Dear sisters,
Well, it's that time of the year... mid-January. Did anyone make a new years resolution? Can you still remember it? :) Seriously, I'm the worst at this. Last year I outright refused to make any resolution at all because of the imminent failure I perceived as unavoidable. Maybe it was because of a whole year off that, come this December, I was ready to take the plunge into another written recitation of goals... I think it was sheer forgetfulness. But here we are, mid-January once again and I can't say much for my track record so far.
Which brings me to 2 points I'd like to make (both here and in real life if I can!) about resolutions.
1. Plan to fail. Yep, you read that right. If you always failed in the past and you're expecting to fail again... yeah, you probably will. Just consider that part of the plan. But here's the rest... don't stay down. Get back up, press delete in your mind and take off runnin'. And every time you get up, just pretend it's Jan. 1st again and you are gonna do this!
Cause let's be honest, most of us make the goal, fail, then give up, right? But what if you got back up and plowed ahead again, full force! Well, give it a couple days and you'll probably fail again. Get good at starting over. I mean, really good at it. What if all year long you kept getting back again and going full force just like it was January 1st?
I'd wager you'd be pretty far along to your goal by July. Even closer come October. Maybe even almost there at the end of November... still failing every now and again, but still getting up and goin'.
It's okay to fail. Simply because, you're going to! And furthermore, God doesn't really mind. He expects us to fail and waits eagerly to help us get back up! (just picture a happy couple, adoringly watch their baby take his first steps, even though he falls a gazillion times they ooh and ahh, encouraging him to get back up and try again. They are delighted with him. This is how God looks at us when we fail. Don't give up!! Fail. Get up. Fail again? Get up again. And again.)
2. It's easier to keep going then to keep starting over. Okay, this is going to sound like the complete opposite of point number 1... but it's really more advice for September... maybe mid-October. You've been failing, getting back up, failing, goin' at it again, etc... and high fives to you! By consistently starting over, I say- you're a success!
But it does get tiring after awhile. We become fed up with starting over and over, achieving little perceived progress (although learning to keep getting back up is major progress actually!).
I read a quote on twitter the other day, "If you HATE starting over. Stop quitting!"
First, get good at starting over. But eventually, just refuse to quit!
Well, I gotta go fish out that new years resolution again... I think it's somewhere under my bed. :)
What's your resolution?
Keep runnin',
LM
