i write my new goals for the year on my birthday, and because that is just a few days over 2 months away I need to start thinking about what those goals will be now. In writing my goals each year I have some guiding principles that I have collected over the years, and one of my favorites is this one, “if you are going to set a goal to do something you have never done before,  you will have to do some things you have never done before”. Seems like an obvious conclusion, but it is often fogotten. The basic fact of life is that most people don’t want to do things that they have never done before, it is to threatening  to their security. In order to get over that natural anchor in our life we need to proactively attack it.  So one of my mission statements is to “do something every year that I have never done, learn something that I have never learned, and to go someplace I have never been before”. The result of that mission statement is skydiving, a motorcycle trip around the US that hit all 48 states, a bicycle trip to Fairbanks, Alaska, a bicycle trip across the USA twice, and in the summer of 2018 a bicycle trip that hits all  lower 48 states. I have learned the skills  of bee keeping aquaponics, welding, painting a car, rebuilding an engine, and making soap. Learning new things and new skills keeps you energized and full of passion and fire. I am thinking about signing up for a class in calculus at Linn Benton Community College. Doesn’t have much to do with being a pastor but it sure would work my brain!