14 Things, Revisited

Three years ago, I wrote about how I was going to do a weekly self-evaluation in 14 categories.  This "14 things" list has become an ingrained habit for me and a good way of rising above the trees to see if I'm in the right forest.  Practically, each week's exercise forces me to think about whether I made progress in each of the 14 categories, while even a cursory review of how I'm doing over the course of multiple weeks tells me where I'm skimping and need to recommit. 

Having weekly and monthly goals seems right, but it's also helpful to go bigger.  End-of-year contemplations and New Year's resolutions are part of that.  But, even bigger, I recently took extra time with my "14 things" and asked myself "where would I like to be when I turn 50?"  It's a nice round milestone, and while it is still several years away it is no longer decades away.  (Gulp.)  Pulling the lens back this far is helpful for me in terms of summoning the motivation needed week by week, day by day, to do the small and big things to get me where I want to be in the important things in life.

This is not to say that I have a clear sense of what or where that is.  Life is windy and unpredictable, and too much of a fixation on too specific of a goal can create narrow-mindedness and close you off from surprises and twists and turns.  Ultimately, I am in my Maker's hands, and His path for me is sure, even if it is only lit a little bit in front of me and doesn't always go in one direction.