Skipping the Goals This New Year
A new year is here and like many, we are all ready to do better. We look at the pages of 2020 and realize that the slate is clean, the pages are fresh and there’s so far no wrinkles in the way. Since it’s a new decade, it’s basically a whole new book to be written.
Whether you have some big goal to achieve, whether you want to lose weight, or whether or not you’ve chosen a “word” for 2020, I think we can all agree that we just want to do better. For me it isn’t about fancy goals and weight loss or numbers, it’s just about doing better.
Perhaps that may come in the form of eating healthier, spending less money, budgeting more fiercely or clasping my hands to pray more. It may even mean learning how to grow your own garden, parenting with less screens, going to church more regularly or even just finally tackling the overgrown flowerbeds in the yard this spring.
A new year shouldn’t bring about a huge pressure, but it does feel revitalizing to consider just “doing better.” Some of the ways I think that I and much of society can do better, is by slowing down. Taking some steps back in time. That may sound confusing to some, because many of us don’t want to go back in time, but I often feel like this modern hustle and bustle world we live in is making us unhealthy, unhappy, and unsettled. We are stuck on our phones (guilty here too sometimes), we are working longer hours to afford more luxuries, we are forgoing vacations and we are sticking to the convenience of modern normalities.
Electronics are replacing people, events and memories. Now with a click, food is delivered at your door. But what about the days of dressing the children up to head to their favorite restaurant? What about putting on our best Sunday attire to attend church followed by lunch at grandmas, rather than a Facebook sermon followed by a football game? Or even worse, having the football game replace the church sermon?
What about the days of family movie night rather than all of the family members scattered throughout the home with their own televisions and screens? Or a classic night of family Monopoly without the distractions of cell phones? What about a camping trip in the woods, rather than constantly putting it off because we don’t want to use our vacation days or because packing all of that stuff with little ones just sounds hard?
What about just living within our means, to actually breathe? What about walking around barefooted to feel grounded with the earth? What about the days of good ole’ front porch sitting, with a bowl of ice cream and no distractions other than the sound of the birds chirping?
Whatever it is, there’s no right or wrong way. Just because we oftentimes rely on technology and modern advances to get by (hello grocery pickup), doesn’t mean we are living wrong. But are we always living fully? Are we always doing better? I think that is the question to head into 2020 with.
What can we do better?
Where can we improve our family life, our faith life and our health for the betterment of ourselves and those around us?
I think if we were to really evaluate ourselves, deep within as mothers, fathers, siblings and more, we know that there’s drastic areas to do better. We know that while we are “doing the best we can,” that sometimes we just get stuck on autopilot. Sometimes the effort to give our best and do our best gets hidden beneath the layers of exhaustion, excuses and LIFE. The difference is that we can either recognize this and dig through the layers or we can settle and never strive for better.
So as we head into this new year, join me in letting go of the fancy goals. I don’t need a list of ten goals, I don’t need a new scale to remind me of how imperfect I think I am and I don’t need a fancy new juicer. What I do need is the mindset to slow down and just strive for better. To go back in time where life was easier, slower and more enjoyable. Where God was first, family was second and all of the other things just fell into place. Once we grow with God we will see the blooming of all the areas in our life. Once we slow down and tune out the distractions, we will blossom with our family. And once we just remove the pressure, we will journey onto better. If doing better means eating healthier, than there’s your goal of health. If doing better means feel energized in life, then perhaps there’s your motivation to take a daily jog. Whatever it is, self growth can expand into so many categories of our daily lives for complete and optimal joy and health.
It’s a fresh book. And I don’t know about you, but I want to write a classic story, not a Netflix special. I want the pages to be worn, the story to be vivid and the memories of the year to last for decades more to come.
How do you plan to write your book?