New Year’s Intentions

“I’m going to lose weight!” “I’m getting a gym membership!” “I’m going to read 10 chapters of the Bible every day” “I’m going to quit smoking!” Every year, right around this time, we all set out to accomplish at least one thing big in the year to come. These life changes are often called “New Year’s Resolutions”. We start out with the best intentions of making our lives better, but usually lose our vigor around the 6 week mark. Life gets in the way, we get busy, or, if you’re like me, you just get plain lazy. You start to allow yourself to skip the gym once or twice a week, or let yourself have that brownie after dinner, and soon, you’re sliding down a slippery slope. This is usually followed by a sudden realization, about 3 months down the line, that you have completely lost sight of your big resolution to become the “new you”. This begs the question, “Why?” Why did you lose the resolve to make yourself better? And why is it so hard to get back on track? I think there’s a few reasons why.

Lack of accountability. I have come to the conclusion that mankind needs accountability. Lord knows that I do. A few years back, my mom and I started working with a nutritionist to lose weight. This wasn’t some crazy fad diet, but rather a lifestyle change. We did AMAZING on it. I lost upwards of 50 lbs, and was the happiest I had been in a long time. I am convinced that the reason I was so successful on this was because I had fantastic accountability. I had to weigh in every 3 days and send the nutritionist my weight. My mom and I shared our goals, wins, and losses with each other often. We cooked for each other, so we knew what we were eating was on the plan. About 8 months into this, I moved out of the house and stopped working with the nutritionist. I stayed good for a few months, then, for lack of better word, fell off the wagon. Since then, it has been a horrible uphill struggle to lose weight. This goes for more than just weight loss. If you want to start gaining muscle and going to the gym, pick a gym buddy to encourage you and for you to encourage. Want to read your Bible more, set up a Bible Study date with a friend or significant other. Make it a time to fellowship and build your relationship with God and your “person”.
Lack of planning. I am a girl who loves a plan. If you’ve been reading here for any length of time, you are aware of that by now. If you set out to do something without a plan, your chances of failing are a whole heck of a lot higher than if you had prepared properly. I would encourage you this year, if you are setting “resolutions”, come up with a solid plan of execution. Make a schedule for yourself, get your accountability, and even start before the New Year to give yourself some practice.
Don’t buy into the hype. You don’t have to wait until New Years Day to start your resolution. Start now. Don’t wait. Don’t do it because everyone else is, do it because you want to.

This year I am trying something new. Rather than calling my list of life changes “resolutions”, I am calling them “intentions”. These are things I intend of starting and finishing. As a form of accountability, I am going to run and jump off the cliff of privacy and share my New Year’s Intentions with you. This is something of mutual benefit- I have the accountability of my readers, and you can get an idea of some life changes you can make! Here we go!

Health Intentions: As I stated above, I fell off the health wagon a few years ago and have been scrambling ever since to get back on. This is MY YEAR! I have set up accountability with two of my very best friends in the whole world. I am texting them my weight every Monday, and sending my measurements once a month. I have also given myself deadlines to reach certain goals. I also have purpose behind what I am doing. I am not doing this to be skinny. I am doing this to be HEALTHY and HAPPY with how I look. I have some small goals within my big intention. I want to be able to run 2 miles straight without stopping. This may seem like no big deal for some of y’all, but I literally cannot stand running. I have a stipulation for myself that I cannot get a gym membership until I can eat healthy and exercise daily for 2 months straight. I believe these little things will help me accomplish my goals!
Spiritual Intentions: I want to start actually reading my Bible. I have always been one that thought listening to Worship music was enough, but I feel like God is wanting a deeper connection that can only come from reading His word and watching it come to life right in front of me. My plan for this is to set aside time at least 3 days a week to really dig in and study the word
Marriage Intentions: I have two marriage intentions for 2018. One is to learn to set aside time for just us. No phones, no technology, just us and good conversation. I feel as though Jon-Paul and I have learned the importance of saying “no” to things that take away from that time we set aside, but we have not applied it! The second thing is to apply the knowledge we gained when we took Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace class. We gotta buckle down these finances!
Friendship Intentions: This year, I want to set out to become better at making friends and building relationships. Many of you may not know that I can be social when absolutely necessary, but I really prefer to just chill at home with my cats watching Netflix. I want to become more social this year! I want to stretch myself by learning to love going out with and making new friends.
Family Intentions: I want to get better at calling people this year. As many of you know, my grandmother passed away just a few days ago. We had a fantastic relationship and spoke often, but going through this has taught me just how short life is. Once it’s gone, you don’t get to see that person until you get to heaven. I want to become a better daughter, granddaughter, niece, daughter-in-love, sister-in-love, and aunt. Social Media is great for keeping up with big events, but there’s nothing like having a good conversation on the phone if you can’t actually be there in person!
Personal Intention 1: I started journaling a few weeks ago. I have gotten pretty good at it, but I could definitely stand to be more consistent with it. It is such a great form of therapy, and I want to venture into bullet journaling- the best of both worlds- creativity and organization!
Personal Intention 2: Blog more consistently! I have been absent the past few weeks due to the holidays and my grandmother passing, but I am back with a vengeance!

I am so excited for what lies ahead in the year to come! 2018 has something special in it for everyone, and I cannot wait to see what it is! I want to hear back from you, my faithful readers, as to what it is you want to hear from me in 2018. Comment away and tell me what topics you want me to tackle in the year to come, as well as what your own personal New Year’s Intentions are! I love you all dearly and I am praying for 2018 to be your BEST YEAR YET!

Happy New Year!

XOXO

ELK