Who said resolutions have to be put in place, and started, the FIRST day of January?? The 9th of January works too, right?

This year, Chasity and I were able to celebrate the New Year together and had a lot of time to catch up, hang out, get the website up and running, and just talk about life (as we girls tend to do). As we discussed our goals for the blog, we also spent some time talking about the areas of our life we really wanted to get right this year, on a personal level; our ‘resolutions’ if you would like to call them that.

We didn’t want to just throw a bunch of things out there, because we knew that come February, all of those things we set out to do would have completely fallen apart and life would catch back up to us. So we are doing things a little differently this year!

This year, instead of creating a list of all the things we want to change, we are coming up with a word that we want to highlight our life around. A single word, that will help focus all of the areas of our life, to help us achieve small victories and changes throughout the year.

Chasity

What is your word for the year? PRIORITIZE

What does that word look like, in regards to actions you want to take? This year, my goal is minimize and simplify as much as I can. Prioritize the areas of my life that bring meaning and purpose and to get rid of all the ‘clutter’ that keeps me and my family bogged down.

What is an immediate action you can take right now, that will help you achieve your word? I am making it a point to go through every closet, and every room to consolidate, donate, or trash. The amount of stress that I can reduce by simplifying our lifestyle will be worth the torture of combing through things that have been untouched for years. It stresses me the f out rummaging through a bunch of crap trying to find things. We don’t use half of it, but it stays tucked away in my cabinets or drawers and I think “maybe one day I will need it.” The first area I am tackling is the girls’ playroom! I cringe every time I walk into that room. Barbie dolls over here, colored-on stuffed animals over there. It is a complete disaster and the girls can’t even keep track of the toys they are actually playing with. Will be the hardest room to get through, as the girls get the hoarding gene naturally and have a complete meltdown if anything gets tossed or donated. It’s not how my husband and I are trying to raise them and we as a family have too many entitlement issues, and take things for granted. I want to let go of the things that no longer make us happy, or serve a purpose in our home and donate them to someone who needs it.

I have started the process. Pray for me! Our house looks like a tornado went through it.

 Kristin

What is your word for the year? INTENTION

What does that word look like, in regards to actions you want to take? This year, my goal is to live an intentional life. For years, the word I always used to describe me/my life was fortitude. However, I realized having perseverance just meant that I had the strength to deal with the actions/decisions that were happening TO me. This year, I want to be in charge of my journey and be intentional about the decisions, direction, and relationships in my life (as much as possible and with the guidance of God’s purpose and direction).

What is an immediate action you can take right now, that will help you achieve your word? For me, this starts with creating a vision board; being TOTALLY honest with myself of what I want (and need) in my life and creating a vision of what that looks like. I have spent years of my life surviving and living a life I thought I should be living - and if I learned anything about last year, it’s that you can fool the world with pretending you are something you aren’t, but you can’t fool your soul/spirit.  By having something that I can see – and be emotionally connected to – will help me to remember the areas that I need to be intentional in. By deciding what I want my life to look like, I can help guide my decisions throughout the year to create the life I want to set out to live. Without creating this visual, I know I will get caught up in going with the flow and actions of others; just doing what is needed to get by – rather than doing what is needed to get going.

Happy New Year everyone! If you’d like to join us in changing up how we set our resolutions – comment on our facebook page what your one word will be for this year.