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Each year, as I start one year and end another, I like to take some time to look back over goals for the previous year, to reflect, and to recalibrate. In recent years, I’ve been able to track some of these goals more frequently and diligently by using a Passion Planner to as a tool to keep me on track. I’ve also been able to encourage my teammates at Nuru International to do the same.

Many of my goals could also fall into the category of habit maintenance as much as they are goals. I feel like they have evolved over the years from aspirational hopes to habits that I wish to maintain moving forward. And, as I write this, I find myself thinking about the many habits that I don’t write down in a goal format because they have just become a part of who I am.

Here’s a look at a few of those habits and goals and how I fared.

Spend time outside. For about five years now,  I’ve made it a personal goal to get outside for at least 30 minutes a day. In reality, this isn’t a lot of time, but I’ve noticed that just by spending a brief period outside I feel more grounded, more grateful, and more focused for the day ahead.

Exercise daily. This habit has taken man forms, and since 2017 I’ve had an added dimension of accountability through the acquisition of an Apple Watch. Each day, I seek to at least close my “move” ring as that indicates that I’m at least doing something active. Most days I’ve been able to get in some time walking, running, stretching, or doing a variety of bodyweight exercises. The end result is that I feel healthier than I did ten years ago.

Simplify and de-clutter. Minimalism seems to be trending these days, but Jamie and I have made it an annual tradition to habitually downsize our material possessions. From clothes and books to furniture and appliances, we make our way through our belongings each year asking questions like, “Am I going to wear this again? Will this bring someone else joy? Is this being actively used?” By asking questions like these, we have been able to say goodbye to bags of clothing and vehicles full of objects that have served their purpose well in our home, but we feel that it is time to share them and make them available to others. We usually donate items to a local thrift store in Morgantown called the Ranch Community Store.

Run the Marine Corps Marathon. Since 2013, each year we run the Marine Corps Marathon with a group of runners from around the country in support of Nuru International. This year we were able to do so with Jamie’s dad too!

Lower Our Footprint. Each year we strive to take steps to lower our footprint, and over the last few years, we have made significant investments into ways we might do so. Of course there are little things like adjusting thermostats and switching to LED lighting, but we also invested in replacing our furnace and air conditioner. When the guy from Grogg’s Heating And Air Conditioning came to the house a couple of years ago, he said my 47 year old furnace had a 40% efficiency when it was new, and my 29 year old air conditioner had a 7 SEER rating when it was new. Our replacement heat pump/furnace has a 96% efficiency and a 15 SEER rating. We have seen steady improvements in heating and cooling AND our utility bills since the switch.

Detach from devices. A few years ago, I started the habit of sleeping with my phone in a separate room to charge, and it has helped me get more restful sleep and deepen my focus. I also started practicing the discipline of not picking up my phone (or at least not looking at email, etc.) for an hour or two in the morning after I awake. This combination has also helped me to break the habit of routinely looking at my phone throughout the day when I have a free moment. The habit is still not fully broken, but I’m slowly transitioning to make sure my use of devices is actually adding value to my day, and not leaving me perpetually distracted. With a two-year-old daughter, I have a whole new reason to reduce my distractedness.

Home Improvement. This is partially tied to simplifying and lowering our footprint, but thanks to some strong support from Jamie’s mom and dad, we made some great strides in home improvement. While I was away on a trip last summer, they came up and painted our house. In addition, they helped me hang a new screen door on our house, and I was able to get our deck cleaned and sealed. Thanks to Jamie’s parent’s positive experience with replacement window installation, I also reached out to Window World to get energy efficient replacement windows for our house.

Blog Consistently. In 2018, I hardly posted any blogs, but I have aspirations to change that in 2019. This post is one more step in that direction. I’m hoping to re-establish this habit in 2019.

Practice sabbath, solitude, silence, and meditation. At one time, these disciplines were a steady part of my weekly rhythm, but in recent years I have struggled to maintain them. While I did not develop a robust practice of sabbath during 2018, I was able to inject a rhythm of silence and meditation into my mornings, at least during the days we were home.

Pursue a blue belt in Gracie Jiu Jitsu with my family.  This one has been an aspiration since Sylvia was born. Through Gracie University I had hoped to get our whole family practicing jiu jitsu when we were home, but in 2018 it just didn’t happen. I have hopes for the future, but rather than re-commit to this goal, I think I’m going to focus on other forms of fitness for the time being.

While I didn’t “nail” every goal or cultivate every habit I had in mind at the start of 2018, and at various points during the year I felt like I was spinning my wheels and getting nowhere, looking back over the year I feel proud of the progress I made in the areas listed above, and areas not listed as well. I’m hopeful that 2019 will be a year of continued progress, forward movement, and learning. May it be the same for you as well!

It’s been a while since I posted on this blog, but today is just too important to not post. A generous West Virginian has committed $15,000 to match every donation that Nuru International receives today in honor of #GivingTuesday.

Over the last nine years, our entire team at Nuru has been hard at work developing leaders who have the passion, the drive, and the commitment to making extreme poverty history in their homes and their communities. One of those leaders is the gentleman next to Jake in the photo above, Josephat Marawa. Josephat was one of the first farmers Jake met when we launched Nuru in Kenya in 2008. Josephat was struggling to grow enough food to help his family address hunger and just like any parent, he was longing for his children to have a better future.

I can remember multiple occasions where I had the privilege of being with Josephat in the field and meeting with other farmer households. He is an incredibly soft-spoken and thoughtful individual, and in the years since he first started farming with Nuru, he has grown in both his ability to provide for his family and his ability to serve his community. He is now a field manager for Nuru Kenya’s Agriculture Program, and is helping about 500 farmers to improve their livelihoods and to chart a better future for their families.

