In my mind, New Years is one of the best times of year! Yes, the gyms get flooded with people that will be gone in one to two months. Sure a huge percentage of resolutions that are made that soon fall by the wayside unkept. But as a born optimist, I can't help but to see past the bloated commercialized version of New Years, and picture a new year that is strong, young and full of potential!
As soon as Christmas ends, my mind floods with excitement about all of the new goals that I can make! Keep the house cleaner, take better care of my body, vow to stop hanging onto clothing that isn't my style just for the sake of having a full closet, spend my time more wisely, love more, pray more-the list goes on. And I know they tell you not to set too many goals at once, but it almost feels as if the longer my list gets, the more excited I become. It's a cycle. A vicious one, or an uplifting one, I can't be sure. But none the less, as a twenty one year old woman in the year twenty-fifteen, I am going to dive headfirst into this year with expectation galore. So here are some of my very real, and not at all too big goals:
1. Write More
I don't claim any impressive ability. But I do believe that God gave me a passion for writing. The great thing about that is the more I exercise my writing muscles, the better I should get! I can't tell you how many ideas I have written down only to not pursue them at all. Oh, they're still bouncing around in there, but either time or fear has been getting in the way. So from this point on, I am going to make a better effort to honor the ideas that God puts into my brain. The first few might come out stinking worse than my cat's kitty litter, but no one picks up a bike and then signs up for Tour de France. Which brings me to my second resolution.
2. Dare to Suck
When we start something new, we never hope to be really bad at it. In fact, I think we all kind of invasion ourselves in glowing lights, with hopes of not only mastering the new thing we are taking on, but we imagine ourselves as being better than all the rest! As if this new thing that we are going to try is going to be the best thing that we have ever done. Our lives will literally come together and people will pay large sums of money for us to do whatever it is that we are hoping to learn to do. But it never quite works out that way, does it? At least not at first.
When we first start on any new thing, we are going to probably suck at it. Our New Years visions for our Januarys and Februarys seldom shape up as we had hoped. We cheers to the new year, soon it's Valentines day, and we still aren't pro's at what we started. We will have many dumb questions, and we will have to try many times before even getting to a point of satisfaction. But if you look at the task ahead of you, and failure is all you're able to see, then you might never start. Not starting because you know you'll be out of the gate with blunder after blunder is a monumental shame. Take a moment, and if you have not made any goals at all this year (or for a while, to be honest) just make this one with me. Have the courage to get out there and not be that great for a while. I promise you'll thank me later.
3. Read More
Reading is amazing. And if I want to accomplish my fist goal, I will need to implement goal number three. I love to read, actually. A lot. If I could somehow split myself mitosis-style into three or four people, one of myselves would spend her whole life just reading. That's it, just consuming book after book. Devouring story after story forever. But as someone with a full-time job, and no ability of mitosis, I have to make a real effort to have time for anything.
So this year, I want to commit to reading more. No more excuses. And I don't even have to go buy books! I have multiple books that I have been meaning to read! I get given great books, and neglect them. Then I see another, and for some reason buy that too! Why? Because-BUY ALL THE BOOKS! So this year I am committing. Not to some crazy 50 books a year challenge (that's almost a book a week, folks!), but something manageable, like two to three chapters of something-anything!-a day. I can do that. Anyone can do that. But when you're starting from ground zero, doable is good. Which reminds me-
4. Let Yourself Off the Hook
Personally, this goal has been needing to be said for a long time. I am an odd combination of being ambitious and a procrastinator. I will get completely excited about something, and then get afraid of failure and procrastinate the project right into the dust. THEN (nope, this train wreck isn't done yet) I feel bad about putting off my project for so long, and feel as if even when I do want to continue, that I can't because of my horrible blunder of neglecting the task. That, my friends is a vicious cycle that feeds itself and feeds itself. And sometimes (yep-still going), in light of the trouble that I often have completing my goals, I feel the need to overdo it and never mess up. This leads to all around self loathing, and even bigger and harder falls when I do mess up.
So really, I need to lay off a little bit and allow room for failure. If I were to try and read 50 books in 2015, I would leave myself only two weeks off for the whole year! That is an unhealthy margin for mistake, at least for me. I need to set more realistic goals. But even then, when I DO fall behind-and I can tell you right now, I will-I need to realize a few things. 1. It's okay. This is not the worst thing that could happen. 2. You are not a lesser you because you have not met all of your expectations. That does not define you. 3. There is absolutely no good reason to let that keep you from continuing on. You might not finish where you thought you would. But the ability to look back, and say you've finished will be so much sweeter than you think it will be. Keep going. Just keep going.
5. Take Lots of Pictures
My family (parent's, husband's mom and stepdad, and my husband) bought me a camera for Christmas. I am pretty much forever indebted to them because of their amazing generosity. I have wanted to pursue photography for a while now. I grew up looking through the articles in the National Geographic, and I developed a taste for the art of capturing moments in time in that way. And now that I have the means to start doing what I have always wanted to do, I have no excuses. I need to be taking pictures, and I need to be taking a lot of them.
