come to be that way.  What sets the best apart from the rest is a repeated refrain throughout the book.

They hone in on the idea of deliberate practice.  We’ve all been instructed in the importance of practice by teachers and coaches along the way.  The difference lies in the type of practice that an individual engages in.  There is naive practice, purposeful practice and deliberate practice.

Naive practice is the kind of practice most common to us.  Practice makes perfect is simply untrue if it’s of the naive kind.  The example given to best illustrate it is one of a band director.  His pupil scores poorly on a music tests and the director asks the pupil as to why.  He responds by saying he practiced the piece 20 times the previous night so he doesn’t know what went wrong.  Mr. Director then asks the all important question, “How many times did you perform it without mistakes?”  The pupil of course doesn’t know the exact number, maybe one or two.  It is possible to practice a piece or anything else the wrong way and come away worse than if you had not practiced at all.

Purposeful practice is when you practice with a specific goal in mind.  It is not sufficient to say, “I want to get better at writing.”  Rather one should say, “I’d like to improve my ability to engage a reader from the very beginning of my piece.”  This is truly a novel concept for me in regards to writing.  I often encourage my wife to write more because she wants to write a book someday.  I say almost verbatim the idea of naive practice, “You’re only going to get better at writing if you practice writing.”  In one sense it’s true, but it must be purposeful practice.  I need to work at this myself.

Deliberate practice is where you’re almost hyper-focused on a certain aspect of whatever skill you’re trying to learn.  This often requires a coach or teacher who can help you pinpoint where you’re struggling the most.  Feedback is very important for this type of practice.  If you don’t get feedback, how do you expect to improve?  

Feedback was terrifying when I was a teacher in an elementary school.  I can remember not wanting a principal to walk in unannounced and I can remember being very relieved when I was only observed once a year for the first several years.  However, looking back, I would have become a much better teacher had I been observed more and received more frequent feedback.  I should have sought out feedback rather than fear it.  

It also reminds me of a friend I met in Myanmar.  He was teaching me about how to manage employees and was emphatic about the importance of feedback.  It frustrated him to think a lot of people only received yearly reviews.  How is one supposed to know what to improve if they only receive a yearly review?  Obviously it doesn’t have to be in depth feedback and constant reviews, but the frequency should be greater than yearly or even quarterly.

Feedback is necessary in all areas of our lives if we want to improve in any of them.  Otherwise we stagnate in certain areas.  Those discussions are not always fun and can even invite conflict, but they are ideally effective in helping us improve.  I will add that feedback is not effective when it is unsolicited.  No one likes to be lectured and unwanted feedback is rarely if ever effective at getting someone else to change.  I’m more talking about work situations here by the way, parenting is most likely a completely different situation where feedback is necessary whether sought out or not.  I encourage you to seek out feedback in areas of your life where you want to improve, whether that be professionally or relationally.  One of the toughest but best conversations I’ve had with Steffani so far is when I asked her how I could love her better.

Unconditional Respect

I just finished the book titled Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs and wanted to share some thoughts I had about it.  I didn’t agree with the whole book but did like certain aspects of it, including the emphasis on respect for the man in the marriage.  Seems like most marital problems try to be solved by counselors by just focusing on love, love and more love but neglecting the man’s need for respect.

Women need respect too of course but it really seems to fuel a man’s drive to succeed in the workplace and at home.  He talked about the idea of unconditional respect which sounds absurd to our postmodern ears.  People have to earn respect we yell back, but he brings out some good arguments from Scripture.  Just like women would balk at the idea of having to earn love, the same notion applies to having to earn respect.

Even if your man doesn’t do much that you find worthy of respect, if he is a good-willed man there ought to be something you can find that is worthy of respect.  Even if not, it’s commanded in Scripture so we can’t simply excuse ourselves even if we think no one can respect that man.

Same goes for loving a woman.  People might be tempted to say, “No one can love that woman!” but that’s simply not true.  She may drive you crazy to be sure, but if she’s a good-willed woman at her core than we must admit there is something to love about her.  Also, the same goes for the commandment part of it, loving your wife isn’t optional.

He also brought up how many men withhold love hoping it will gain them respect.  Many women withhold respect hoping it will gain them love.  Neither of these strategies work.  Then we get on what the author terms the Crazy Cycle and the man withholds love and the woman withholds respect.  Both should take the initiative rather than saying the other should make the first move.

I read this book more as preventative maintenance.  I read books that interest me and that I hope apply to my life.  I figured since I’m married now this book would apply.  There are some good principles to apply both now and in the future.  Thankfully I feel like I love Steffani well and she respects me well.  It comes naturally as of now.  It may not always be that way so this book will be useful if we ever find ourselves on the Crazy Cycle as described in the book.  I would recommend this book to anyone who is married or engaged.  It didn’t address all parts of marriage but I really don’t think any marriage book would be able to do that.  For the parts that it does address though it has some great thoughts.

Smarter Faster Better

Yesterday, I finished a wonderful book titled Smarter Faster Better by Charles Duhigg.  I’ve written about another of his books that I read earlier in the year titled The Power of Habit.  If I can leverage what I read in this book like I did from the other book I will be much better for it.  As I said in my previous blog I’ve started new healthy habits, largely due to reading The Power of Habit.

Back to the main idea, my reflections on this book.  This book is about productivity in life and business.  There were several universal truths that most anyone can apply in their every day lives.  I want to focus on just a few that really hit me the most.

