I’ve been doing it for the past 4 years faithfully now. When I began doing it, the process was clunky, unnatural, painstaking. It took me far greater time to figure out how I would do it, than the time to actually begin doing it. Some years it goes smoothly and quickly while other years it still takes considerable time. But the truth is, writing my goals down has made me much more effective at reaching and accomplishing the goals that are really valuable to me.

Let me be clear, these are not New Year’s resolutions. As Michael Hyatt says, “…while New Year’s resolutions don’t work, goals do.” The process I go through at the end of each year is not making resolutions, it is setting goals. These are pursuits I want to accomplish or see improved in my life, not just things to check off a list. For instance, one goal I had last year was to “Take my wife on a date at least once a month in 2019”. I was thinking actual, real, well-thought-out dates, not just an hour without the kids in our living room (although those types of dates are needed as well). The amazing news is, we actually did it. We can go back and look at our calendars and see the date, times, and locations of all 12 of our dates (well 11, our final one is coming up tomorrow…). I am convinced this never would have happened, or been far less likely to happen if I had not written the goal down and reviewed those goals.

Writing my goals down every year has changed the effectiveness at which I accomplish my goals. I am still far from perfect at accomplishing every goal I write down, but I am far more successful at reaching them each year now that I am writing them down. If you want to reach some new goals in 2020, or you would like to make more than a New Years’ resolution that will be forgotten by springtime, check out Michael Hyatt’s “5 Reasons Why You Should Commit Your Goals to Writing.”

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas as well as New Year. As always be with the Lord’s people on the Lord’s day. Enjoy the article and I’d love to hear what some of your goals are for 2020.

Photo by Content Pixie on Unsplash