FIVE Hopes I have for 2018
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I hope you enjoyed the holidays. Mine was mostly laid back and peaceful. I made it into 2018 with my mind and faith intact, and I’m truly thankful. I’m especially ecstatic to be back with my first post of the year after a month-long break. I’m glad I took a break, because I moved a few days before the first of January and I spent most of my month-long break packing and then unpacking.
I'm still unpacking and I have boxes everywhere, but hey, it is 2018, and that calls for some rejoicing.
Why? Well, 2018 is going to be a year done differently. To start off, I am sharing SOME of my hopes for the year.
First and foremost, my 2018 hopes for the blog are
- To keep sharing the lessons I’m learning as I live my life , and I hope to inspire you and add value to your life.
- To get even more appropriately vulnerable with my journey [I have no desire to gaslight, dump on you or flood you]
- To continue to shape my voice and point of view for the blog and beyond. OPERATION Explore. Define. Refine, and
- To introduce you to some of the wonderful women I encounter in my everyday life; I plan to conduct some interviews this year. I need to develop a format and/or theme, but it is on my 2018 blog agenda.
With that said, here are SOME of my hopes and intentions for 2018.
REST
I was laying in bed one evening in December panicking about 2018 when scripture verses from Psalm 127 dropped on my heart. “If God doesn’t build the house, the builders only build shacks. If God doesn’t guard the city, the night watchman might as well nap. It’s useless to rise early and go to bed late and work your worried fingers to the bone. Don’t you know he enjoys giving rest to those he loves?” The bolded question stood out to me, however, I had already been wrestling with the theme from these scripture verses long before that evening.
One of my biggest hopes for 2018 is to experience what it means to work hard from a place of grace rather than from hustle, toil and strive. I am a dreamer, Type A, an overachiever, and an executor, and for so long, pushing myself through hard and difficult situations have always been a badge of honor. Lately, I sense God calling me to dump the hustle, toil and strive, and to let him do what he alone can do. “Grace will take you places that hustle would never get a foot into,” and he spoke these words of advice over me a lot at the end of 2017. Strive and hustle does not necessarily mean hard or good work. I’m choosing to work hard and to also rest my body, mind, heart, and soul.
LIVE FULLY W/ JOY UNSPEAKABLE
Going along with the spirit of REST, I will do more of the things I love this year. I will see stage plays and performances. I will go to more concerts. I will see a play or two on Broadway. I will go on a few road trips. I will make new recipes. I will visit many wineries with friends. I will travel a lot more. I will go out dancing. I will choose activities that shoot my adrenaline off. I will engage in adventure. I will spend quality time with family and friends. I want to do things that make me swell and bubble over with joy. When I’m living joyfully, I find that nothing is impossible for me. The joy of the Lord is truly my strength. Without it, happy moments are not fully enjoyed, but with joy, painful seasons are bearable.
JOB STABILITY
I believe one of the source of my hustle and toil is having my hands in too many things, and I never did get a chance to breathe. My hope for this year is to have some sense of job stability, though I’m still leaning towards a mix-match of stable and steady work project over a 9-5 gig. CONFESSION: I’m nervous about a 9-5. I haven’t had one in a while, and regardless of that, it is not my style.
I hope to be more strategic in choosing and blending my work projects. I’m currently not running any businesses, hence I have space to think through my next steps.
SERVICE
I'm praying through what working out my desire to serve in 2018 would and should look like.
YEAR OF BAE
In the wise and famous words of Yvonne Orji, “Dear Bae, take your time and hurry up!”
There you have it! These are some of the things I'm leaning into in 2018.
What are your hopes for 2018?