6. Just Do You, Boo
One of my favorite YouTubers to watch says that. Her channel name is Shameless Maya. In the video that she put out talking about why she started her channel on youtube, she tells about how she had always wanted to. Starting a youtube channel is a great way to get yourself out there. But she had been afraid to put herself out there and do what she really wanted to do. Finally, she just decided to ignore her fear of what people around her might think and just do exactly what she had always wanted to do. That's where the name for her channel came from. She is unabashed about what she loves and the risks she takes.
This goes hand in hand with my second goal, but it needs to be said. If we would all just let go of our fear of what other people will think when we really pursue our dreams, then they might actually come true. Ignore anyone around you that you're afraid will look down on you because you're trying something new. Gather up your courage, because there is no better time then now. If you wait until you're in a spot that is devoid of "haters" then you will never begin. Now is as good a time as any. In the words of Shameless Maya, "Just do you, Boo".
7. Finish Projects
I have many projects that I have started, that have fallen to the wayside. Why? I really don't have any good reasons. Maybe I was afraid of messing up, or I didn't have all of the right materials, but there is no reason why I should have a half finished painting sitting sadly in the guest room. Pick it back up, Candace. Address whatever disappointment you may have in yourself and then get over it. We are going to finish things this year. Not pick up new things and make a new pile of halfway done things.
8. Take Care of My Body
I only get one, so can someone tell me again why my diet still consists of microwavable taquitos?! Taking care of your body is not a beginning of the year fad. It is very Biblical! I'm not saying that I am going to swear off of everything that is bad for you. And I'm sorry, but the vegetarian/vegan life is not for me. But I do want to start implementing all of the healthy recipes on my Pinterest that I never seem to cook. Honestly, if I was half of the woman my Pinterest makes it seem like I am, I would not be making this list!
9. Pray More
There is not a major rhyme or reason to the order of this list. I really just wrote it in the order that they came to my mind. I mention that, because this could possibly be the most important thing that I do this year. I pray a woefully sad amount of time each day. Yes, I pray a lot when I am driving, but it's mostly for the general safety of Lubbock. There are many things that God has given me a bigger image in my mind for, and I need to start praying. I have the ability to come boldly to the throne. I have no idea why I have not, but starting 2015, I am going to actually be specific and spend real time going to bat in prayer.
10. Stop Limiting God
For Christmas, my mother gave all of us kids in the immediate family a book by Andrew Womack titled "Don't Limit God". My husband and I have decided to go through it together. I'll save an in-depth update for another blog post, but we have already seen God breaking through because of our renewed faith in anything and everything that God has for us. God is amazing and massive. He has great things for every one of us! This year, Teagan and I have decided to be obedient to stop believing for the status quo (and even bare minimum sometimes), and in turn stop limiting all that God desires for our lives. Do yourself a favor; get into the Word and build up your faith. And if you would like some guidance while you go along, definitely see what God has to say through Andrew Womack's book. Just a friendly recommendation that could change your life!
I realize that all of my goals were fairly general. So here is a quantifiable, checkable list of exactly what I am shooting for. I will check in at the beginning of every month even if that is the only blog that I do that month to honestly say how well or badly I am doing. So here it is. What I would like my two thousand and fifteen to really look like.
1. Two blog post's a week. I think that should be more than manageable. I also want to write at least six short stories this year. That's a half of a story per month. There is no set length, so I can go as long or short as I want.
3. Three chapters a day. And it must be one book at a time. Not counting the Bible, of course.
5. Expect three pictures per month. Yep- three. That feels scary, but if it matters to me, I can take at least three pictures that I like enough to post each month. I owe it to myself to not chicken out of this one, so there it is. Three a month. Done.
8. I really like to do stretches on my yoga mat in the morning, and I use to make at lest fifteen minutes of time for it every day. I'm going to go back to that. A few minutes of yoga every day. That's final. Any person is capable of that. No chickening out, Candace! No chickening out! Also in the realm of taking care of my temple, I am committing to fifteen minutes of cardio at least five days a week. This is not hard to find time for. It's just the execution that I have problems with. Again. No chickening out, Candace.
9. I am committing to at least fifteen minutes of solid prayer time. It's as simple as that.
The numbers that I left out are the goals that I made that are not easily quantifiable. I will still touch base each month on all ten goals, but there isn't really a great way to be more specific about 2, 4, 6, 7, and 10. But they are goals that are worth mentioning none the less.
All of this-every part of it, is possible through God. I am the head and not the tail, and so are you. If there are things in your life that you find yourself wishing were different, maybe this could be a great opportunity for you. Set aside some time by yourself, and be honest. What is not a reality in your life that you desire, or feel that God wants for you? Make a list, or record yourself speaking your goals out loud. But whatever you do, give yourself the best chance to see your life take on a new shape.
As we rocket into the new year, let us take the opportunity to build our faith in God. Take the step of faith, and I promise you, God will be with you the entire way. Dream bigger than you have ever imagined. Think thoughts that the your acceptance of the average has not let you think before. God can out-dream the most optimistic of dreamers. It's about time we started approaching life as if that were truth, and not fairy tale.
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