Thoughts on Hope and New Year’s Resolutions

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2020, happy new year, hope, inspiration, New Year's resolutions

The shoreline of Cahuita National Park in Costa Rica

Happy New Year!

2019 was a momentous year for me. It was stimulating, challenging, and transformative for many reasons. I’m usually a sentimental person when it comes to change and turning new leaves and looking toward the future, but this year, despite the life lessons and great memories of the previous twelve months, I am so ready to move forward. I wouldn’t choose to relive 2019 for anything.

I am ready to let 2019 fade into the past and look ahead to the hopeful potentialities of 2020. I’m excited to see what this new year, and new decade, will bring. (Even though change and the future still scare me–gotta be honest here.)

I was reading in my journal from the past year, and I found something that I feel is relevant here. This is what I wrote on January 1st of 2019. It’s about hope and new year’s resolutions.

Merry Christmas! | One Simple Way to Potentially Transform Someone’s Day

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Christmas, christmas spirit, inspiration, kindness, Love, merry christmas

Merry Christmas, bloggers and readers!

Today has been a wonderfully relaxing, special day with my family. We had pancakes and opened gifts from each other, then had dessert and more food while watching one of our favorite movies. Now I’m just drinking tea and enjoying some quiet time with Christmas music playing in the background. (And writing this blog post.)

While thinking about what to write for Christmas, this post from last year came to my mind.

Something very similar to the story I share in this post happened to me again recently, and it made me realize once again the importance and transforming power of a smile and a loving, kind attitude toward everyone we meet.

I hope you enjoy this post from last year and that you will have a chance to transform someone else’s day during this Christmas season.

A Writer's Reflections

Photo by Brigitte Tohm on Pexels.com

Merry Christmas! How’s your gift shopping going? I finished all of my immediate family Christmas shopping several weeks ago and I’m so proud of myself. I think that’s pretty good for a master procrastinator like me.

Moving on . . . would you like to know a simple way to help make someone’s day so much brighter and more positive? It’s simpler than you think and often overlooked.

If you don’t already know, I’ve been working as a library aide with my county library for the past year and a half. My job primarily involves covering the customer service desk, so I’ve seen quite a few unique and interesting people come through the library.

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Why Writer’s Block Can Always Be Conquered

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beating writer's block, beliefs, inspiration, lies, mental attitude, mindset, truth, writer's block

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com

I’ve read so many articles and blog posts about writer’s block and how to overcome it. And they all seem to boil down to just a couple of key things:

• Writer’s block is a uniquely personal thing — every writer’s path to climbing out of the deep dark pit will be different from the next person’s.
• Writer’s block is less an actual lack of ability or inspiration and more about your mindset — which means three things: 1) that this sort of block can be found in all areas of life, not just writing; 2) writer’s block can always be conquered; and 3) you have to stop using “writer’s block” as an excuse to not write.

Writer’s block is a mindset.

Oh, don’t get me wrong — writer’s block is still a real thing. Painfully, panic-attack real.

But here’s the catch: It’s only as real as you believe it to be.

Dear Blog, It’s Not You, It’s Me

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blogging, book, Christmas, fiction, first novel, inspiration, life, motivation, NaNoWriMo, personal, Seasonal, writing a novel

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Don’t worry, this isn’t a breakup letter.

Either with you, my esteemed reader, or with you, my valued but under prioritized blog.

Rather, this is my attempt at picking up my poor neglected blog and blowing some life back into it.

But really, at the risk of being cliche, it’s not any fault of my blog that I haven’t posted in so long. It’s me. No, seriously.

And it isn’t even that I haven’t had any motivation to write lately or been stuck in a massive case of writer’s block to rival all writer’s blocks. It’s more to do with the kind of writing I’ve been doing.

Because I’ve actually been writing. A lot.

~~~

Don’t Get Stuck in the “Aspiring” Mindset

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aspiring, goals, Identity, inspiration, life, memorial day, mindset, personal, planning, writer, writing

I used to say that I was an aspiring writer. Now I just say I’m a writer.

What changed?

Well, I realized that I’m not just aspiring at writing anymore. I am writing.

Aspire: verb (intr) (usually followed by to or after) to yearn (for) or have a powerful or ambitious plan, desire, or hope (Dictionary.com).

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with aspiring to be something. Aspirations are cool; they’re necessary. If we didn’t have any dreams or aspirations, we wouldn’t get very far in life. However, I do have a problem with getting stuck in the “aspiring” mindset. And I think it’s way too easy to get stuck there if we keep labeling ourselves as someone who is aspiring to be something even once we’ve left the planning stage.

To aspire means to hope and dream of something that you desire to happen in the future. If you’re aspiring to do something, you have yet to step out and take the first step of doing it. But for some reason we often still label ourselves as “aspiring” even after taking that first step.

Quote of the Week | Peace in the Storm

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advice, God, inspiration, life, peace, personal, Quote of the Week, quotes, storms of life

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“Peace. It does not mean to be in a place
where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work.
It means to be in the midst of those things
and still be calm in your heart.”
~ Unknown

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Peace in the storm. That sounds sort of contradictory, doesn’t it? But think about it. Do storms and peace have to be mutually exclusive?

One Simple Way to Potentially Transform Someone’s Day

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Christmas, holiday, inspiration, positive, relationships, smile, transform

Photo by Brigitte Tohm on Pexels.com

Merry Christmas! How’s your gift shopping going? I finished all of my immediate family Christmas shopping several weeks ago and I’m so proud of myself. I think that’s pretty good for a master procrastinator like me.

Moving on . . . would you like to know a simple way to help make someone’s day so much brighter and more positive? It’s simpler than you think and often overlooked.

If you don’t already know, I’ve been working as a library aide with my county library for the past year and a half. My job primarily involves covering the customer service desk, so I’ve seen quite a few unique and interesting people come through the library.

Are You Missing Out On An Adventure? — Come Awake

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adventure, Christian Living, God, great things, inspiration, ministry

Check out this great post from Come Awake (link below).

Even though our lives as Jesus followers can seem overwhelmingly mundane and ordinary at times, God designed us all to do great things for him! That doesn’t mean that every day will be a red letter day for God’s kingdom, but we also can’t lose sight of the big dreams and goals He has put in our hears. While you’re living your life, don’t get discouraged in the everyday things. Keep going, and as William Carey, missionary to India, said, “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.”

The other morning my husband and I were walking out to our cars to drive to work. The air was fresh and the sky was a little overcast. My husband looked over at me and said, “Today feels like a good day for an adventure.” And it did. Being the responsible adults that we are, […]

via Are You Missing Out On An Adventure? — Come Awake

Quote of the Week | To Love and Be Loved

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courage, God's love, inspiration, Love, strength

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. ~ Lao Tzu

What would life be like without people to love and to love us back? I’m extremely blessed in that I have never gone a moment in my life without knowing that someone loves me. It’s experiencing a constant and unconditional love like this that fuels my response of loving them back in the same way.

My Theme for the New Year

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dialogue, God, inspiration, interactive, new year, prayer, resolution, theme, word

 

 

For the past few years, I’ve been asking God for a special word or theme that He wants me to focus on during the new year. Last year, it was “loving others with an unconditional love and compassion”; the year before that it was “abiding in Christ.”