I posted my New Year’s resolutions which mainly consisted of improvements I need to make within myself; things I need to change (behaviors); things I need to develop (characteristics); and things to improve my quality of life (health & finances). Now that the New Year is in full swing, it’s time that I actually set specific goals as well as define the process by which I plan to achieve these goals.
My main goal is to devote more time to my prayer and Bible study time and to fellowship with God more completely (and honestly) than I did in last year. Last year got off to a great start. I had just begun my New Members Orientation at church during the last couple of months in 2007 and the Bible study program in my ministry was going wonderfully. By the summer of 2008, I had finished 4 series of Bible studies with StepInFaith and had graduated 2 classes of New Members at church. I spent a lot of time in prayer, involved the kids in my prayer life and studied the Word with them, and I felt a sense of accomplishment and gained a great deal of knowledge and inspiration through doing those things. After Zoe was born, everything was put on hold and I kept saying I would get back to doing them, but am still saying the same thing. I need to – HAVE to – get back to that this year. As I develop my schedule, I will set aside a certain time each day when I MUST do only these things and CANNOT waver when it comes to stopping other things at the appointed time in order to begin my fellowship with God and my work for Him.
Taming my tongue would have to be number two on the list, just above developing more patience and readopting my old perspective which kept me optimistic, forgiving, and faithful to my Christian commitment. There is no particular plan of action for this; I just simply have to TRAIN myself to get back to the way it had taken me so long to become – and was so easy to lose sight of once I stopped being as consistent in my prayer life! It’s amazing how decreasing your fellowship with God changes things so drastically. I’ve noticed how much easier it is for me to become frustrated, overwhelmed, and even angry… and how difficult it has become to let go of things, to forgive and move on, to react appropriately, and to focus on resolution rather than perpetuation of the problems. That way of thinking has to end. NOW.
Two of my passions in life are writing and music. The only trouble with the two are that I have no formal training in either. Since I am actually great at writing properly (if I do say so myself), I don’t believe I need much help in this area. However, I know absolutely nothing about music other than the fact that I can SING. Since I took my grandmother’s piano back to my mom a few weeks ago, learning to play the piano is a long shot. I will be purchasing a beginner’s guitar (fancy talk for CHEAP ONE haha) and after I learn to read music, I am going to learn to teach myself how to play the guitar! My goal for purchasing a guitar is March 31, 2009. My goal for learning to read music is June 30, 2009. My goal for learning to PLAY it (just the basics, chords and things) is September 30, 2009. I will go from there :) Then, I can put a lot of my songs together with music. I write songs all the time, but they sound really jank with the music only playing in my HEAD! haha
My end-of-the-year goal is to finish writing all of my books and have them ready for publication. I hope that it doesn’t take all year to reach this goal, but in the spirit of setting attainable goals, it’s in my best interest to simply say I want them all done at some point this year. I have one fully complete that needs to be retitled. I have two that are in progress that need to be completed and I have another for which all I have is a vague idea of what I want it to be about and a title. All of these will be complete by December!
My feel-good goal is to lose 50 pounds this year. I initially said I would like to lose 50 pounds by May 1, but again I want to set realistic goals and let’s face it – I can’t diet. LOL So, I figure with exercise alone, 30 pounds by May 1 would be do-able. I intend to lose the other 20 pounds by the end of the year. Since it’s more about how I feel and not really about how I look, there’s no sense in me stressing myself out about losing it quickly. May 1 is my deadline simply so I can look good for the summer LOL!!! It’s easy to look like you haven’t packed on a few pounds in the winter when you can wear a coat, but very difficult to hide in the summer heat, especially in LOUISIANA! haha In order to do this, I got a membership at a 24-hour fitness center last month and have been doing cardio/toning exercises. I’m up to walking 3.2 miles on the treadmill in an hour and I can go about 12 miles on the bike in an hour. The trick is to go at the beginning of an hour so I can start watching a movie on the flat screen that is attached to the bikes and treadmills (they all have cable); then, I don’t want to stop until the show is over!! LOL
My last (but definitely NOT lowest) goal is to stop being so demanding on the kids… I need to set more age-appropriate expectations for them. I deal with them based on their maturity rather than based on their age and while that might make sense, I’m only encouraging them to grow up faster and that’s not healthy. The way I plan to go about doing this is to consider their ages more and actually do some research as to what other parents expect out of their children at that age. I think a lot of my problem lies with there being so many of our children. It’s hard to deal with them on an individual basis, but very easy to lump them all together and expect the same out of Talia at 6 years of age as I do out of Briyana at almost 9 years of age. I often have to remind myself, however, that Briyana was NOT expected to do the things I am expecting Talia to do when Briyana was her age. So, I have to consider that when assigning tasks, etc. I also have to remember that they are going to go through certain stages and that I have to let them in order for them to develop mentally, emotionally, and socially. As difficult as it is to raise five children CORRECTLY, Barry and I chose this task and we must now carry it out :)
2009 will be a year of many stages of growth, many habits being broken, many habits being created… just a lot of changes taking place that will stay with our family for a lifetime and will only help to bring us closer together and closer to God, which is the most important thing. The result of this is that we may be a light to others and our lives will reflect a testimony of His favor, grace, mercy, and GOODNESS!
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