2017 / One Word
His mercies are new every morning. His mercies are new every morning. As I let this truth resound in my head everyday of this new month/new year, which has seemingly caught me by surprise, I breathe in a deep sigh of relief.
As I sat on the airplane just this time last week I began to feel a sense of panic start to overwhelm me. The calendar confirmed that we were already 10 days in to a brand new year, but I had been so busy soaking up all the quality time that I could get at home, some how I couldn’t quite believe that we were already almost half way in. I had a list full of goals, aspirations and dreams – some small, some mighty – all waiting to be awakened. Each one was carefully considered before making its way to this year’s agenda and somehow I was letting anxiety convince me that beginning in the middle of January meant that I was already late to the party. Until I was reminded that, each new day is a new beginning. Each time we lay our heads down to sleep at night we close a mini chapter and begin a new one. Sure January 1st makes for an opportune time to start but there’s nothing wrong with starting tomorrow, or in my case when I landed back in England. It’s never too late.
So here I am. A new year, another blank canvas. New dreams, bigger goals. All anxiously awaiting to be unleashed.
Each year S and I take ourselves somewhere (with an endless supply of coffee), with a fresh new calendar and a pack of perfectly working gel pens (be still my heart) and begin to jot down our goals individually and together. In order to bring a little structure to our chaos, and to help us more accurately display our dreams, we fill in a few specific categories. After a little trial and error we landed on the following which seem to work best for us, but the great thing about dreaming/goal setting is that there’s no right or wrong. Do what fits you and your life.
Together Goals
- Personal (scheduling time together, ideas to strengthen our marriage, activities to look to forward etc.)
- Spiritual (ways to remain grateful, how to be a blessing, prayer goals)
- Family/Friends (ways to strengthen relationships with those we love)
- Finances (saving targets, budgeting tweaks)
- Purpose/Business (ideas to improve business ventures, ways to build/strengthen teams)
- Holiday (dreaming of where we want to visit this year! …And this lets us know how much need to save up!)
- Home (home improvements, DIY lists)
Individual Goals
- Personal (what we want to achieve for ourselves individually)
- Spiritual (ways to strengthen our faith walk)
- Family/Friends (specific relationships we want to strengthen and actions we can take to make this happen)
- Purpose/Business (individual business ideas, charity work)
- Fitness (targets we aim to hit this year to stay healthy)
We also select a word to sum up our year. Knowing what’s ahead for us, the trials that await us, and with eager anticipation we carefully consider what we want to declare over our year. This year, after much deliberation, we’ve decided on ‘fulfill’. There are many things that have been stirring in our hearts for some time and we are declaring that this year be one of seeing some of those desires fulfilled. We’re believing for answers, for closure, for the miraculous and for a heart full of faith to take on whatever stands in our way.
Do you have a word/phrase for 2017? It’s never too late you know. Today seems like a great day to start declaring + planning goodness over your year.
May 2017 be the best for each and every one of you.