I just finished writing 78 goals for this next year. I like to finish them before my leadership class starts so I can include a copy in each student’s notebook. Some of my goals are repeats from previous years: read ten chapters of my Bible every day, pray with Patty three times a week, go on a date with Patty twice a month, and read 50 pages each week in a good book. Some of my goals are new ministry goals: write and teach 20 lessons on prayer at the Wednesday night service this year, record them on video, and use them to help other churches grow in their devotion to prayer. I am very excited about this one. Another new goal is to write a curriculum and lessons for a “Leadership III” class, teach it next year in the Wednesday service, and then start a regular yearly class. These lessons will be on how to successfully lead a ministry so that God blesses it and people’s lives are impacted by it. And then I have my B-HAG’s, big, hairy, audacious goals, ones that are nearly impossible to accomplish. Ride my bicycle to Fairbanks, Alaska; climb Mt. Adams; regularly practice shooting my bow so that I get to the point where I can pull 70 lbs easily; and start working on a 28 ft “Great Alaskan” fiberglass fishing boat and trailer. I have 15 goals for Jefferson Evangelical Church, where I am pastoring, and I look forward to the challenge of accomplishing them. Some people wonder about the feasibility of managing 78 goals, it is easy if you write them down and read them several times every week. Writing goals and reading them often keeps me thinking like a 30-year-old man instead of a 78-year-old man. I still feel like a 78-year-old man, but thinking like a young man because of my goals goes a long way toward conquering those feelings of tiredness. Why don’t you try writing some goals this year? Even a dozen would be great.