Resolutions, Goals and Desires for 2013 (Part 1)

It's that time of year. :) 

Bloggy-Land and other forms of social media are full of the shiny new resolutions of millions. "Resolution" itself is a rather divisive word. Some people love them, some hate them. Personally, I love the definition of resolution:

res·o·lu·tion

[rez-uh-loo-shuh n] 

noun.

a resolve or determination: to make a firm resolution to do something.

But I struggle with "making resolutions" in practice. In part, this struggle likely comes from years of resolving to "lose weight" and then going full-force into unrealistic/un-maintainable lifestyle changes and crashing and burning. The last few years I have shied away from making resolutions or even specific goals for this reason.  Yet this year, I feel the need to be more purposeful with my time and goals. I want to put them out there - even if I don't hit them all, I want a record of how far I've come!  I'm struggling with making TOO MANY but we'll see. :)

To start, I wanted to give myself a word of the year. Something to keep in the back of my mind to guide my steps.  I've been thinking about this for a couple of weeks now and gone back and forth on a few that jumped out at me.  Some words seem completely on point for certain parts of my life, but not so applicable to others.  I finally settled on one:

Deliberate can be defined a few ways

1.

carefully weighed or considered; studied; intentional: a deliberate lie.

2.

characterized by deliberation; careful or slow in deciding: a deliberate decision.

3.

leisurely and steady in movement or action; slow and even; unhurried: a deliberate step.

verb (used with object)

4.

to weigh in the mind; consider: to deliberate a question.

verb (used without object)

5.

to think carefully or attentively; reflect: She deliberated for a long time before giving her decision.

6.

to consult or confer formally: The jury deliberated for three hours.

 

Sometimes life is just too busy.  With six kids, both of us working full time and all that comes with it, I know I am guilty of letting life just ... happen to me sometimes. I hate that feeling - that time is just passing by and I'm not truly engaged. I'm just surviving. Surviving isn't always stressful. Sometimes it's downright pleasant to just float along. But it's not living up to my full potential as a wife, mother, employee or person. I want to be deliberate in my relationships and decision-making, in my career and with my finances.  I want to be more attentive and more present with God.

So, in 2013 I choose to be more deliberate. I choose to actively engage in my own life!