Have you been successful with New Year’s Resolutions?
Me neither.
In the past, I’d make lofty goals without any roadmap of how to get there. Within the first 90 days my resolutions would fall off the edge of the earth and I’d be back where I started.
Some years have been so tough that I was thankful to survive the year and glad to see it in the rearview mirror. Like 2016. THAT was a tough year for me. From January to December it was a battle. Some days I didn’t know how I’d survive. It kicked me down all the way into the end of 2017. When 2018 began I knew I needed to do something different. Rather than merely surviving the year, I needed to proactively overcome the year. I needed a shift in my thinking.
Here are 3 things I did to be more proactive in my year:
Reflect back on the year. If you journal, look back at your journal and think about all the highs and lows. Take a moment to breathe in gratitude for the highs and lows. The highs are more pleasant to think about, obviously, but the lows do something in our character that the highs can’t ever touch. What happened in you after the lows? What part of God was revealed during that time? How did you grow through it?
Think outside the box. It seems that resolutions revolve around physical health. While that’s a good goal, I think it sells us short to looking at the bigger picture of our lives. For me, I wrote down different categories of potential areas I wanted to grow in:
Spiritual
Relational
Physical
Professional
Financial
Personal
I spent several days thinking and praying about each area and wrote down specific things I wanted to see improvement or growth in myself. Some categories had a few items, some categories had nothing. It was merely a guideline for me to create a starting line for my year. The biggest one for me in 2018 was to do one self-care thing a month. I wrote about that HERE if you want to read about my journey.
Give yourself grace. I say this a lot, but it rings true. We, as women, are far harder on ourselves than our friends around us. We can be our own worst enemy and set impossible standards for ourselves. Give yourself the benefit of the doubt and press into what you have grace for.
In fact, giving grace to myself is one of my goals this year. As we step into the new year I’m looking down a long list of life-events for my family; my daughter getting married, a son graduating and going to college, and another son moving out. I want to be fully present for all these things and I need to give myself grace to be able to navigate through it all successfully.
What are some things you’re aiming to grow in 2019? How will you position yourself to be proactive in your goals? I believe in you. Be brave and strong as you take on the new year like the courageous woman I know you can be.