Looking Forward, Setting Goals, and Growing Through the Failure

 We are a universal people, aren't we? Most of us taking this week to look ahead, make goals, change what didn't work last year and contemplate what might work better going forward. 

We make plans, choose words, vow to do better, lose weight, ditch the bad habits, and a few weeks later we feel like we've already failed.

I gave up making resolutions for many years because I just couldn't trust myself to actually follow through. 

There have also been years when I've laid it all out - new goals, ideas galore, a chosen mantra to live by - and you guessed it...still failed.

But here's a different perspective for those of us who have that drive inside of us and yet, feel a bit timid about trying once again:

Do it anyway.

Doing it and failing isn't really failing if you learn and grow along the way. As long as you can look back and see what you might have done differently, then you're growing! Take that knowledge and go forward and do better next time.

I'll give you an example...

I love budgeting. I love playing with numbers and fitting all the pieces together, like a puzzle. Call me a nerd, but this is fun for me. 

But I'm actually better at the process of budgeting, than the actual carrying out of the budget. Can you relate?

So every month I give it a go. And sometimes I try cash and sometimes I realize that cash flies out of my wallet faster than the credit card does. And sometimes I try details and I fail at that because I'm not a detail kind of person. I'm a black and white - point A to point B kind of person. The shortest route always wins for me. 

But I keep trying. Why? Because every time I try something new, I learn. I learn what works for someone else, might not work for me and that's ok! I learn that simplicity is my friend and details trip me up. I learn that having too many methods is a recipe for disaster for me and others really thrive on them. That's ok too.

The same goes for goals for the new year. 

I love what Mrs. White said in this post, that she wants to be ready to do the work that the Lord puts before her each day, rather than make a bunch of goals (paraphrasing). I love that! And while I have lived like that for many years, this year I am setting some goals for myself. But only a few and only the ones I've prayed over for years and am finally getting up the nerve to try.

And you know what? If I fail at every single one of them, I've still grown in ways that I never would have, had I not tried. 

So here's to giving it a go! Whether you're going to sit this year out and just see what God places before you each day, or whether you're going to finally step up and do something he placed on your heart a long time ago. Either way, as long as you're seeking him and his plans for your life, you really can't go wrong.

Failure isn't trying and failing. Failure is never trying at all and wishing your entire life that you would have tried something. 

My friend, I encourage you to pray and ask the Lord what he wants for you in 2025. Spend some time listening to what he's saying. You don't have to follow the world and all of their crazy goal setting ways. Just see what God has for you or what he's been speaking to you, that you've been saying "no" to.  Be brave and trust that if he has laid something on your heart, he's going to continue doing the work in you.

I believe in you and so does he!

Here's to an amazing new year and many blessings along the way!

Until Next Time...

Blessings!