Your Best Year Ever: A 5-Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals by Michael Hyatt (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2018)

New Year’s Resolutions are designed to fail. And even though the number of people making them is rising, especially among Millennials, they just aren’t really that good at creating lasting life change. We need a better strategy for making and achieving our goals. Your Best Year Ever strives to help you do just that.

I have been following Michael Hyatt for years. I first found his blog and learned a lot about leadership from it. Then I discovered some of his books, like Free To Focus and Living Forward. Those were both great, by the way. And they pair perfectly with Your Best Year Ever.

Between the three of them, you get a high altitude look at your goals and life plan, you get a mid-range perspective, and you get a close up look at how you accomplish the best things you want to accomplish.

I’m only a few chapters in, but so far, there are some excellent tips and tools to help make goal-setting easier, and the changes we want to make more lasting.

I think it’s a must-read. You can find a copy in various formats on Amazon. Grab one and see how it might help your life.

Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Don’t Just Read It … Study The Bible In 2020

How To Gain A Deeper Understanding Of God And His Word

There are three different levels when it comes to reading the Bible, I think, and each has it’s place in our lives. So if Fox News is right, and 2020 is the “Year of the Bible,” then how do we gain the most from it? I think that comes primarily from good study habits.

Study The Bible In 2020

I think that there are three main ways that we should ingest the Bible into our lives, and all three have excellent benefits for us. Some people may break it down a little differently than I do, but I think this is a good, basic overview.

The first way is a simple reading of the Bible. I believe that every verse of Scripture has value for my life, and it’s worthwhile to expose myself to every bit of God’s Word on a regular basis. For many, that can come though a tool like an annual Bible Reading Plan. I use something that helps me read every passage more than once a year, which utilizes ten different sections of the Bible. It’s a bit more ambitious, but I have found it really useful.

The second way to use God’s Word is to study it, not just read it. That’s what this article is about, so more on that in a moment.

The third aspect is Bible memorization. Simply taking God’s Word and committing it to memory so that it can become a part of your mind and your thinking habits. Bible memorization is a discipline that I think we neglect more than we should, and have tried to incorporate it into my daily life for several years now, most recently tackling Psalm 119.

We may accomplish the first, perhaps employ the third occasionally, and completely overlook the second. The result of neglecting Bible study has created a culture of biblical illiteracy, and most of us know far less about God’s Word than we should. But I think that’s reversible, and all it takes are a few key study disciplines incorporated into our lives.

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Coffee Break – 01.13.2020

Your Monday Dose Of Inspiration

Time for a Coffee Break! On this day in history: In 1854, Anthony Faas of Philadelphia, PA, was granted the first U.S. patent for the accordion. He made improvements to the keyboard and enhanced the sound. In 1906, Hugh Gernsback, of the Electro Importing Company, advertised radio receivers for sale for the price of just $7.50 in Scientific American magazine. In 1928, Ernst F. W. Alexanderson gave the first public demonstration of television. And in 1968, Johnny Cash played for inmates at California’s Folsom Prison. This concert and the live recorded album from it launched him back onto the charts and re-defined his career.

Coffee Break

Today Is National Clean Off Your Desk Day!
But if that is undesirable, it’s also National Rubber Ducky Day. That’s much better!

Next Generation Instant Coffee – I generally dislike (abhor) instant coffee. However, I found this review to be interesting. I may have to give these a try, just to see if there’s anything to this idea. Might be good for a Coffee Break…

Travel Smart: 7 Space-Saving Packing Tips For Men – If you travel a lot, then you need to read these tips. I have utilized several of these in my travels, whether for overnighters or longer trips. They really help!

10 Things You Can Do with Pennies – I hate carrying change. But at the same time, every time I see a penny on the ground, I pick it up. After all, they add up eventually. Here are a few ideas of what you can do with them.

It’s Not You. Phones Are Designed To Be Addicting – Smart phone use is increasing, and more and more people seem to have that blue glow reflecting off of their faces more and more of the time. This video explains why.

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One Word 365 – 2020 Edition

Finding One Word To Live By For 2020

New Years Resolutions have never been something I have invested myself into. First, I never really saw much point. And second, when I did try, I usually failed at keeping them pretty quickly. My approach over the years has been more goal oriented, and not resolution oriented. Mostly.

One Word 365

Several years ago, I stumbled across the idea of choosing a single word to live by for the year. This has been a paradigm shift in my thinking in a lot of ways, and for several reasons. Let me give you a glimpse into my thought process.

I usually start thinking about this in October. That’s the time of year that I go to Colorado for a retreat called Wilderness. That’s where I review my Life Plan in detail and examine what God has been dong in my life closely to see how I can take further steps forward in the coming year. That week in the mountains is kind of my “spiritual fiscal” year. It’s a critical time for my spiritual and personal growth.

And that’s when I start asking God for a concept to focus on for the coming year. The past three years, I have used words that were all similar in how they were impacting my life: “present,” “unhurried,” and “balance.” Those all held similar goals and strategies for my life, and I feel like God taught me a lot over those years. (Here’s a list that provides an overview of all the words I have selected since 2011.)

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Memorize Scripture: Psalm 119:173-176

Hiding God’s Word In Our Hearts

This last passage marks the end of Psalm 119, and it continues the thoughts found in the first half. Let’s take a look at it in Psalm 119:173-176:

Psalm 119:173-176

This stanza wraps up the entirety of Psalm 119 with the psalmist’s cry out to God for help. He seems to know intuitively that the help that God offers can be found in the pages of his Word. So he turns there and shares several areas where he is lacking; areas that can only be fulfilled by the Word of God.

As we looked at the first half of this passage, we saw three areas: our need for understanding, our need for deliverance, and our need for a proper attitude of worship.

In the last few verses here, we can see two more areas where we need God help, and we can find that help in Scripture.