Where We’re Going in 2013

I gotta be honest with you. I’m still a little fuzzy on my personal goals for this year. I–the lover of all things resolution related—am still struggling quite a bit with mine. I’m not really sure why. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that since December 13th, I’ve had only a handful of kid-free hours. And almost all of those hours occurred Monday and Tuesday when the children returned to school. Or maybe it was because 2012 was a long and difficult year for me. And I’m feeling a little, I don’t know, tired? It’s hard to get motivated to set goals for the next 52 weeks when, in many ways, I’d rather just wrap up in my blankie and take a nap.

I know this much: My 2013 goals have something to do with an emphasis on deeper relationships with people, a relentless pursuit of filling myself up with God so I can understand how to love the way Jesus loved, and approaching everything with heart-felt passion instead of calculated risk.

I don’t even know how to make all that into a goal, but whatevs. I’m tired. Hopefully, by the end of January-ish, I’ll know where I’m headed this year.

So, enough about me…let’s talk about us!

I’ve spent the last 5 months seeking to discover a natural rhythm for this space I call The Scoop on Balance: namely, who will show up here, the kinds of posts you like to read and how often I can realistically produce likable posts and still have time to wipe down my bathrooms, do my hair and cook a pot of soup.

I love the subject of Balance. I think it’s so relevant and diverse and practical. I don’t know a single person who has the balance-thing figured out all the time.  Do you?

Therefore, I’m excited to announce the following:

Beginning next week, I am starting a weekly series called, Better Balance in 2013. Every week, we will cover some aspect of Balance: Relational, Spiritual, Financial, Emotional and Physical. We’re going to unpack the concept of balancing life and everything that means.  We’re going to focus on it week-in and week-out, so that by the end of the year, we can look back and feel like we’ve made significant progress!

Cool?

I began jotting down a few ideas, just to see if I had enough material to carry us through 50-ish weeks. And within about 5 minutes, I had 31 ideas. Some of my 31 ideas can be expanded easily into multiple posts.  So, yeah, I think we’re good.

Here are some topics on the 5-minute agenda:

Relational:
1. Modeling forgiveness
2. Life skills to teach your kids before they leave your home
3. The comparison trap, why it stinks and how to avoid it

Spiritual:
1. The art of feeding your soul first thing in the morning
2. Keys to recognizing God’s voice and God’s will for your life
3. Sharing your faith without sounding creepy

Financial:
1. Practical ways to teach kids how to handle money
2. My number one strategy for staying under budget
3. The cheapest ways to eat healthy food

Emotional:
1. Introvert/extrovert. What are you and why you should care?
2. Don’t lift your emotional sails into every wind that blows
3. Living with passion and why that matters

Physical:
1. Easy meal planning
2. Making sleep and rest a priority (ha!  yes indeed, I am tired!)
3. Working out with small children in the home

And we will talk about all kinds of time-management strategies from simplifying to staying off the smart phone, from keeping the house in order to finding time to exercise.

This series is as much for me as it is for you.

OK, it’s mostly for me.

I need constant reminders to keep me on track, so let’s just agree we will walk this road to Better Balance in 2013 together.

Oh, and please keep in mind, I reserve the right, to alter any aformentioned topic if

a. something more relevant pops into my head

or

b. I sit down to write it and discover it was not blog-able material.

(“blog-able” is a very fun word to say, by the way. Go ahead. Say it. Blog-able)

(If you doubted how badly I needed a nap, there’s the proof right there.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Q4U: You can help me fill in the remaining 20-ish Better Balance topics. Tell me,

1. What are your biggest barriers to living a balanced life?
2. When you came to this blog, what was it you hoped you’d find?

 

Don’t over-think it. Just say what comes to your mind. I really want to know.