One is the idea of disfluency.  It’s in the last chapter that talks about how to absorb and use data.  It’s the idea that making data harder to absorb in the beginning actually leads to a deeper understanding later on.  He even mentioned as an example that if you’re reading and find something interesting you should stop what you’re reading and talk about it to someone around you.  Steffani was not thrilled with this statement as I do that frequently to her anyway and it can tend to drive her nuts when it’s about things that she cares nothing about.  Oh well, maybe she’ll find them interesting some day, right?

The idea of disfluency is brilliant if you think about it.  We’re bombarded everyday with truckloads of data that we often don’t know what to do with much less where to start.  They gave the example of using it in a failing school and how it helped turn it around.  I can remember when they introduced using loads of data at my school and how I hated it with a passion.  Perhaps if I had stuck with it though it would have made me a much better teacher.  It’s hard to say at this point; I definitely would have needed to be better guided through how to interpret and apply the data to improve my teaching.  They tried this but it was so new to everyone that all our heads were reeling those first few years.

Another idea he shared in the book is that of an idea broker.  An idea broker basically uses something he’s learned in one area of his life and applies it to a different situation in another area of his life.  For example, Disney’s animation team has their animators draw on their emotional experiences to come up with good story lines.  That’s why a lot of people relate to Disney story lines, because they’re drawn from people’s own emotions, albeit exaggerated for the movies of course.  But if you can get across that raw emotion that people feel about certain subject matters, you’ve gone a long way towards striking a chord and having a decent chance at a blockbuster.

One of my favorite chapters was about SMART goals and stretch goals.  I’d heard of both of these, just in different terms.  The SMART goals was the classic Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and a Timeline.  The stretch goals are designed to help you not fall into the trap of setting goals that are really too easy and give you a false sense of accomplishment when you haven’t really done much.  Another term I’ve heard used are BHAGs; big, hairy audacious goals.  If you have only SMART goals, it’s easy to fall into a rut and only achieve small victories.  If you have a stretch goal though, that really gives you something to shoot for.  They have to be goals that seem almost impossible without actually being impossible.  That’s a tough line to draw but can in fact be drawn if you sit down with some discernment, wisdom and time to think about it.

There were many other chapters that were awesome as well.  Looking back I should have written about each chapter as I was reading through but hindsight is 20/20, right?  I don’t want to write about each and every chapter though because I want to suggest you go get this book.  Thankfully my library had a copy already which is surprising because it just released in March so I was pleasantly surprised to find out they had it.  Even if your library doesn’t have it, I’d still suggest buying it because it’s that good.

Update on Goals and PD

I haven’t written a blog in what seems like forever.  So, for the two people who actually read this thing, I apologize  :)

I wanted to share about two things in my life that are interrelated.  Those two things are my yearly goals and my personal development plan.  Earlier this year I learned about the benefits of having something called a personal development plan.  It basically means what you do to develop yourself in whichever area you want to improve.  The important thing is that you do whatever it is consistently, otherwise your progress in those areas will be minimal at best.

My personal development plan (pd plan) is fairly simple.  I try to spend a half hour doing the following activities: engaging with God, reading professionally and exercising.  When I first started these habits I made it 45 days before I broke my streak.  That’s roughly 44 days longer than I’ve stuck with anything else in my life.  Maybe it’s because I read a couple books on habit or because it’s so simple to remember.  My streak was broken at day 45 but they are well established in spite of that, meaning I typically do at least 2 of those every day.  Exercise is the one that gets neglected most often.

Now, for the update on my annual goals.  I didn’t share these at the beginning of the year as there are conflicting ideas on whether you should share your goals or not; this year I decided not to.  Now that we’re about halfway through the year though, I feel like I can share them and not blow it.  Every year I try and make goals in different areas of my life.  The key is to have 1 or maybe 2 max per area of your life.  The areas I’ve tried to focus on the past few years are spiritual, financial, career, family, intellectual, social and physical.

I’ve listed my goals below and shared how I’m doing on each of them thus far.

1. Debt free by 12/31/16  -  on track
2. Fully funded by 7/1/16 - really close, matter of fact made it to 100% of our monthly but only momentarily.  Regardless, it gives me confidence that God will provide for us in order to go overseas
3. Weigh 200 pounds by 12/31/16  -  not even close on this one
4. 2 dates per month  -  on track; sometimes it’s dinner out, sometimes something as simple as a picnic, other times just going to the beach
5. Babysit for supporters 1-2 times per month - haven’t kept track, certainly tried to earlier on and had a couple of responses to our offers but not as much as we were hoping to.  Won’t be able to for the rest of the summer due to travel and probably not in the fall as we will hopefully and prayerfully be in Spain this fall.
6. Read 1 book per month  -  miles ahead since I started reading a half hour a day, my reading has skyrocketed since I implemented that daily habit.  
1. 21 books so far this year, I’ve started keeping track just so I can remember which books I’ve read over the year.  I’ve been amazed at what a half hour of focus has done for my reading.  I’m a super slow reader too which makes it all the more amazing.  I say this not to brag but simply to attest to what a daily habit can help one accomplish.
2. Best books so far are The Happiness Advantage, The Power of Habit, Better than Before, Mindset, and Infidel.  While all those are great for various reasons, Infidel is by far the most engaging book I’ve read in I don’t know how long, I highly recommend it.
3. I meant to write review of all these books but blogging has been put on the back burner, perhaps because I didn’t make it a yearly goal.
7. Lead 1 person to Christ  -  not yet