¡Vámanos 2018!
Happy new year! I love a good fresh start and while I know many productivity experts say that there's nothing magical about January 1st, I sort feel like there is (although the beginning of a new school year tends to have that same magical feeling for me).
Today I took stock of last year's goals and new year's reflections and to be honest many of them stayed the same for this year. I made small adjustments and added and subtracted a few things but overall I feel like I'm still on the same trajectory, and I feel very okay with that.
Just to share a bit of the details, I love how my Get to Work Book has a page each month for reflecting and goal setting and this year I'd like to actually use those pages more on a monthly basis. On each page there are different boxes... here's a little look at where I'm hopefully heading towards in 2018.
Last year's wins:
- reading (I met my goal and read 66 books!)
- updating the blog (I'm still loving Squarespace and hopefully will write here more this year)
- getting out more consistently (having a dog has helped so much with this, like I hoped it would!)
- finishing my middle-grade manuscript (I even sent out a few queries although I'm not actively working on pursuing that right now)
To let go of:
"Peace" as an idol. This idea is probably a blog post in and of itself but to put it briefly, I don't want to miss out on growth and opportunities just because they might bring some chaos into my life.
I don't need to start overcommitting to everything, but just trying to have a mindset of not always prioritizing my own need for peace above serving others. True peace is found in the gospel, not in everyone getting along perfectly and nothing being hard, which I think I sometimes misconstrue as requirements for "peace."
To think on:
Maybe this is my equivalent of a word or phrase of the year. I'm not sure, but I do know that I'm feeling led to focus on the big picture and the long haul more, and not get lost in details or let the urgent become an "emergency."
This isn't totally related per se, but the verse that came to mind as I worked through this is:
“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. ”
Some things I want to work on this year:
- being reliable and proactive
- balancing creating & consuming
- more prayer
- playing my guitar
- focusing on each child as a whole & nurturing their souls more
- taking time for regular goal assessments
And finally, I do hope to complete my current draft I'm working (YA novel) and I'd also like to read around 50-55 books, which yes, you read correctly is less than I read last year. As I told my Instagram friends in a story today, I find that it's really easy to just (be lazy and) read all the books instead of actually working on mine. So I do actually want to read a bit less than I did last year (but not too much less because reading is hobby #1 in my heart).
So that's a wrap on kicking off 2018. Looking forward to see all that God does this year.
(Photos from our cruise to the Caribbean in December 2017.)