Step 1: Reflect and Release

It is essential, as you step into a new year – to pause as well as reflect on the experiences, and lessons you learned from the past year. I want to encourage you to take a moment and acknowledge your wins. Think about how you faced challenges head-on and created ways for you to grow. It can be easy to forget that every experience and situation, whether positive or negative, can help you grow better. The result from the years before this one – is who you are today.  You have to be the one that decides if you like the version of you that has been shaped and grown in 2023 as well as before. 

Imagine a gardener tending to a plot of land. Before planting new seeds, the gardener clears away the weeds and prepares the soil, creating a fertile environment for growth. Similarly, reflecting and releasing allows us to clear away the “weeds” of the past, creating space for new opportunities and possibilities to flourish in our lives. And if you do not like the you that is growing – change! Release the old and step into the best version of you!

Step 2: Don’t Just Set Goals – Live Your Goals.

Hopefully, with the start of a new year, you have a new sense of clarity and purpose but your goal should not be just to set a goal. The (right) next step is to set clear intentions and goals that you take consistent action on in the new year. Most people set goals that make them feel good, but these goals never do anything for them because they are not something they can take action on every day. Consider what matters most to you—when thinking of a goal to take action on. Do not just set a goal because it sounds good, align your goals with your values, passions, and vision for YOUR future. This is what will help you live out your goals and not just write them down in the new year. 

“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.”
Proverbs 16:3 

When choosing to be specific and take action on goals, it is helpful when you break down a larger objective into smaller, manageable steps, and establish a timeline that is possible to achieve them. There is a difference between a goal and a dream. Dreams should ALWAYS be bigger than you and not possible without God’s power. However, a goal that you set should help you create a roadmap that guides your actions and decisions as well as empowers you to make choices that align with your vision throughout the year. This is what enables you to dream big because you are creating small wins every day by taking action on these goals. 

Step 3: Choose a Mindset of Gratitude and Resilience

The realities of life mean that you will have to at times navigate ups and downs. Some things happen that we cannot control and when you choose to cultivate a mindset that is rooted in gratitude you can develop a mindset of resilience. It will help you to embrace the mindset of gratitude when you recognize as well as express the blessings, opportunities, and joys that are currently in your life. Developing a heart and mind that is led by gratitude enables you to have an understanding that even when things are not going your way or times are hard, you can simultaneously also have a sense of the abundance and positive things in your life. 

Gratitude helps you to continue forward in a positive direction (and be resilient) even in the face of challenges or setbacks. Because you have chosen to instill gratitude, you have also enabled yourself to develop resilience by adopting a growth mindset that embraces change, learns from adversity, and views challenges as opportunities for growth and development. Resilience is not about avoiding difficulties but about navigating them with grace, courage, and perseverance. Being grateful helps us to do this…

Consider the story of Esther in the Bible, who bravely stepped into her unique calling and purpose by trusting in God’s power and timing. The Bible talks so clearly about how her uncle spoke that she was “born for such a time as this” and like Esther, you may face hard times this year and they may be in tandem with positive things –  but if you can make the choice to see the good in the middle of what is not so good and embrace your unique calling, you will be empowered to walk confidently into the future God has for you, knowing that you are divinely guided and supported in that journey. You have been born for such a time as this, so don’t sit back and wait for it all to happen – God wants you to be a part of all he is doing in the earth and He has equipped you to do it!