Written By: Tayler Cathrine
Every year, I see so many people post their goals and plans for the New Year. They are often inspiring or your typical ones you see, like lose weight or read through the Bible, etc. A few years ago, I gave up on New Year’s resolutions. Why you ask?!? Let me share a few thoughts on it.
- I hated the feeling of when I didn’t complete it. I would make it for the first month or two and fall off the wagon. It was disheartening.
You are NOT a failure because you didn’t complete that goal. Don’t get me wrong, having goals are important, but they don’t have to be set on this specific date and not tried again because you fell off the wagon. You just pick yourself up and continue. I had to redefine my relationship with the fear of failing. It got to the point where the fear of not knowing if I could do it was more to bare then the fear of my failure. So I began doing. If something didn’t quite work out, that was feedback to me, not a failure. So I would come up with a solution and try again.
2. Why wait?!? I decided that when I felt inspired or that God was leading me in a certain direction, to take action. Not take action at the New Year or when I felt certain things were in order, but when God said, GO!
This past year, I did 2 HUGE and difficult things. One was going on a strict way of eating and losing 30+ lbs, because I was unhappy with my weight for over a year. I didn’t start it at the New Year, I actually started in February, when I had a group of people to encourage and hold me accountable. I mean kick-me-in-the-butt accountable. Keeping me responsible for MY actions and goals.
Whatever your goal is, you need to strategically place people in your life that no matter what they will give you COMPLETE honesty and hold you accountable. They asked me difficult questions, they shed light on my shortcomings, etc. It’s not a nice feeling always but there is no way I would have done it without that accountability.
The second thing that I did was start Women Soaring. Kari Dickson (also a part of Women Soaring) is the one who inspired and moved me forward with the vision. This didn’t start until the very end of February and didn’t really get rolling until May. Since May we have had our first online conference and are getting ready for our Physical conference in a few months.
We chose to DO! Not wait for the New Year or perfect timing. It was put out there and we started doing steps to move forward. I have learned so much that I could NOT have learned without DOING!!!
There were many years that I felt I couldn’t do things because my husband’s work was the priority. I put my goals on hold. In reality, I was able to move forward in my goals. I needed a mind shift. A real check and honesty of how to move forward supporting my husband and continuing my growth. I had loads of excuses, children, work, moving, deployments, etc. At some point, that feeling of unfulfillment will get to be too heavy and at that point, you MUST make a choice. I pray that you seek out what that is. You would be surprised how starting with one small step a day can change your entire course.
Written By: Tayler Cathrine
