You're probably saying to yourself right now "Everyone makes New Year's resolutions... why are you any different?" And you're pretty much right. But I don't care. I don't want to call them resolutions because as we all know they won't stick. Most people quit their resolutions after a month or so. Since I don't want that to happen I'm going to call them goals for 2019. So here goes nothing...

The List

1. Read the Bible & Pray daily
2. Finish one book a month
3. Write at least one blog post once a month
4. Stream a live-coding session once a week
5. Create a background once a week
6. Keep in touch with friends weekly

The Specifics

1. Read the Bible & Pray daily

I'm a Christian. This means that I believe God sent His son, Jesus, to earth to live a perfect life and die on a cross to pay for the sins of world. Not only that but that God wants a personal relationship with everyone and all you have to do is accept Jesus' payment to enter into a relationship with him.

This also means that I believe that God inspired a number of men to write the Bible. Which then gets us to the point that The Bible instructs us to meditate on what it says and relate/pray to God.

I have noticed a significant difference in my attitude, outlook, and overall state when I've consistently read the Bible and spent time talking with God. Therefore I'm resolving setting the goal to spend time reading and praying daily.

2. Finish one book a month

I'm not a big fan of reading. I would much prefer watching a TV show or a Laracasts video on the newest technology out there. However, there is much to learn about life, following God, and other topics by reading. I will most likely stick to Christian books, but I may pick up something else occasionally.

3. Write at least one blog post per month

I recently converted my website to Tighten's Jigsaw so I could start writing more blog posts. I've had blogs on and off for the past several years but never kept up with it. I had a few technical posts on Medium but have decided to move those to my site here. I hope to write more often than once a month, but for now it seemed like a good place to start.

4. Stream a live-coding session once a week

I started streaming some coding sessions about a year ago when I took over ForgeRecipes.com. I had, and still have, plans to rebuild it using the latest Laravel version, it's on version 4.x, and stream those sessions. In that time I've done some streams on YouTube and Larastream but moving forward I'm not sure where I want to go. I plan to not only pick back up ForgeRecipes.com rebuilding but also stream some other projects I will be working on.

5. Create a background once a week

I enjoy making phone and desktop backgrounds and have made several in the past. I want to get more consistent with making them so I've put it on my list. I'll be taking requests for designs and resolutions, so feel free to hit me up on Twitter.

6. Keep in touch with friends weekly

I have found that I've gotten somewhat out of touch with some friends in the past year or so and I want to improve those relationships. The Bible says that the only thing we take with us into the next life are the relationships that we've built here, so that makes them pretty important. My goal is primarily to just shoot a text to some friends and see how they are doing and have a short digital conversation.

Conclusion

Well...join me over the next year and we'll see how well I do. I am going to use an app on my iPhone to track my progress called Productive.