Goals for 2018

I'm not a big goals guy.  In fact I used to get into big arguments about goal setting as a waste of time when I was younger with one of my first bosses (who is a great guy, his opinion was just different then mine).  In life up to now I usually had maybe a vague inkling of where my life was currently headed and where I kind of wanted it to go.  I NEVER used to sit down and map it all out like many people (probably many people more successful then myself).  My uncle had a great saying, "You only have one oar in the water anyway."  I pretty much felt that God was guiding my life, and I still do.  When in my 30ies I did try goal setting, it always ended with my goals being hallow and never achieved.

Well, let's speed things up to life in my mid 40ies.  Married, just adopted a son, and somewhat 10+ year stable job...things are kinda, well set.  And that is IMHO BAD.  In the past when things seem set is when things get gnarly.  Also when I was younger my life was a swirl of possibilities, many presenting themselves when I needed them and they always seeming available.  I used to talk about work as "Ships sail on many seas."  I never wanted to get too attached to a job or a place, but be flexible so I could move with opportunities and circumstance. 

But as I said things are a little less fluid now.  I am feeling a bit stagnant, so I'm going to do what I swore off before, set a few goals for myself.  Why I'm posting them on a public blog I do not know, but here goes.  Due to past failures setting goals, my goals we be more guidelines of where to put effort and concentration, rather than specific milestones.

1. Get my son caught up or even advanced beyond his age level.  He is coming from an orphanage and is behind, plus he has a whole new language to learn.  This has to be priority one for me, or at least priority two (God should always be priority one, but let's not pretend that He is often even though He absolutely should be).  Without getting into that all my desires and whatever plans or distractions I have I must put him first.
2. Drop down to my next weight level.  With a whole year I should have more than enough time to lose all the weight I need to, but I won't.  I've dropped 45 and then gained about 20 of that back, and seem to be stabilizing there.  I'm down a pant and a shirt size, I'd like to drop one more of each and hold my gains for the year.  More would be great, but if I can do this I will consider things a success.
3. Go to church.  Not just to check off a box, but to become an active member of a body of believers.  This is hard for me.  As to why is a whole other post.  
4. Clean up my perverted mind.  It just hit me hard the other day that my thought life is almost unregenerate.  I hadn't been paying attention too much and oh my gosh is it getting bad.  On the outside I'm a nice moral guy but on the inside I'm something else.  I need (and I can't really do it, I need to constantly be petitioning God to do it) clean up my mind and make it Holy and not a dumpster.  
5. Work on my marriage.  My wife and I are partners, but the whole romance thing is kind of gone by the way side.  We need to bring that back, so that needs to be a priority as well.
6. Start generating other revenue streams with the idea of retiring from corporate work long before I'm 65.  Or at least be able to ride out a storm easier if there is a job loss. Also part of this is to do some creative things that are probably harder than I think they are but still within my capability to do...before my mind gets too hardened with age.  It already is to a degree, I can feel it.
7. Be better about time management.

I think those are some good "goals" or points to be "intentional" about.