New Beginnings?

Alright Phil and future Charlie... Ima be real honest right now. Starting this blog brings back a muriad of memmories of such endeavors when I've been real ambitious about documenting my life and writing out everything I'm experiencing in hopes of some therapuetic release of thoughts and internal strife, or perhaps for the benefit of one day looking through all my posts or old journals and gaining some sort of enjoyment through a retrospective look at my life and trials of the past. At this point I know myself well enought to have figured out two things as fact in regards to blogging, journaling, writing, etc... 1. Writing is definitely therapeutic for me, I enjoy it immensely and it helps me organize my thoughts in a way that gives me a greater confidence for the future. However, I have a tendency of neglecting the things that are in my long term self interest and therefore usually end up failing to follow up on any commitments I make to myself in terms of investing the time to organize my thoughts and life. 2. I really have no interest in re-reading my own self-recorded documentation of the past to this point...

All that being said, I want to try and use this as a tool that isn't aimed at recording the various events of my life, but rather just an organizational device that allows me to hone in and focus on things that I desire and establish as goals. I will write what feels important to write, and I will be honest to myself and with Phil.

A few weeks ago, after spending time with Phil, I was able to come up with a list of goals. It's always difficult for me to just start making lists of anything because my mind has a tendency to wander untamed for hours down various and irrelevant paths that yield little as far as progressive and insightful ideas. Phil suggested with me that it might be easier for me to set some goals for a period in the future that might force me to think only of large over-arching aspirations and then work backwards towards specific and relevant goals to employ in my day-to-day life. I found this approach to be helpful as well as challenging and set out to develop 5 goals for the next year of my life that coincide with several different aspects of my life. They are I. Professional
II. Physical
III. Spiritual
IV. Financial
V. Social/Communal

The 1-Year Goals I've identified for these categories are:
I. Have a new position with Hotsy. Be spending more time in oversight of the company versus being in a day-to-day sales position. I feel this is vital for my long term vitality as I have spent so much of my time in the past year living as I work... Spending day after day putting out fires and only addressing things that are the most problematic in life. I want to be in a position where my concerns are not that of the current day, but rather of the long term sustainability of the company.
II. I want to be ready to run another marathon. I love running. I miss running. I miss being in shape. I miss living a disciplined life. I want to make it my goal to lose some weight, spend time treating my body like a temple, commit myself to a routine that focuses on investing in myself the time and energy to be healthy.
III. Be plugged in with a faith based community. This goal is somewhat abstract. I don't know what I really mean by it, however I want to be surrounded by true believers in the God I know and love. I love the community I'm currently in, however, without the reassurance of like-minded believers I feel as though I'm not standing for anything and ready to fall for everything. It is important to me that I find a group that I am comfortable enough with to worship and acknowledge the many blessings I've recieved and where they truly came from...
IV. I want to invest my money in things that will result in a positive yield, and use them to support things that really matter. The accumulation of wealth has become an endeavor of mine, however I'm worried that it might turn into the mere accumulation of money. I want to be a steward of all the resources I've been given. I want to take what I have and make it grow into a multitude of sustainable resources, however I want to make sure I am using money as an avenue to provide wealth of relationships, of ministries, and of passion. I want to stay grounded in using my money to provide love for as many people possible, not just material items.
V. I want to develop new and deeper relationships. Again, rather vague, but it is something that is extremely important to me. I want to be intentional with people. Weather it be with new friends or with room mates or with a potential girlfriend/spouse. I want to be unsettled with the current state of all my relationships and strive for true community amongst my various social circles.

Taking these goals, and narrowing them down to a 6-Month period, by March 25, 2012, I want the following things to have been accomplished:
I. Have a clear vision of my professional future. I want to have a plan, and a timeline, and a good idea of the steps I need to take to enact said plan in a timely manner to take the next step with Hotsy.
II. I want to be exercising regularly, and paying attention to my diet.
III. I want to be meeting with faith mentors regularly. Identify older people that have advice and experience I respect investing in me and my life.
IV. I want to have a clear budget established in order to know how much I should be spending on a monthly basis, and how much I can afford to invest in other peoples lives and missions.
V. I want to have an idea about the timeline of the house I'm living in, evaluate its current state and the exit strategy for moving out of it while maintaining close relationships.

Getting more specific, by October 25th, I want to have accomplished the following:
I. Discuss with my father my future at Hotsy and establish goals for the future.
II. Develop a plan for regular exercise and healthy habbits.
III. Talk to Dave Applegate about establishing regular meetings.
IV. Monitor spending habbits and determine how to lean out expenses.
V. Determine community goals, and develop healthy habbits around the house. Have some projects and goals lined up to accomplish before winter.

Every Week I want some things to keep in mind. I could call them goals or just monitoring metrics that will help me evaluate my progress. For each category I'm going to try and think of three practical steps that I can shoot for to try and track my progress.
I.
1. Talk with Dad and tell him about my goals.
2. Reflect on how I've done at Hotsy, and try to identify ways my skills can benefit the company in a greater capacity.
3. Create goals for myself from week to week and share with Phil.
II.
1. Determin a reasonable start date for gym
2. Stop smoking habitually.
3. Figure out way to buy groceries and stop eating out so often.
III.
1. Read my bible
2. Pray (talk with God)
3. Find a good audio book to listen to on the road.
IV.
1. Email Dave
2. Gather information on who I'm currently contributing to and Why
3. Talk with Phil about ways to best utilize money.
V.
1. Spend time being thankful for house and room mates
2. Have house meeting planned.
3. Pick weekend to landscape

So that's that. I hope I can follow through with all this, I already feel better about a lot of things.

Phil, please share your thoughts, or post your goals and we can get rolling.