The start of a new year always gets me feeling in the “goal-setting / reflection-writing / resolution-making” mood. Normally that carries over to planning the blog for the upcoming year over Christmas, from key events to blog about through to actually drafting some of them! Okay, so I’m not as prepared as those professional bloggers who actually do this as a career. No fully etched out social media schedules or pre-planned sponsored posts. At least I normally have a plan… and yes, I said normally because this year I (you best sit down) don’t!!!!
Instead, I spent this Christmas doing the important things… I played at least five games of Villainous with my sister (and was defeated every single time!). I managed three parkruns in a month! Caught up with friends, wrote a little, went on walks. All the things that we’re meant to do when we’re on holiday and relaxing. (Believe it or not, it’s not something I’m particularly good at!) Oh, and I spent way too much time fretting about a few things that would happen in the new year… hoping that will pay off with some good blog material after it all dies down 😉
So where does that leave me? Without a plan and only three blog posts anywhere near drafted. (This one doesn’t count as I’m still writing it even though it’s the first one of the year.) However, because I still feel like I should be planning goals, making resolutions, and writing reflections, I did manage to spend some time trying to figure out what I want from 2020. This is just a little of what I wrote…
What do I want out of this year? I want to love more. I want to back to loving my writing and writing whatever I want to. To not feel like I have to write certain things to be liked. The point of rebranding was to open up what I could write about, not to narrow it down even more. I want to write more about the things that really matter to me but to also make sure I research the serious stuff. I want to fall in love with words in all their beautiful and glorious randomness. This also means loving reading again. Not just saying that reading is my hobby. I want to devour books of all kinds instead of binging on TV and YouTube. Audible books 100% count as well.
I want to love my friends more. To actually pray for them when I say I will. To invest in them more but also to know when to say yes or no to them. I want to invite them to my house more and to stop being precious about my space…
… This year I want to start paying back to people. This is financial (church, charities like Home for Good, and other creators) but also relational. It looks like buying the coffees for no reason other than love. It means buying the Big Issue; listening instead of talking; smiling even when it is difficult; being joyful for others even when I’m not…
… When I am online, I want to be more intentional with why I am online. Is it going too…
Connect me?
Inspire me?
Help me?
Or will it distract and sadden me?
Believe it or not, I wrote over an A4 page. Amazing how typing things can shrink them down so much. This was only a small amount of everything that has been going round in my head. Since then I’ve also had my first Think Day of 2020, which has only fed them more along with this week’s sermon. There are at least three or four ideas for posts going round in my head simply off the back of this post. We will just have to see which of them end up on here 🤷🏻♀️
How about you? What do you want to get out of this new year (or maybe you’re going for the full new decade)?
