Happy New Year!! Happy new beginning!! Time to carry out those New Year’s resolutions for a couple of weeks, a few months, or perhaps the entire year.
I do not have great expectations for resolutions that I set for myself. I consider them to be guidelines, a blueprint of things I would like to accomplish. I have many plans for 2023 and like every other beginning of the year, I enjoy setting goals. Of course, me being me, I overdo it and never get it all done.
One part of my annual plan includes a Bible reading schedule, something that I have managed to stick with for quite a few years at this point. About four years ago, I added journaling to my morning reading routine and I loved it. I talked about journaling for a long time, but each year, I failed early on. I finally got an accountability partner. Each day we would text to confirm that the task was done. After the first year, there was no need to continue texting daily. It had become a habit that I will never break because it is far too valuable. Now, the ritual has become texting on New Year’s Eve to report on the year and let each other know the new plan.
My 2023 Bible agenda is pretty big. In addition to my reading and journaling, I’ve decided to “go deep” into several New Testament books. I will use my Bible app to read the New Testament in a year because I fear my plan might be difficult and I want to be consistent with something. It’s not that I am not serious about my book reading, it’s just that I know myself and it will be more difficult to quantify what I am doing. My idea is to go through books including Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians by reading directly from God’s word and choosing Bible studies on the books. I am excited about the plan and hope that I will be successful in growing both in my knowledge of the Bible and in my walk with the Lord. The intent is to love others better, grow in my faith, and share.
What are my other plans? There is the annual and typical New Year’s resolution to get healthy, lose weight and exercise more, which is something that I always mess up. Hopefully, 2023 will be different. The biggest goal I am setting for myself this year is to move further away from my tutoring by returning to my writing career. It’s been difficult. After 17 years teaching in the public school system and over two years trying to get my writing back off the ground, it’s time to get serious. I’ve ended up taking on a lot of online tutoring to improve my income but procrastinating on writing. However, writing is what I want, it’s what I always loved. I never complained when I was a journalist. It was challenging and exciting.
The idea is to get very serious. I intend to blog regularly and grow my following, pitch articles to newspapers and magazines on a very regular basis, and continue working on my book. Yes, it sounds like a lot and it is, but I will be successful this year. It is time and that is it. Feel free to check up on me and hold me accountable. I would welcome all the help I can get. I am great at deadlines, but when there is no deadline, no one waiting for my article, book, etc., I procrastinate.
How am I going to carry it out? I have set up a schedule and charts for blogging, and I will do brainstorming sessions for article ideas and run them by my husband, family members, and close friends. If I really want writing to be my job, I need to move forward and work at it as if it were a full-time job. Yes, I will still tutor, but the writing needs to increase until it can completely replace the tutoring.
All of this sounds great and it is always good to have a plan, but I will not forget that God’s plan is the one that will come to pass. Jeremiah 29:11 reads, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
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