2020 New Year's Resolutions Scorecard

 

I'm a big New Year's resolutions guy. I like the challenge of self-improvement, I like the hopes for a better year, and I like lists. So since 2018, I've been publishing my resolutions on this blog and then checking in at the end of the year to see which goals I reached, which I abandoned, and which I just plain forgot.

If ever there was a year to throw January's resolutions out the window, it was 2020. But to my surprise and delight, I actually scored better this year than last year! So without further ado, here are my 2020 New Year's Resolutions and a report on how well my reality measured up to my goals:

1. Spend 30 minutes in prayer every morning

It took a while for me to figure out where to incorporate this into my daily routine. For a few months I would walk around the neighborhood early in the morning and pray then. After a while I gave that up and instead started taking a break in the middle of the day for this prayer time. These days I've taken to praying while on my morning run.

The routine has changed as the year has progressed, but the commitment to this resolution held steady. 1 for 1 so far!

Score: 1 out of 13

2. Spend 30 minutes reading the Greek New Testament every morning

One of these days I'm really going to need to make a concerted effort to bone up on my Greek and Hebrew, especially if I want to pursue a PhD. The goal had been to start working on that in 2020 by spending 30 minutes per day reading the Greek New Testament.

I did this for precisely zero days. Cool.

Score: 1 out of 13

3. Spend one hour writing every day

Dorothy Parker is purported to have said, "I hate writing; I love having written." That describes me to a T—I think I'm a pretty good writer, and I love the feeling of accomplishment from writing something, but the actual process is often torturous. My hope had been that, by spending an hour per day writing, I'd develop more of a rhythm.

Alas, lack of time + my natural inclination toward procrastination + my aforementioned dislike for the writing process = my bailing on this resolution by the middle of January. Maybe next year.

Score: 1 out of 13

4. Buy 5 books or fewer in 2020

A longtime goal of mine has been to read every book I own, a goal I take so seriously that I have a handwritten list of all my books and cross them off one by one when I finish them. So this particular resolution was designed to do two things: 1) get me closer to the goal of reading everything I own 2) save me some money over the course of 2020.

And I did it! From January 1-December 31 I bought exactly five books: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, Walden and Other Writings by Henry David Thoreau, At Canaan's Edge by Taylor Branch, The Rap Year Book by Shea Serrano, and A Promised Land by Barack Obama. (FWIW, I also read all of these in 2020, so my to-read list got shorter, not longer.)

Now I just have to resist the urge to spend all my Christmas money at Half Price Books on January 1. After a year of restraint, that may be easier said than done.

Score: 2 out of 13

5. Read at least one classic novel every month

Success! This idea stemmed from something many actors do when choosing what films to sign on to: "one for them [a mainstream film which pays the bills], one for me [an art film that pushes them creatively]." At the end of last year, I realized just how many classic novels I was never required to read in my educational career, and I decided to take it upon myself to remedy that one month at a time. While I won't be as strict in 2021 about reading one classic per month, I do intend to loosely stick to this policy. If you're curious, here are the classics I checked off the list in 2020:

January- The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

February- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

March- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

April- Rabbit, Run by John Updike

May- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

June- Lord of the Flies by William Golding

July- The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

August- The Stranger by Albert Camus

September- Walden and Other Writings by Henry David Thoreau

October- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas and Other Works

November- Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

December- Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Score: 3 out of 13

6. Organize and decorate my office

When I started work at SGBC in June 2019, I changed almost nothing about the office which was now mine—I didn't put anything but my diplomas on the walls, I didn't move any furniture, and I didn't request any renovations or remodeling. Basically I put my books on the bookshelves and got to work. The result was that, one year into my pastorate, my office didn't feel like my office, but rather like a room I was borrowing from the former pastor. So I decided that in 2020 I would make the space my own.

Naturally, two months quarantining at home didn't exactly speed up that process. But a series of foundation repairs in the months that followed did, giving me the excuse to move some furniture around, have the walls repainted, and trade out the wood floors for carpet. I made one corner of the office a reading nook, complete with recliner and record player; another corner became an area just for kids; and the massive hutch that once sat behind my desk was relocated to another part of the building.

It took all year to complete this resolution, but I'm pretty pleased with the results. I wish I had just pictures from January so I could give you a good before-and-after contrast, but nonetheless, here's what the office looks like today:

Score: 4 out of 13

7. Reach out to at least 50 local ministers

Didn't get this one done, and I feel totally justified blaming the pandemic for that. I was taking this resolution very seriously going into the month of March and was on pace to accomplish this goal. Then, well, you know.

Could I have still pulled this off via e-mail, phone, and Zoom? I guess. Am I beating myself up for bailing on this one when the world fell apart? No.

Score: 4 out of 13

8. Write a note every day

Of all the goals I failed to hit, this is probably the one that haunts me the most, because this would have been a really good year to double down on this resolution. People needed some form of contact more than ever in 2020, and a note in the mail was one of the safest and most thoughtful ways to do so. It could have been a tremendous ministry to my congregation if I'd done this.

But this is a scorecard of what happened, not a woulda-coulda-shoulda list. So no points here, and look for this resolution to reappear on my 2021 list.

Score: 4 out of 13

9. Be intentional about social media

The goal here was to start being strategic about how I use social media, both in a professional and personal sense, instead of just posting randomly when I feel like it. Social media is often a sewer, and my hope was that I could use my social media accounts as a way to put out something positive in the world.

Professionally, I'm giving myself credit here. I added a church Instagram page which posts at least twice a week, switched from an invitation-only Facebook Group to the more professional and public option of a Facebook page, and that page has been absolutely crucial to the church's ministry in the pandemic.

Personally, I'm not really doing anything differently than I was this time last year. Lots of pictures and stories about the kids, a few random musings, and occasional thought-provoking articles that I share. Nothing bad, but nothing different from what I was doing before.

So I'll give myself half a point total on this one.

Score: 4.5 out of 13

10. Eat like an adult

Some day a doctor will tell me I have to lay off the fast food and snacks and start eating salads for lunch. Maybe me hearing it from a medical professional will be more effective than me making a New Year's resolution.

Score: 4.5 out of 13

11. Do something nice for Lindsey every day

Look, I could lie to you and say I did this. That would make me look good.

I could rationalize that, as a pretty nice husband, I surely did something nice for Lindsey every day, even if there was no plan to it.

But the goal was to do one intentional, thoughtful thing to make her smile every day. And if I'm being honest, I did not do this on a daily basis. Not thrilled with myself in that regard.

Score: 4.5 out of 13

12. Memorize 368 Bible verses/passages

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have been sick of seeing my daily Bible verse videos by March, much less December. But I needed some way to hold myself accountable to this resolution, and that was the tool I chose. So let Instagram be my proof: I successfully memorized 368 verses in 2020.

Could I recite all 368 without a single mistake right now? Probably not. But the point of the goal was to improve my Scripture memory, and in that respect this one was, overall, a huge success.

Score: 5.5 out of 13

13. Write a book

Sigh. Someday. Or so I keep telling myself.

Score: 5.5 out of 13

So there you have it, 5.5 out of 13, 42%. Given the craziness that was 2020, I feel pretty good about that (especially since last year I only got 23%!)

Tune in tomorrow to see what's on the docket for 2021!