Happy Blogiversary and a Happy New Year!!!
New Year’s Eve is a time to reminisce and reflect on the year gone by. It is an opportunity to recalibrate, refocus, make a plan and start afresh for a new year. Some people make a big deal about New Year’s Eve. They get dressed up, go out and celebrate with friends, acquaintances and people they just met that night. Others like to stay in, get a little take out and drink a lot of bubbly. Some very wonderful people deserve props for working on New Year’s Eve so that everyone else can have a safe and fabulous time, thank you to all of you who are working on NYE! Last year I decided that on New Year’s Eve, I would launch the blog!!! Thus beginning a new tradition for me. December 31st will forever be the blogiversary (the anniversary of the blog, in case you did pick up on my made up word) for A Word of Worth.
I am personally a big fan of New Year’s Eve. Any chance I can get to realign my priorities and hit reset, I am all over it. Each year since I can remember I have written out New Year’s resolutions and recently I have accompanied those with a dream board as well. Unlike some people (no shade, just facts), I actually make resolutions that I intend to keep. For me, it is a list of goals, not just a wish list. Now I do always intend to keep my resolutions…but occasionally a few of them will fall through the cracks or I start them and will just not get very far with them at all. In my defense though, there are always a few resolutions that I do actually keep and do well with. Which is why when I am making a resolutions, I make sure to make the list long so that the probability of me actually executing some of the resolutions increases. One of my resolutions for 2016 was to start the blog (mind you that was also on the list for 2015, but I decided I needed to roll that one over to 2016). Even though the launch was actually the absolute last day of 2016, I did do it (with much encouragement from pretty much everyone in my life and technical assistance from my baby brother)!
Of all my resolutions over the years, the blog and my weight loss were probably the two most impactful resolutions that I actually saw through. Here is my advice to you and to myself regarding resolutions – do not make a resolution that you are not ready to do. You will not actually execute the resolution unless you are ready, really ready. Sometimes you need a push though or maybe even get your feelings hurt a little, I definitely did with both the blog and the weight loss respectively. People in my life and people I have never even met were impactful in getting me to the point where I was finally ready to take action. What about you? Are you feeling that there is something you need to do, but have not yet done it? Or something that you need to stop doing and get some freedom in your life? Maybe you just need a little push! Maybe this blog will be your little push to start eating healthier, exercise more frequently, go for that promotion, start a family, go on that date, break up with the one you know is not the one, start your business, look for a house, stop smoking, volunteer for your favorite cause or whatever it is that has been weighing on your heart. Why have you not done that thing yet? Money? Time? Desire? Convenience? Laziness? Fear?!
For me, I made a lot of excuses why I had not yet started the blog. In 2015, when I originally put the blog on my resolutions I talked about it frequently, but I did not move on it. Even before the blog made it on the list, I had been thinking and contemplating starting a blog. Then once it was on my resolutions list, I felt like throughout that year everyone was asking me about it all the time. They were asking because you know, I told everyone I was going to do it and I still had not done it! In the fall of 2015, I started reading this book called Crash the Chatterbox by Steven Furtick. I had heard about the book, but I did not really know what it was about. Someone somewhere told me that it was good and I should read it. Lo and behold, a good friend of mine had the book on her bookshelf. So I borrowed the book and read it. Then BAM!!! I suddenly realized what was holding me back from starting the blog – it was fear. Fear - that bastard! I did not realize how much I had allowed fear to creep into my thoughts and my inaction with my writing in general, but namely the blog. You know that voice in your head that fuels all of your insecurities in life, tells you that you will fail, that you are not good enough, that you have nothing new to say and that no one will like you - that voice is fear. Yeah, fear. I know right?! Jerk. How dare fear tell you all those negative and untrue things? So simple and yet makes perfect sense, that fear is what was holding me back just like it had so many other times in my life. Yet I had to read this freaking book to realize it! (The book is quite good by the way, in case reading more books is on your list of resolutions you should pick this one up.) Spoiler alert if you are going to read it, but your takeaway may be different, so you can probably just keep on reading so you can see my point. My takeaway from the book was that you cannot let fear keep you from your calling, your purpose, your plan, your dream or your goals. I want 2018 to be the year where you set yourself free from the bondage of fear. It was truly a revelation for me to realize that fear was the culprit behind all my hesitation on starting the blog. Once I realized how ridiculous that was, I was able to move forward and trust God through the process as He worked in and through me. Then I was able to really start working and the blog was launched! Fear will do nothing for you except keep you down or, sometimes worse yet, it will keep you right where you are now. I believe God made each one of us for more! Humans are capable of so much and we all have the ability to be brave and step into what is next for us.
Change and progress take time though. Do not get frustrated and quit. Well you will get frustrated, that is almost guaranteed, but do not quit! Did you know that when I resolved to lose weight for good that it took me about six years from the time I started to get to my lowest weight? I lost over a hundred pounds, but it took six years. Before I ended up at my current job, I applied for jobs for six months solid. Every moment I had free, I applied for jobs for six months straight. Then I finally got my interview and then it still took another six weeks before the job was offered to me. Some of you may not know this story yet, but I was having an affair with a married man on and off for four years. Do you know how many times I tried to break that off?! Many, many times over the course of those years. When I broke it off for good, he still tried to come around. I held my ground (through God’s strength) and it has now been a year and half since I have been free of that toxic situation. It was extremely difficult, but it was worth all the time and the striving to be able to be done with that chapter. My whole life I wanted to write. For years I said I wanted to write a book before I die, but people kept suggesting I start a blog. I started taking the blog into consideration until it finally became a real option for me. Once it did, I put it on the resolutions list. Like I said, it still took me two years after this point before I actually executed the blog, but I preserved and worked through the fear.
The moral of the story is that anything worth doing will be a challenge. Anything that is going to better who we are as humans will be a challenge. Anything that is going to help others is going to be a challenge. I do not believe Satan wants any of us to accomplish anything in our lives that would improve our lives and make us better. If we become better and are filled up, then we can pour into others and help them move into what is next for them. Of course there are going to be obstacles that is all part of it all. Just because you have failed at your resolutions before does not mean that there are not meant to be. Sometimes when we get great push back, it is just discouragement trying to manifest over the situation, but we just need to persist and keep moving forward. Usually when this happens, it means that we are on the exact path that we should be. Not to say you should force something that is not meant to be, but if you know that you are destined for something – do not give up! Even if in the end it does not turn out as you imagined, it usually does not by the way, it will lead you to where you need to go next and maybe even lead to something greater.
So on this New Year’s Eve blogiversary can I just say something? I love you guys!!! Thank you for reading, thank you for supporting, thank you for encouraging and thank you in advance for having the courage to do what you are being called to do next in your life! You are going to bless so many people just by doing exactly what it is you are supposed to. Do not let fear keep you from doing anything in this life! Someone is waiting for you to be a blessing to them. Guys - 2018 is going to be fire!!! Well…what are you waiting for friends, get to it! Let’s go!!!
#upgrade #upgradein2018 #2018upgrade
“for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” 1 Timothy 1:7 (ESV)
“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” John 14:27 (NASB)
“Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may]be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:7-9 (NASB)
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name; you are Mine.
I will be with you
when you pass through the waters,
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not overwhelm you.
You will not be scorched
when you walk through the fire,
and the flame will not burn you.”
Isaiah 43:1b-2 (HCSB)
“I will praise the Lord at all times;
my mouth will continually praise him.
I will boast in the Lord;
let the oppressed hear and rejoice!
Magnify the Lord with me!
Let’s praise his name together!
I sought the Lord’s help and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.”
Psalm 34:1-4 (NET)