Operation revamp.

It's the first week of February and to me it already feels like such a jam packed year. At the end of 2016 I wrote a list of monthly goals I had for my blog. Things I wanted to accomplish in January, February and so on.

I picked up that list yesterday for the first time this year. It's fair to say that I haven't done a great job of prioritizing this gem lately. I love writing and I love posting each week and I'm not sure why I haven't been setting aside time to make it everything that I know it can be. Time to write thoughtful and relevant pieces that encourage and inspire the people that read them. Some weeks I forget to write a new blog until it's Wednesday night and I only have a few hours before I need to post it and it usually ends up being content that I'm not super excited about. I like being excited about what I write.

So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to take a month. The whole month of February to be exact to do a few things. Some of the things that I would like to do is produce a ton of content, develop a posting calendar, look for a new site to host my blog and search my heart and try to revive my passion for writing and most importantly my passion for this.

I want to always be intentional about my writing. I want to always make it a purpose to post pieces that are well thought out and well thought through. I don't want to be a last minute 'throw something together' artist and I definitely don't want to do this out of a sense of obligation compared to a sense of passion.

I'm really excited for this month and the peace that I think it will bring. I'm excited to seek God and my heart about how to stay engaged, relevant and focused each week. I'm stoked to come up with a mission statement for myself and this blog and to write pieces that align with that purpose and that mission and say NO to things that don't.

Right now I'm feeling a little bit scared and nervous to step away. The fear that I'll lose readers and people will forget about me is weighing heavily on my shoulders but I can't let that deter me from making what I think is the right decision.

 A year ago this week I went to a concert that changed my life. I saw Bethel Music live at their worship night in Denver and when I left I remember being overcome with a sense of courage that I had never experienced before. I left wanting to seek the lost and bring hope and love to those who lack it. I left wanting to be anything but mediocre and wanting that to flow into every aspect of my life.

I don't that it's a coincidence that almost a year to the date I'm on the total opposite end of the spectrum. Feeling like I'm going with the flow and just doing the least amount of work as possible with something that I love so much. So yeah, this new direction is a little scary but I'm a firm believer in the idea that fear often precedes a great adventure and I'm excited for what this month of reflection and redirection will bring. I'm ready to be overcome with courage and love and for that to flow into my work, I'm ready for a revamp.

March. March. March. That's when this beautiful thing will be back up and running and hopefully more engaging, thoughtful and dialogue invoking than ever. See you in a few weeks friends!

P.S. Happy Black History month! Xoxo

Vision and Goals

On December 28th of 2015 I grabbed my journal went into my room and wrote out my vision and my goals for 2016. In the past, time and time again, year after year I had written out my new years resolution and they would only last for about a month or two at the most.

I would come up with these lists and be super excited about them for a few weeks and then before the holiday cheer had gotten a chance to wear off, my resolutions were a thing of the past. I know I'm not alone in this, I read a statistic the other day that said only 8% of Americans are successful at achieving and sticking to their New Years resolutions.

So I decided that I didn't want to do resolutions anymore but the idea of setting goals and creating a vision for my life each year was something that I was very attracted to. So that's what I did.

I went into my room and took a good long look at my life. Where did I see myself in twelve months? What kind of life did I want? What kind of people did I want in my life? How did I want to look in a year? How was my spiritual life doing and did I want to improve it?

All of those questions led to me coming up with 5 areas of my life that I wanted to improve. The areas that I identified were faith, relationships, finances, fitness and outreach. So I developed goals that fit each of those areas and wrote them down in my journal. I didn't just write things like "improve my physical fitness" instead I wrote "develop a routine of exercising 5 times a week and plan my meals and workouts at the beginning of the week." That's just one line from my fitness goal but as you can see it was specific and clear it wasn't general and undefined.

I wrote out steps for how I would achieve each goal and I didn't wait until January first to start. As soon as I closed my notebook the vision that I created for my life began. To stay on track I set up a biweekly reminder in my phone that would help me to remember to go back to my goals and see if I was on track and if not how I could get back to that.

I would be a big fat liar if I said that I was always diligent about doing these biweekly check-ins. Sometimes weeks would go by where I didn't take a moment to sit down and read over my goals and check my progress. Since it was new, I had to train myself to stay on track and to be consistent and intentional about the life I wanted and the type of person I wanted to be.

Today I looked back at my vision and the goals I set for this year and I've  achieved all of them except for one. One of them I made bigger than myself, knowing that it was a stretch but wanting to try it anyway. I might not have been fully successful but if I wouldn't have written it down and attempted it I wouldn't be as far as I am today.

I'm sharing all of this with you today to say that you don't have to wait until the first of the year to change your life. You can start today. Today you can take a moment to sit down and come up with five or less areas of your life that you would like to see improvement in. Five areas of your life where you can be intentional and diligent about putting in the work and turning those weak spots into strengths.

I haven't started working on my vision and goals for 2017 yet but after reading over my 2016 goals and seeing how well I did I'm beyond excited to do it.

I strongly encourage you to consider taking the steps to making your life exactly the way that you want it to be. If you're unhappy, you don't have to stay that way. If you lack financial responsibility, today is a great day to set your mind on working on that. If you don't like the person you see in the mirror, right now is the time to change that.

If you're not sure where to start or if you just need some support please don't hesitate to reach out to me in the comments section and I'll do what I can to help. You're one decision away from starting a journey that could potentially change the course of your life. The moment is now, what are you waiting for?

Until next time. Xoxo.