Josephat is one of many leaders that Nuru International has poured into. And you might wonder, why invest in developing leaders? Why not just provide something to meet immediate needs? Well, the answer is simple. As a result of investing in leaders like Josephat, Nuru’s Western staff were able to leave Kenya in 2015 and watch from afar as local staff continued to adapt and expand programs to serve their communities. They are helping other leaders grow and expand their reach, and the impact will continue for many years to come!

And it’s not just happening in Kenya. In Ethiopia, there are leaders like Tekalign Teferi and Temesgen Berihun, who are training up Nuru Ethiopia staff on the importance of servant leadership, of putting others first, and of helping to build the capacity of those around you. And in the near future, Western staff will be leaving Ethiopia and watching locals continue to serve new communities. And they will do it even better!

And today, you have an opportunity to invest in these leaders with double the impact. As I mentioned before, a generous West Virginian has committed to match every donation received today, up to $15,000. That means if you give $250, it becomes $500. If you give $50 it becomes $100. If you give $500, it becomes $1,000. None of this work would be possible if it weren’t for the generosity of friends like you. Will you give toward maximizing this match and helping Nuru serve even more communities in the future? Thanks for all you have done and continue to do to help more and more families lift themselves out of extreme poverty for good!

A few weeks ago, I received a message and saw an image on social media that announced the departure of Jack “Flying Duck” Nealefrom this world to the next. My mind went immediately to his family, and praying for their loss. Travel prevented me from attending his funeral, and my pace of life has prevented me from writing about this loss to the world until now. What follows are some of my memories of Flying Duck and times with him.

Most who knew him, knew him as Jack, but I only really ever called him by his Shawnee name, Flying Duck. Flying Duck was 89 years young, and had lived an incredibly full life. He was among the people responsible for the construction of the 470 by-pass near Wheeling, West Virginia, and had served in the United States Navy along with his brother. He spent the majority of his life living in the family home that had been occupied for generations near the Ohio River. I had the privilege of visiting him a few times over the last 20 years in that family home. He and his brother were great storytellers, and Flying Duck had some pretty amazing stories he had amassed through a lifetime of experiences within our tribal community and the native community at large.

Each time I visited, we would sit in the dining room and share stories about what was happening in our lives. He would, without fail, gesture to the dining room table, which was his grandmother’s and had been kept in the family for generations. He would say, “Billy, there have been some pretty amazing Christians who have sat at this table for generations. Everyone from my grandmother, to my mother, to my brother Raincrow, and guests from all over the world. Including Dr. Alexander Reed, a missionary to Africa. And now, Billy, you are continuing that tradition.” I always considered it a privilege to sit in his dining room and catch up, and talk about life, tradition, and faith.

Flying Duck was also a silversmith. In fact, he and his son Barry, were among the few remaining silversmiths in our tribal community. For generations, Shawnee people have worked with silver. And back in 2010, I visited Flying Duck with my best friend in the whole world Willie to ask for his help in creating an engagement ring for my future wife. I showed him a few photos of us on my phone, and shared stories around how we met. He listened, and told me he felt honored that I would ask him, but that he was not able to do smithing with that level of detail anymore. While I was disappointed that he would not be able to help with the ring, I was grateful for being able to sit and share stories together one more time.

Back in 2013, one of his grand-daughters, April, was getting married, and Jamie and I were invited to attend. Sadly for me, this was the last time I was able to spend time with Flying Duck. At the same time, I was grateful to be with him and his family to celebrate a special day, and I was grateful to be able to finally introduce him to the wonderful lady who I asked to marry me a few years prior. As per our tradition, we shared stories and laughter during this window of time we were given.

Long before any of these moments, there was a moment when I was much younger that I remember sitting and listening at the doorstep of our tribal council house as Flying Duck and some others discussed their shared faith, our historic traditions, and navigating life in a fast-changing world. Flying Duck saw me sitting on the stoop, and invited me into the conversation. He invited me to share perspectives, but really all I wanted to do was listen—and so listen I did. The moment was pretty magical for me; I was sitting and listening to the wisdom of elders that had been passed along for generations. Flying Duck and a handful of others gave me such incredible gifts during that time, gifts that helped me grow in my faith as well as in my own sharing of stories.

Because of Jack Neale, there are many in this world whose lives have been altered. I am just one of them. Now that he has departed this world, may those who knew him savor the good times they were able to spend with him, and may each of us savor the time we have with those who are close to us.

During spring 2016, I spent several weeks reading through a three-part biography of Teddy Roosevelt, and it led me want to dive into his writings even more. Among the books read was a series of essays and addresses called The Strenuous Life. The book was published before Roosevelt became President, and includes some biographical sketches of hardships he was able to overcome in his youth, and why hard work and effort are important to the development of individuals.

His opening remarks in the opening speech set the tone for the entire book.

“I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.”

Roosevelt’s speeches during this period, and seemingly throughout the rest of his life, centered on the importance of hard work and effort. He reminds us that our best self is not forged in the success of the endeavor, but in the hard work put in to achieve a goal, whether or not the goal is realized. In word and in deed, he exhorts us as a later generation to develop the virtues that lead to good citizenship, good neighborliness, and good character, and then to live them out. In fact, Roosevelt said, “the chief factor in any man’s success or failure must be his own character.”

As the United States approaches nearly a quarter millennium existence as a republic, I find myself stirred, spurred, and encouraged by Roosevelt’s speeches. His words remind me of my own need to put in effort daily in activities that will make me more fit emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually. If you enjoy reading the words of leaders of America’s past, I highly recommend the thoughtful reading of this brief book of TR’s speeches.