This week on the podcast Beard and I discuss our New Year's Resolutions for 2015.  Yes, we are two weeks into 2015, but we are choosing to be positive.  In this episode we share the goals we will fail at this year (hopefully not), and talk about some things we can do to help live into those New Year's Resolutions.  Join us!

 

Notes from the Podcast:

Finish sermon on my day off – Beard starting the year of working on his day off after preaching on rest – Ouch! But, alas, there is grace.

Helpful civic reminder - Get your car inspected

 

Matt – 2 Days with Rob Bell

-       fascinating conference, Rob has a very interesting and powerful story as he has brought the Truth of God and His Word to hundreds of thousands who wont go to church or hear the message otherwise

-       Rob is an amazing communicator. If you need examples of this see his Nooma videos online. Spending a few days with Rob is a great way to pick up tools and approaches to communicating more effectively, which is very important to my job.

-       The one concern I had for the weekend was that Rob could have included the people in the discussion more. He gathered subject matter experts from a wide array of fields and he spoke the majority of the time. I wonder if the experience could be richer by including those other voices a little more.

-       That being said, kudos to Rob for stepping out and creating this and moving forward.

-       A relaxing few days in a beautiful place focusing on uplifting Truths of Scripture.  Bueno!

 

Parker Palmer books

The Other Guys - Lock You Up in the Federal Reserve!

Use SMART goals to set goals and help track them.

 

Beard’s new years resolutions for 2015

-       Goals: 1) regular reading, 2) regular work-out

-       What are some ways to know you have been faithful in these goals? We want them to be specific enough that we can know if you have achieved/completed them.

-       making it a priority

-       Specific goals:

o   2-3 nights a week of reading, 1 hour at work

o   4 days of exercising

 

Matt’s goals for 2015:

1)   Get married

-       jim gaffigan on marriage/weddings

2)   Wok/life balance

-       if you think you don’t have enough time, you don’t have a time problem, you have a priority problem - (I think this is a Tim Ferris quote, see below)

Work/life balance

our jobs don’t have easy boundaries to them - ministry of interruptions
need to track my time spent on work, especially downtime at home
make sure I am taking time for other things - fun, family, friends, hobbies, working out, etc.
may try and track my hours spent on work and what I’m doing to get an idea of generally where I am spending my time

this is also helpful for allocation of resources - time one of your most limited resources
does this allocation fit with your goals/values
probably need to list out my priorities/values

 

Podcast Forecast:

- next week on the show – our good friend Hannah Terry!!!

- Hannah is doing some fascinating ministry work in Houston and we are excited to have her on the show!

 

Recommendations:

-       Matt: Tim Ferris Blog - www.fourhourworkweek.com

-       Beard: Mile IQ – Smartphone App – tracks where you go, including mileage for work