2009: A Look Back

For all of my fellow planners out there, you are probably already knee-deep in your plans for 2010.

Did you take a minute to look back over 2009 and celebrate your victories?

2009 was an interesting year for me.  Much of my "normal" life is still the same as it was at the beginning of the year: my family is doing well, I am still a shift manager with Starbucks, my ministry future is still up in the air!

The "extra" stuff has been the awesome part of the year for me.  For instance,

• God prompted me to take a road trip from Memphis to Dallas for Catalyst One Day in May and I obeyed.  This trip had a huge impact on my view of God and the journey He has laid out for me.
• Alison and I made a decision we were going to take a family trip to Disney World to celebrate our 10th anniversary and wanted to do it over Maddie's birthday.  We also committed that we would not go into debt for this trip and that we would pay cash for it...and we did it!!!
• I spent the summer working as a consultant and helped a local church launch its own coffee shop in our community.  The road trip God prompted me to go on in April introduced me to Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee and their desire to "drink coffee, do good."  Land of a Thousand Hills is the perfect coffee partner for The Common Cup and it was a privilege to introduce these ministries to each other.
• I followed a reading plan that took me through the entire Bible once and the New Testament twice.
• Oh, and in case you didn't know...I completed my first half-marathon!!!  Booyah!!!

There is a common thread woven through all of these accomplishments:

They all started with a decision to move forward and they were all dependent on executing a plan.

I'd have been crazy to jump out of bed one morning and begin to run a half-marathon with no preparation, but after six months of training, I was ready.  The Common Cup didn't come together overnight, but each day a little piece of the checklist was completed until the doors were opened to the public (on time and under budget, I might add).  Reading through the Bible can appear to be a daunting task, but when you follow a sensible plan, you'd be surprised at how easy it is!

In some ways, I feel like 2010 may be the most pivotal year I will experience in my life to date, but before I get overwhelmed with how far I have yet to go, I wanted to stop for a moment and celebrate the victories of 2009.

I'll unpack my personal goals for 2010 over the next few days for you...

Comments

[DPeach]

Congratulations on such a successful year. I know there were struggles too, but it is great to look back and see what the goals were and how God helped you accomplish them.

[Erin (Mommy on the Run)]

Great job Nolan!!

[Nolan]

David, you are exactly correct...struggles have been a huge part of the journey but the victories help encourage me to keep moving forward. Erin, thanks so much for the encouragement...excited about us killing the Germantown half-marathon on March 21!!!