I have to confess, I don’t really plan my goals, or at least I’m not consciously aware of planning my goals. I had to do that sort of thing at work, and I hated it 😀. That’s not to say that I didn’t have goals.
At a day-to-day level, I might set goals as the mood takes me for leisure activities and learning. A few weeks ago, I decided to adopt a country to virtually visit every day. I pray for the country, but I also enjoy watching a few YouTube videos and using various Google Earth apps, such as Wander to virtually walk around areas. I’m totally enjoying that.
Yesterday, my country was Bosnia and Herzegovina. Back in the 1990s, I heard so many tragic stories, it was a real joy to see places like Sarajevo looking so beautiful and to see its citizens going about their normal affairs.
Back in December 1995, U2 and Pavarotti, under the title Passengers, released Miss Sarajevo. It was a very touching song about a beauty contest in the midst of the Siege of Sarajevo.
I do pray that the various ethnic groups will continue to get on with each other and will become closer. Way back in the early 1920’s we had awful conflicts in Ireland and even up until the 1990s in the North of Ireland. I just hope and pray that I’ll live to see peaceful solutions found in all conflicts around the world. Sometimes it feels like we are making progress, but it takes very little to spark a new conflict.
I have a few similar projects on the go. Another one I plan to do, if I can stick with it, is to focus on two years each week, working backwards from 2025, and forwards from 1900. I listen to songs from these particular years, read news stories, list any personal memories and watch a selection of TV shows or films. I was going to just focus on my own life, but when I got back to the early 20th century, I found songs that were often sung in my home. Maybe by grandparents introduced them. Here are two examples.
Strangely, these feel more part of my world than the songs of 2025, but I am making an effort to familiarize myself with these too. One major goal is to find a few 2025 songs that I like and that will bring back happy memories if I manage to live for another 25 years. Now that’s a challenge 😀!
And, I continue to be interested in content related to my various careers, from mechanical engineering to theology and IT. I spent a good bit of time studying Amazon Web Services over the last view years. I don’t bother doing the certification exams, but I study for them. I have taken lots of exams over the years, but I only do them if I need them. But I do enjoy studying, and now that I’m, hopefully, pretty much retired, I allow myself a bit more freedom 😀.
And then, they are the spiritual goals. Here is a passage that I often reflect on, especially at the beginning of a new year:
Col 3:1-14
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
And of course, I mustn’t forget one of my favourite songs from the summer of 1980, and the verses that inspired it:
Philippians 3:13-14
13….. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Hibernia Gospel 
Thanks for liking my post
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Dear Hibernia
Your posts are immersed in worldly wisdom, this too.
Thanks for liking my post, ‘Introspection’ 🙏
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