Tag: Jon Acuff

I resolute to not resolute…oh wait, that’s a resolution

Last week I talked about Don Miller’s tips for resolutions and his four reasons why they don’t work. This week I then read a blog by Jon Acuff about what he is doing instead of resolutions this year. To be quite honest, I love his idea and I am totally stealing it for myself.

I recommend you read his blog, but I will sum up his points extremely fast. He says that a year long resolution doesn’t work for him so he is breaking down the year into 7 periods of 52 days and for each period he is going to focus on each area of life (Spiritual, Financial, Physical, Social, Mental, Career, Family) and do the following:

1. Pick a goal or two in each of the 7 areas of life. (E.G. Physical = Working out 4 days a week.)

2. Crush said goals for 52 days.

3. Drop the ones I hate at the end of the 52 days, keep the ones I love and then work on a brand new set for 52 days.

Here are my goals for the first 52 days of this year:

Spiritual

Read my chronological Bible 6 days a week

Study the first 33 chapters of Isaiah using John Calvin’s commentary on Isaiah.

Financial

Eat lunch at home at least 3 out of 5 week days

Physical

Lift weights at least 3 days a week

Run at least 3.1 miles at least 3 days a week

Social

Call a friend at least once a week

Mental

Read 2 fiction books

Career

Study Moodle twice a week

Study German twice a week

Family

Cook one meal a week for mom and step-dad

Spend time with brother and sister-in-law once a week

I’m going to keep track of the 52 days and my goals by using index cards and posting them on my mirror in my bathroom. I invite you to join me and Jon by setting your first set of goals for the 52 days ending (Feb 23).

What are your resolutions/goals for the year or 52 days. I would love to hear them so I can steal them for myself!

I wrote a blog about reading a blog about how I should write

I subscribe to Jon Acuff’s blog (If you are not familiar with Jon Acuff’s work, he has written several books, one of which is “Stuff Christians Like” and I highly recommend it) and every time he writes a new blog I see it on my homepage. About two months ago I saw a post by him that I told myself I should read, partially so I could do a better job at writing this blog. It was about finding your writing voice.

I have read a bunch of blogs and most of them seem so much more well-developed than mine. They are funnier, more thoughtful, more insightful and many other things too. I have been told that I don’t write like I am. When I talk I try to add humor to most conversations. When I write, I’m just not funny. Not at all and that bothers me. That’s where Jon’s blog comes in. I was hoping for some amazing insight, technique or steps to writing better blogs. I didn’t get that, but what I did get was just as good. He said that in order to find my voice I need to write more. Duh! Of course, it’s so simple and yet why was I thinking it needed to be complicated? How do you get better at anything? You do it more. Plain and simple. What a cool blog to actually read right after deciding to write every day for the month of June. If you all bear with me, I will be finding my voice this month while trying to provide some interesting information for you this month.

Jon didn’t stop there though, he said to find your voice in anything you just have to do it more and that made me think about how I have noticed that I don’t speak like other missionaries do. I listen to other missionaries and people in ministry and I am amazed at how they look at life in general. They impress me and I want to get to that point. I want my heart to be geared towards God in such a way that my words never fail to lift Him up. Thanks to Jon I now realize that it is going to take practice and time for me to get there.