5 Ways to Follow Through With Your New Year's Resolution

It's that time of year again.

Whether it's to learn a new skill...

To get out in the great outdoors more...

(Photo by Sasha at Me and Me.)

Or any other number of things,

New Year's often equates to the setting of new goals, dreams, and hopes. 

New Year's resolutions are infamous for lasting, oh, approximately....24 hours. If you're lucky. ;)

Sometimes it seems pretty hopeless to even set one, but they aren't literally impossible to keep. There are some ways to help you accomplish your New Year's resolution.

1: Pick One Thing

It will help you keep on track with your dream if you aren't overwhelmed with innumerable things you should be doing. Regardless of what you may think, you are going to be busy sometimes this year. That's just what happens. Pick something to really concentrate on, and set your mind to achieving it.

2: Be Realistic

Allow yourself some wiggle room, and set a goal that you can reach. Understand that you will have other preoccupations in the coming year, and give yourself some room around it.

3: Understand You Will Mess Up

News flash: you are human. Embrace it! Don't pressure yourself to never, ever mess up. It will only stress you out more than necessary when you do. 

4: Get Back Up Again

Another news flash: messing up does not equal failure. "Fall 7 times, stand up 8" says the Japanese proverb. It's okay if you mess up, but get back up and try again. You will never accomplish what you want if you quit the first time you fall!

5: Record Your Progress

Whether it's through a journal, calendar, or anything else, find a way for you to comfortably track your progress. Give yourself reminders of what you want to accomplish, and believe that you will accomplish it. Avoid forgetting about your goal.

So, dear readers, don't give up hope! Aim for the sky this year, and fly even further!

What are your goals for 2015?

A Joyful Beginning

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 

This time of year, it can be pretty easy to be in a bad mood. Here where I live, for instance, the long, stubbornly sticking snow just finally melted....right in time for Christmas.

Good timing, snow. 

We had a month of powdery white, and now it has melted just in time to deny us a white Christmas. Plus, the long months ahead promise dreary cold, slush, and ice, far into what we would normally hope to be spring. The year before last, we had snow days in April!

We can't control the weather. Something we can do, however, is keep a positive outlook on the winter ahead. Christmas is kind of a good way to start that.

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of our Savior, the beginning of our hope. We can also see it as a beginning of a long winter, and remember to be positive about it.

I encourage everyone to keep the Christmas spirit into 2015. :) Merry Christmas, everyone, and a blessed new year!

We have reason to be joyful! <3

Words

our words are all we have
to communicate
         vast
                complex
                                galactic
thoughts of the human mind.
we cannot place our feelings directly
into another's brain.
but with our vague and abstract words
they cannot be interpreted exactly.
it's an unending game of telephone
just words trapped in our brains, all alone
to the beat of an unending metronome
tapping out the time of the universe
.
And what gets lost in the foggy translations?
we cannot say.
neither can we truly tell
what all we thought today.

6 {Big} Reasons to Keep a Journal

I have a lot of notebooks. Keeping a regular notebook or journal was something I always wanted to do, ever since I was in 1st or 2nd grade. My problem was I had always thought they were for writing all about your day, and they had to be written in nearly every day. 

I totally missed the point. Thus, reason number one you should be keeping a journal:

1. They are fun to write

Keeping a journal is fun. You can totally customize it to your specific writing style. You can have as many or as little rules as you want. I personally write purely when I feel like it. I never force myself to write. I go weeks writing every single day, then never write at all for a number of weeks. I don't write what I don't want to write. I don't have to introduce myself, or explain myself, because the reader (me!) already knows all of it. Skipping the boring parts leads you straight to the exciting parts.

2. You can see how your life has been fitting together

Looking back at old notebooks, I can see patterns I wouldn't have noticed otherwise, prayers I didn't remember that were answered, and just how my life has been going. Keeping a journal is great for retrospection. We as humans often don't notice little things happening. Reading back is like rereading a book and noticing all the little subplots you hadn't noticed the first time.

3. They can provide you inspiration for other writings

Honestly, when I need inspiration for a story or a poem or just a different writing in general, I go to my notebooks. Partly because I've scribbled in so many poem drafts and story ideas that I can use now, but sometimes just interactions you've recorded can help you launch a plot.

4. They remind you of goals/plans you have had

I have a short and limited memory. It's amazing how much you can forget in just a few days or weeks. Flipping through my current Notebook can remind me of my goals, why I set them, and inspire me to see them through. Often not reaching a goal for me is less of a matter of quitting and more of a matter of just forgetting about them.

5. It's like writing a little book for yourself to read in the distant future

Sometimes when I finish a notebook, I just want to destroy it and forget about it. But seriously, if you keep them for long enough, at some point you'll be glad you did. There'll be interactions you have forgotten about, little snippets you don't even remember writing, and thoughts that will show you how you've shaped into who you are.

"We can imagine a rainbow of possibilities.

We say 'anything', and 'everything'.

But in the end,

it's only our limited rainbow

and we forget there are other colors,

incomprehensible to us."

6. You can learn your writing style

Keeping a journal teaches you writing in a valuable way. You learn to write better with practice, you learn to express yourself and your opinions, and you learn yourself in a way you didn't before. Keeping a notebook is a fantastic way to get better at writing, check in with yourself, and enjoy yourself in the process. The writing doesn't have to be great. The notebook itself doesn't have to be high quality. You can write anything you want. And in the end, in this way, you learn more about who you are, and what you truly care about.

We Have the Same Dreams

You've Got to Be Kind

"Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies--'[gosh darn it], you've got to be kind.'" -Kurt Vonnegut

When we're just little kids, we are taught to be nice to each other. It's one thing we're drilled over and over again. Respect. Share. Listen. Be kind.

This isn't a new concept, guys. It's been around for awhile. You want people to be nice to you, right? Be that same kindness you would want for your self, to others. This is the golden rule, taught by Jesus: "And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also onto them likewise." (Luke 6:31, KJV) Being kind is about love."By love serve one another", Paul wrote to the Galatians. That's why we're here. 

"Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." (1 John 4:11 KJV)

There is no reason to hate any person. We're all human. We have that same core. We have the same confusion, the same worries and needs to be loved & accepted. We're not really all that different.

Sometimes, though, we just get caught up in ourselves. We don't think. We don't remember to be kind to others in our own worries and thoughts. 

But honestly, is that allowance of rudeness really going to save you that much time, or help your well-being that much? Let go, and let God. Have a little consideration. 

Is that extra 10 minutes on your phone during class really going to accomplish anything for you, enough to make up for your disrespect? Yes, even if you already understand the material the teacher is going over, you're still basically saying, "hey, Teacher, I don't really care about what you have to say or about the time you're spending to teach us this, so I'm just going to stare at a screen and tune you out, instead." It's a respect thing. You can still politely listen, even if you already 'get' it.

And seriously, you don't have to roll your eyes in frustration and complain to the person next to you when that person speaks in the class discussion again. Maybe it's just something they're passionate about. We all have different beliefs, interests, passions, and thoughts. That's perfectly okay. We can talk through things, instead of trashing each other's opinions.

We have got to step it up and just be kind, guys. It doesn't have to be that difficult. Remember, we're all human. Let's give each other some slack. Let's help each other out. It's then, when we're kind to each other, that we can accomplish great things.

"I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay...small acts of kindness and love." -The Hobbit

December Glimmers

Evergreens & twinkling lights

Christmas hymns & joyful noise

Story times & silent nights