Happy New Year

January 1, 2011.

I love new beginnings. Fresh starts. I love waking up in the morning knowing it's a new day. Whatever took place the day before is in the past. Today is a fresh, new start. Don't you just LOVE that feeling? As much as I love the beginning of a NEW day I love the beginning of a New Year EVEN more! Every year I make some sort of resolution. However, I don't even remember what they are. So obviously I only make them because "it's the thing to do" when I know very well I won't keep that resolution.

My husband has been REALLY challenging me lately. For the past few months he has been talking with me about goal setting. He has really inspired me by the changes he's made in himself. He has been reading a lot of books related to this. Two of the books are "See You at the Top" by Zig Ziglar and "48 days to the Work You Love" by Dan Miller.

"With definite goals you release your own power and things start happening" --Zig Ziglar

The book "48 Days..." talks a lot about setting goals. It's not just a book for those trying to find the work they love. It's MUCH more than that. There are some chapters that you may possibly want to skip over as it has to do with resume writing and things of that sort which may not pertain to you. It doesn't pertain to me.

So instead of a New Year's Resolution I have decided to set goals for myself in all areas of my life. There are 7 areas for achievement that Dan Miller talks about in his book "48 days...". I will go ahead and list those 7 areas:
1. Financial --income & investments. If you can't dream it, it won't happen. Nothing is unrealistic if you have a clear plan.
2. Physical--health, appearance and exercise. Do you know that physical exercise is a cleansing process that can dramatically increase your creativity? Can you give yourself 30 minutes a day to relax?
3. Personal Development--knowledge, education, and self improvement. It is said that if you read 3 books on any subject you will be an expert on that subject. Your success, financial and otherwise, will never far exceed your personal development.
4. Family--your success as a family, our success as a society, depends on what happens inside YOUR house.
5. Spiritual--church involvement, personal commitment and Scripture study. Can you say you are living out God's purpose for your life?
6. Social--friends, community involvement, etc.
7. Career--ambitions, dreams, and hopes. Your career should be a reflection of the LIFE you want.

These 7 areas are all integrated. When one area suffers then other areas begin to suffer and it all spirals downward. We need to have a balance in all these areas. The book talks about how all the 7 areas are connected. I suggest this book as a great book to read to start off the new year!(I haven't read the book yet, just the chapter on goal setting and a few other tidbits but my husband has read it and told me A LOT about what it says so I know it has GREAT information and can't wait to read the whole book)

I could keep on writing quotes from this book. Every one of them that I read I think "oh this is good!". I definitely suggest this book to read. I'm excited more than ever now to read it. I got so caught up on reading other books thinking I didn't need to read this book but now as I thumb thru it I see how beneficial this book will be to me even though I don't need to find a career path. Like I mentioned earlier I will probably skim over some parts but for the most part read the entire book. As my final thoughts on this idea of "goal setting" here are some quotes I found in this book that I thought were rather profound.

"The feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and hving no time. It is, on the contrary, born of a vauge fear that we are wasting our life. When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have not time for anything else--we are the busiest people in the world" --Eric Hoffer

"The best way to predict your future is to create it" --Stephen Covey

"Begin to weave and God will give you the thread" --German proverb

"It is good to dream, but it is better to dream and work. Fiath is mighty, but action with faith is mightier. Desiring is helpful, but work and desire are invincible."--Thomas R. Gaines

"Now may the God of peace Himself snactify you completely. And may your spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless for hte coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess. 5:23)

"If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small" (Proverbs 24:10 KJV)

So I write all that to say "HAPPY NEW YEAR!". Here's to a GREAT new year filled with MANY positive changes and many blessings. I have so many "goals" I want to achieve and pray that God will help me to change myself into a better person, wife and mother.