To the future, to the past

One true thing I have learnt in life: to catch up on a backlog, first get no further behind. Following this advice, I have uploaded our York trip photos. Extending back to July last year, we still have photos from Tuscany, Paris, Bristol and Bath to upload. I will be working on these gradually, but plan to first keep up with any new trips. Perhaps we could decide not to go away until I was up to date, but with the next two trips in two and five weeks, that's not going to happen. Anyway, enjoy York!

At church this morning we had a sermon about finding the heart of success. The speaker asked an interesting question, “Did you have a successful year in 2003?” He went on to discuss what this might mean, how we define as success in our lives, and what God might have to say about that. It was good thought food. I made no New Year resolutions this year, after the single one I'd made for last year was a complete write-off. (It was about exercise...) I do have some hopes for this year, which probably speak to the issue about what might make a successful year in my book. It's all about finishing things for me. I'd love to end the year with no loose ends, no outstanding projects, no overdue books from the library of life. Whether this is what God would want for me, I'm not so sure. It certainly would make me more available to move in new directions however. I'll be giving this some more thought.

In that vein, two months ago I wrote my first three-month plan. This came out of quite a bit of thinking, and then a discussion at our church home group that finally goaded me into action. When I was a research student we had to submit six-month plans of what we would achieve, at the same time evaluating the previous period. I found this a useful discipline, and it helped highlight the progress that was being made as much as keep me on track. In November I did the same kind of thing, looking at many spheres of my life though. I plan to review it in February. Immediately however it showed me something: the number of things I thought I could achieve in three months was ridiculous. No wonder I always feel like I'm behind and not doing everything I wanted to. I hope at the least this exercise will help me to scale down my expectations to be more appropriate. I'll let you know in four weeks time.