Goals, resolutions, aspirations whatever you want to call them I’ve never been good at them, at least going into a new year. I think I like the idea of goals but I’ve always kept them to myself and haven’t really set out to achieve them. I want this year to be different. It’s now the beginning of February and January didn’t produce as much progress toward my goals as I would have wished. I’m going to post my goals so I can’t push them to the side, at least not with others knowing. Below are 5 of my biggest goals for 2021 with some explanation behind each of them.
- Complete a Half Ironman. This was a goal set back in the beginning of 2020 that developed on my 2019 fall road trip. Due to COVID-19 the race was postponed/cancelled for 2020 so I decided to defer to the 2021 race which is set for April 11th, 2021. A Half Ironman is a triathlon that consists of a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and a 13.1 mile (half marathon) run. Before training I had no experience with swimming, cycling or triathlons in general. I’m super excited for the day this race becomes reality for me.
- Start a blog. This goal has obviously come to fruition if you’re reading this. Starting a blog has kind of been a desire/idea in the back of my head for a year or two but have never acted on it. I really like the idea of having parts of my life documented in my own words to be able to look back on it in the future, kind of like journaling but in a more formal and public way. I’m not exactly sure what’s to come from this blog but I’m excited for it!
- Read 12 books. I’ve always wanted to be a reader, but never really have been. I remember reading a book cover to cover in 3rd grade and thought it was so cool. I also went through a book when I was in the 5th or 6th grade and I remember I was so into it I brought it to dinner at Texas Roadhouse with my family because I couldn’t get enough of it. Since these 2 instances there haven’t been that many books I’ve read in my life. I get the point of reading for learning purposes and it’s a form of entertainment that’s more beneficial than something through a screen. I hope that I’m able to cultivate a passion for reading throughout this year.
- Read 24 books of the Bible. This definitely is a personal goal related to my faith. I’ve wanted to grow in my faith much more than I have the past year or two. I think a big reason I haven’t grown as much is because I’m not in the word as much as I would like to be. There’s so much I don’t know regarding faith and scripture so I’m excited to dive in and see how the Lord uses it to grow me in my faith.
- Minimum Social Media. This is a goal that is really hard to measure and is very subjective. At the time of writing this I just finished having almost no social media for the month of January. This decision kind of kick started this goal, but when I downloaded Tik Tok again, the first time back on it I was scrolling for an hour straight without realizing it. This just shows how addictive social media can be. The motivation behind this is that there’s just so much more to life than what you see through a screen. I want to continue learning how to be present with the people in my life. Also less social media means more time to work toward the goals listed above!
Asher Stuart 