Moving into the New Year!

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I love a New Year! I love the thoughts, plans and goals to be made and contemplated. I love the time of reflection on the past year.

This year one thing I want to do, or better yet, do again is spend more time journaling. I have always loved to journal my thoughts, plans, dreams and direction in life. It has been a way for me to stay focused on the things that are important to me. Those things that I contemplate at the beginning of the year and want to keep them in my thoughts as the year progresses.

I think journaling is healthy for the mind and helps to clear thoughts. If something is bothering you or you need to make a decision on something it can help to write these things down. I think journaling is good for the heart. It can be the place to write your prayers, to keep Scripture verses close to your heart, to daily remember those you love, a spot to remind you of all that you are thankful for each day and to share your thoughts with God.

I have a stack of journals from years past. I saw them not long ago and was reminded of how much I enjoy journaling and also how I had not been doing this for last few years. So in 2016 I will be starting a new journal. It is always amazing to me to sit at the end of a year and review my year in my journal.

It really does not take a lot to start. You can buy a cute notebook or grab a spiral bound notebook or even add extra pages to a daily planner. What it looks like is not as important as just taking the time to write as the year goes by.

My other goal as this year comes to a close is to pick one word for my year. Are any of you familiar with this? I found the idea last year on this website: http://myoneword.org/ The idea is to take all your goals, resolutions and desires for the year and summarize them into one single word.

After a lot of thought over the last week I picked my word for the year. My word is, “Intent”. The definition of intent is: resolved or determined to do (something). I have a list of goals and plans for the year but without a reminder, without focus many goals and plans can be easily forgotten or become hazy by February. The idea is that your one word is a simple reminder of what you'd like to see for yourself or your year. I desire to be intent on making progress, applying myself each day, week, month to make my goals happen.

With those thoughts in mind I'm excited to move into 2016 and see what the year brings, what God has in store for me this year.

 


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