Inspiring Stillness in the Everyday

2019 - Hear the Whisper

woman journalingIT’S A NEW YEAR!

I’m one of those people who actually get energy from this idea. I know it’s technically just another day, new month…but it FEELS different. It feels like a new beginning - it energizes me. The possibilities… so many possibilities. so I’m going to leverage that to my advantage. If you feel at all the same way- or would LIKE to… feel free to shameless copy the below idea and shoot me a comment @thebeholdenlife over on Instagram letting me know!

Each year at some point during the first week of the year (not too late if you want to steal my idea!) I always write down my hopes/ goals for the year. Nothing super fancy/ crazy. I simply go away for a few hours (now with my husband) and we reflect on the past year, review our goals and hopes from the previous year, recognize what did and didn’t work, talk through why and then we start dreaming about the new year. We simply have one paper for the overall year to scribble out big dreams and hopes. Then we also have 12 other papers that we write each month on the top of and then proceed to scribble down ideas, plans and goals if we have any for that specific month. To be honest, tackling it a year at a time isn’t as energizing to my husband as it is to me. He finds it totally overwhelming. So last year we did 3 months- with the goal to come back to the others later. (but- to be honest, life happened and we never did). So this year…we are going to try the whole year again.

Making space to do this has really grown my faith. I intentionally ask the Lord if there’s anything He’s saying specifically about the coming year and write it down. Last year I felt like he said to be prepared for many core people from our church to move away. I wrote down all of the names of the people I felt he said. During the year as person after person moved away, I held onto this reminder. But, in December when I looked back on what I had written down I was shocked looking back to see that every single one of them left. To be reminded that we can hear the Lord so clearly was really encouraging to my heart. It would have been much more devastating to adjust to that loss of our friends if I hadn’t known God was in it, preparing us ahead of time to release them. Funny story: I also felt like He was saying we would be moving. BUT, I didn’t want to so I didn’t write it down. (spoiler alert- we totally moved a mile down the road to a home that’s just right for us.)

These are just examples- I don’t get everything right, and there are plenty of things I didn’t accomplish this last year. But for me, this is a fun way to make space to be energized about life again, to hear the Lord and also keep track of my dreams and progress. I love looking back at our sheets from years ago to see how our goals and season of life has changed over time. I heard a quote by Bill Gates that said, “Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.”

I have YET to get to the end of the year and have accomplished all of the goals I had for that year. (I’m a chronic over achiever when it comes to goal setting) At first, I found this discouraging and frustrating. I would just see all I hadn’t done. But, five years into practicing this, I am just realizing that’s my tendency and I’m getting better at figuring out how to break down big goals into small ones. My goal this year is to get strong. It’s been a year since I had Reese and I have had some real physical trauma from her birth. But, it’s time to move on from being discouraged and start small. In the past I would have just written that phrase, half-heartedly attempted here and there but not come up with a practical strategy. This time around, I know better. So- I’m going to exercise 15 minutes a day because I KNOW I can do it and then go from there. So, start small my friends- start where you are and grow from there. There’s nothing wrong with small beginnings. Happy New Year, dear ones!

Remember- you can find me over at @thebeholdenlife to tell me all about your hopes for 2019!


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