I’ve been doing some goal setting for 2015. Now all I have to do is implement and stay on track.

… That’s easier said than done because by mid-February I’ll have pretty much forgotten about the goals I set for the year. Even if I do have a fading memory of them, I’ll have no recollection of when I’m to do them.

In my last two blogs, I talked about why we need to set goals in “It’s Time to Look Ahead To Next Year” (read it here). Then in “It’s All About What We Believe” (read it here), I talked about how our limiting beliefs keep us from completing our goals and, in some cases, from even setting them.

When you set goals they have to be realistic, achievable, and clear enough that you know when you’ve accomplished them.

The whole process is helped by having a reason why you want to accomplish the goal (identifying your motivation) and a next step to achieving that goal.

This is important because a goal might look too daunting to reach but if you break it down into the next little step, moving on that goal seems much more doable.

All this looks great on paper, but when you are two weeks into the new year, or three months along, you need more than that.

And that’s why reviewing is so necessary. But reviewing doesn’t just happen on its own.

You really need to figure out how you’re going to keep these goals in front of you, on your radar all year long.

For me, this is a big deal so I put some time into coming up with a way to review my goals so they never get so far from my frontal lobe that they end up just swimming around in the back of my brain somewhere, never to be found again.

I’ve done two things that will help keep my goals front and centre all year: I’ve made a list of my goals and I’ve put them in a reminder application that pops up on my computer screen once a week.

This way I can look at all my goals each week and quickly decide what my next step will be in moving forward with each one.

I’ve set my reminder to show up on Saturdays at 8 am – that’s when I have some available time and it won’t take me too long to review.

I also have a to-do list where I record my next step for each goal. My to-do app “Nozbe” (read about it here) is open every day, so when the next step for a goal is scheduled to be worked on, it will pop up in my app and then I can put it on my agenda for the day.

This is all good in theory. Over the course of this year I’ll see if it works out as well as I’m anticipating it will.

Here’s the thing: Like keeping goals in the front of your mind all year, keeping a daily commitment to God on your mind all year needs some kind of review process. If you’re going to read through the Bible in a year, you need a system to track your progress and a reminder to make sure you don’t forget about staying on top of it. I use the You Version Bible app and it does both for me.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you use to keep you on track with your Bible reading? Leave your comment below.