Monday, January 2, 2012

New Year's Resolutions

New Year's. Fresh starts. Beginnings. Time for contemplating, taking stock. What are our goals? What are we doing with our lives? What qualities do we want to develop? Let's see. I want to be a better mom. Start exercising. Write more. Keep a cleaner house. Make $100,000 this year. (ok, I had to give it a shot. Don't they say that writing your goals down increases the likelihood that you'll meet them? :-) ) It can quickly get overwhelming, and I easily get caught up in the works game and in trying to change myself all on my own. Often we crash and burn. And then we resolve never to make resolutions again.

But I think that evaluating our lives, setting goals and starting over are useful exercises. Even if we fail, it's still better than floating along passively. If we never look at the direction we are heading in, we are destined to end up nowhere. I think the problems with resolutions come when we rely on our own abilities and efforts to improve ourselves and leave God out of the process. Actually, I think God should be steering the whole process to begin with; we should just be along for the ride, going wherever He guides us. Easier said than done, I know.

So, yes, I'm setting some goals, resolutions, whatever you want to call them. But I'll be flexible and hold onto my goals loosely, knowing I may have to adjust frequently. And offer myself grace when I fail frequently as well. And writing this is a first step. One of my resolutions is to get this blog going again. So there. What are my others? Well, I'm setting a few goals each month. For January, I also want to write 5 articles for an online writing site I like, write at least 15 pages on my novel and spend 15 minutes daily meditating on Scripture and filling my mind with good, positive thoughts. Will all of this be by the wayside by March? Stay tuned. We'll both find out.

No comments:

Post a Comment