1.I will give at least a 10% tithe in addition to any other giving I will do.
This year there has been a change In our payment method, meaning we now get half our salary in advance and the rest later. As such this has greatly helped with giving as it's much easier to give 10% of a smaller amount.
2. Making Prayer a stronger habit.
I have definitely noticed an increase in my prayer life which has been great and exciting. However this prayer has been quite self centered so the next step is to increase my prayer for other people. One thing I am going to do for this is to put prayer request and thoughts about the ukraine/dnipro/other countries and people. If you would like me to put something up about you then send me a message.
3.Use skype more to chat to people back home/Britain
Again there has been a definitely increase due to my girlfriend back in the UK. Having said that I have also been able to chat to my brother who has just gone to university and my very good friend ollie (who has finally got round to getting skype!)
Again there has been a definitely increase due to my girlfriend back in the UK. Having said that I have also been able to chat to my brother who has just gone to university and my very good friend ollie (who has finally got round to getting skype!)
4. I will improve as an EFL teacher.
I am now well underway of my two IH courses and I can see how the reading I did over the summer has helped me grow. In addition I have already published two posts on my new tefl blog and I have a couple of more thoughts on posts to do. I've also added some new TEFL blogs to my personal reading list. I'll post an article linking some of them soon.
5. I will improve my Russian.
Russian has been a real struggle recently, I've had a couple of incidents which have dented ny confidence recently and I have slacked off studying recently. This is mainly due to the fact that I have reached a point where it's become a lot harder. Still I'm determined to push through. I have thus set aside 30 mins at the start of the day to study.
6. I will write more songs.
[this aim is no longer being pursued]
[this aim is no longer being pursued]
7. Host a weekly meal at my flat.
I have once again started to host meals at my flat with the first of the year happening last week. I hope to do some more soon, I am just weighing up when is best to do them this year, during the week or weekend?
8. Regular and higher quality blogging.
This month I had my third highest amount of page views ever, I set up a second blog and, despite spending a couple of weeks at the start not really blogging, I published 13 posts [there was a period of over a week with no posts!] in addition I redesigned the blog. Came up with some new ideas for series to do, improved the format of my blog posts and have updated the recommend on facebook button and follow on twitter button [why not try them out on the left!]
9. I will get involved with some form of charitable work in the Ukraine.
I'm afraid that this goal has been on hold whilst I look at whether I can go back to the orphanage or not. If I can't then I'll have to look at doing something else.
10. I will make a Public video each month.
No video as of yet. I had a few difficulties with having no USB cable to connect the camera...then I discovered that I could use another one! As such the new challenge video should be coming out very soon.
No video as of yet. I had a few difficulties with having no USB cable to connect the camera...then I discovered that I could use another one! As such the new challenge video should be coming out very soon.
So that's this month!
Overall some pretty good progress but still some areas to improve upon and keep up the effort in. If you have any suggestions for how I can keep my aims please write them.
