August Update: Progress on My Goals (Or, Not ...)

August is here. Wow … and it’s time for a reboot.

Have I ever told you that I’m better at starting things than I am at finishing them?

This is because of my pioneering nature. I love to be taking new territory all the time. I have 78 million ideas almost every day before breakfast. But occupying the territory I’ve already taken is challenging for me.

That doesn’t excuse me from persevering and finishing things. Perseverance is a character issue. Finishing things is a character issue. It just means I have to ask the Lord for extra help in order to be able to finish things. It also means I have to be aware of my faults in this area and work hard to overcome them.

One of the ways I compensate for all of this is to do lots of reboots.

God anoints the new, so I re-start and re-boot myself all the time. I have to, because I would never finish things unless I allowed myself a reboot.

Some of the ways I reboot myself include:

Making new goals;
Setting new deadlines;
Buying a new tool, like a new planner (I usually go through two planners a year);
Incentivizing the process by setting a small reward for myself if I meet XYZ goal;
Getting help with something to re-start the engine; or
Setting aside one day to accomplish only ONE thing–whatever the thing is that I’ve been putting off and off.

These techniques really help me overcome the fact that I am not a great finisher.

They also help me get back on track when I have wound down to a ~~slow crawl~~ stop on things that matter. 🙂

So August is going to be a reboot month for me.

July was tough. In addition to the normal things that make any month tough, I also have been flying solo for most of July caring for my baby during the day, and some nights.

My husband has been traveling some, and my mother was gone for over half the month. that was on top of everything else and some urgent projects for the ministers we support. And the ministerial support projects we have going on have been very consuming, but worth it.

We also had a live event–the School of the Prophets–in July. I love hosting live events, but they come with their own challenges.

So July was a challenging, wearying, exhausting, tiring month … but a very satisfying one nonetheless. The Lord did SO much.

And now for a new start!

In July, I released a new, FREE mini-course: Church History 101. I also edited 3–count ’em, 3–books for some of the pastors we support, as well as a whole bunch of other stuff.

But in August, here are my specific goals:

Release my Church History 102 FREE mini-course by August 31.
Send articles to 2 publications I frequently write for. Done this morning.
Query a new publication with another article. Done this morning. 🙂
Purchase a project management app and set it up with all our subcontractors and team members, so I can ride herd on all 273,000,000 outstanding tasks that our team needs to perform.
Finish and launch website for an apostle we are supporting.
Finish and launch our Spanish website for our own ministry. It’s SO CLOSE to being done!
Exercise 30 times for at least 15 minutes each.
Teach free webinar on The Anointing of the Sons of Zebulun.
Join forum for a blog mentoring group I’m a part of. I have forgotten to jump on the forum and it’s been months.
Release 5 IGTV videos. (I’m @jamierohrbaugh on Insta if you want to connect over there.)
Release 13 new blog posts on FromHisPresence.com.
Release 3 new blog posts here on OverNotUnder.com.
Attend at least 4 prayer meetings with an intercessory group I’m a part of.
Prepare for FinCon.

Here’s an update on my flight plan for the whole year:

(You can see that I’ve struggled with some of my goals, but that’s okay.)

Work/ministry:

Finish free webinar series teaching through all the power gifts of the Spirit. Done.
Host live School of the Prophets events here in Chattanooga once per quarter throughout 2019. Completed first School of the Prophets on January 19. We skipped 2Q and completed the one for 3Q on July 13.
Turn 10 of our most helpful prayers/lists on FromHisPresence into free printable resources for our email community. Two done–11 Prayers to Pray for a Spouse and How to Break Unholy Soul Ties free printable guide.
Turn 5 of our most helpful prayers/teachings on finances and success into free printable resources for our OverNotUnder email community. Not done yet.
Submit 1 article per month to each of three specific magazines that I already write for. Umm, well, ummm …
Upload all remaining video classes (that I have recorded but not released) to our Gumroad store. Still working on these.
Upload 10 free Bible reading plans to YouVersion. I have 3 done so far.
Mentor 10 blogging business through the Abundance Writers Co-op all year. This group is still in process.
Find 5 new magazine outlets to write for and have one article published in each by December 31, 2019. One done; working on the rest.
Reach and maintain 1,000,000 pageviews per month on FromHisPresence.com by June 30, 2019. We’re at just over 200,000 pageviews per month as of the end of July. Long way to go to get to a million. We definitely need the Lord’s help!
Reach 30,000 pageviews per month on OverNotUnder.com (this blog) by April 30, 2019. I’ve only been posting about once or twice a month here on this blog, so we haven’t gotten near this goal yet. (I’ve been doing tons of financial teaching via Facebook Live, though, if you want to hop over to my Facebook page and watch the videos.)
Preach at least 12 times in addition to hosting our own events. I’ve preached twice this year so far, live, plus about 10 hours of preaching at our Schools of the Prophets.
Watch 3 video tutorials about how to reach more people online per week. I completely forgot about this goal. #Handslap #WillReboot
Finish removing all broken/dead links from FromHisPresence.com. (Almost done.)
Finish editing all audio from September 2018 inner healing retreat. Almost done!
Attend FinCon 2019 (tickets already purchased during pre-sale window).
Send out prayer cloths to the people in our email community that requested them from our recent Healing webinar. Done. I sent hundreds and hundreds of these.

Family:

Do something fun outdoors with my husband and my son at least two Saturdays per month, every month. Ummm … does cleaning the house count? #No
Read at least one book to my son every day. We have been doing GREAT with this.
Cook a healthy dinner for my family and eat it together at the table at least 5 days per week. Um. Well …
Go on one overnight trip with my husband, without children, by December 31, 2019.

Fun & health:

Sew at least one seam on my La Passacaglia quilt every day. Nope.
Finish my botanical La Passacaglia quilt by June 30, 2019. Not done, so I’m altering the due date to June 10, 2020. It’s taking me a lot longer than I anticipated.
Walk/run 350 miles in 2019. Nope.
Complete 3 half-marathons in 2019. Nada, again.
Remain dairy-free when eating at home. I went back on limited dairy about a month ago per doctor’s permission.
Reach goal weight of size 8, which is healthy for my BMI.

Spiritual:

Memorize entire book of Philippians by December 31, 2019. Have not started.
Finish reading the following books of the Bible straight through by December 31, 2019:
- Old Testament: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, ~~Daniel,~~ Zephaniah.
- New Testament: Acts, ~~1 Corinthians,~~ 2 Corinthians, Revelation. I’m almost done with Psalms, Revelation, and a couple more.
- Note: Lest you think I’m some kind of heretic who doesn’t read her Bible, 😉 just know that yes, I have read those books before. But on this particular go-round of reading straight through the Bible, I was supposed to get those books read straight through last year and didn’t. (I read for quality, not speed, and often repeat passages or read sections of books–e.g. Psalm 80-101–but that doesn’t count as straight through for the sake of this particular goal.) 🙂
Get up by 4 AM every morning so I can spend time with the Lord during fourth watch. I fell off the 4 AM train for a long time because my baby barely slept for 18 months (and therefore neither did I). He started sleeping a month ago, and I’ve been getting back on the 4 AM thing recently. Hallelujah!

I’ll continue to update these goals, but God is good and it’s a new beginning!

What are your goals for August? I’d love to hear about them. Please leave a goal or two that you’re most excited about in the comments below!