Themes - 2012

When it comes to the new year, I like the idea of themes much better than resolutions. Themes give you flexibility as you grow and change throughout the year, plus I find it incredibly difficult to set specific goals that are both attainable and challenging over such a long time span. I'm guessing another hidden contributor would be my susceptibility to guilt mixed with an extreme lack of self discipline that drives me towards avoiding easily measurable goals...

Whatever the case, I've benefited in the past from setting themes to focus on and am going to do it again this year. Areas where I want to grow, skills I want to develop, things that I want to be more true of me one year from now... I've tried to keep them short and succinct (the goals themselves, not necessarily the descriptions) - it's easier to focus on a single word or phrase than a sentence or paragraph. I also tried to limit them to things that I feel are attainable - while building an orphanage and solving world hunger might be noble themes for 2012, discouragement would overtake me and I'd give up by January February 3rd, leaving me another 362 331 days of meandering themelessly. So, without further ado, here are my desired themes for 2012:


1. Moderation

This is a big one for me. I've always been more of a giant-swinging-pendulum type of guy. Health is one area - run a marathon, sit on my butt for six months, P90X, sit another year... Sleep is another example - as few hours as I can functionally get away with (typically five to seven hours) every night for a week or two, then eleven hours to catch up. Hobbies, tv shows, shopping, gummy worms, work, books... I'm officially addicted to binging. This is a good year for things to change. But only a little - this is moderation, after all...


2. Garage Logic

I feel there are three main aspects of being a good engineer - communication, theory, and practice. Communication is pretty easy to work on - we all have plenty of opportunities to brush up on interacting with people. And theory is the whole point of getting an engineering degree. But practice? That's where I'm barely able to tread water. I feel a little like The Little Mermaid when it comes to distinguishing between hardware - rivets, grommets, shims, etc (you want thingamabobs? I've got twenty...) Sure I can tell you how thick that support beam should be. But unless it comes with screws that have either a plus or minus on top, you're on your own when it comes to installing it! So this is a year of trial-by-fire - lots of time on projects while hopefully keeping all of my fingers and maybe even learning a thing or two.


3. Love My Wife

I thought about calling this one husbandry (as in, becoming a better husband), but all I could think of was playing matchmaker with the barnyard animals... Perhaps it could be kind of fun to point out to Ronny the Ram that Shelly the Sheep is digging his chili, but that's not quite worthy of being a yearly theme!

I have a theory that very few people actually plan for negative outcomes - no one really thinks to themselves, 'I really want to stop connecting with the people around me' or 'I want to become an angry, violent person when I grow up'. And yet negative things happen all the time - there are angry, violent people, relationships do end, apathy does set in, and so on. Bad thing happen, and they happen so regularly that it seems to me things left to their own accord must naturally end up going south. This is a bit counter-cultural compared to the finding-the-good-in-everyone belief, but it's a major tenant of my personal worldview, and maybe someday I'll elaborate some more...

Anyway, sometime during the next twelve months, people (ourselves included) will probably stop thinking of my wife and I as newly-weds. We've had a great six seven months so far, and one year from now I'd like to definitively say we are closer to each other than ever before. Given my theory above, it won't just happen on it's own; hence, this year will be spent intentionally getting to know, love, and serve my wife on a deeper and deeper level!


4. Wisdom

I used to think wisdom and intelligence were synonyms - find one in the thesaurus and the other would be the first word listed after it. I can remember as a teenager continuously wanting to do really well in school and one day hearing the story of Solomon. When God offered him a gift of his choosing, he chose wisdom - wisdom rather than riches, wisdom rather than fame, wisdom rather than success. Thinking wisdom meant being first in my class and getting lots of scholarships, I prayed for wisdom too. I'm no king of Israel, but why not give this whole God-answering-prayers thing a shot?!

In the decade or so since then, I've come to see there are vast differences between wisdom and intelligence. It's one thing to be book-smart or even street-smart; it's a different thing entirely being wise. Wisdom deals with the human heart - the issues behind the actions, the inner workings of man, our deepest desires and struggles and fears. Sometimes I think that God used my naive misunderstanding of the word to fool me into praying for the very thing He would later call me to pursue... Regardless, pursuing wisdom has been and continues to be a passion in my life.


5. Flexibility

I am fiercely protective of my time, as was hinted at in a previous post. It will be a long and difficult process of letting go, but this year I want to focus on seeing my time not as my own, but rather as belonging to God - may He do with it as He wills, and may I be faithful and flexible rather than reserved and resentful!

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There you go - moderation, garage logic, loving my wife, wisdom, and flexibility. It's going to be a very busy year...