2020 Vision

How is it already time for another New Year’s Resolutions post? I blinked and 2019 was OVER. Time to reflect, choose a new beast, and think about what I want to accomplish this year.

Previous years posts: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013

Last year at this time, we had just closed on our house and I was preparing to move. My resolution post was WEAK because I hasn’t spent any time actually thinking about resolutions. So, it should be no surprise that when it came to my two very vague resolutions: pray daily, and practice mindfulness daily, I experienced limited success.

I had no specific plan in place for either resolution. Even though I said I was going to complete a New Year’s mindfulness challenge, I failed miserably because I didn’t, and frankly couldn’t, schedule a regular time to meet that goal. We moved on Jan. 13th, and then rushed around for the remainder of the month trying to get our old house ready for renters. No sooner had I made resolutions than I forgot them. And my word and saint of the year? Also quickly forgotten, and to be honest, I have never been good about making my “saint of the year” a regular part of anything related to my spiritual life.

So although I love and admire Jen Fulwiler with an unholy allegiance and devotion, I am not choosing a saint and word of the year. I have found that the saints I need tend to find me, or I seek them out in certain circumstances, and as for words, the silliness of choosing one word for a whole year is the reason why I originally chose a beast of the year-I was making fun of the practice!…Jen also didn’t have a random word generator at that point so it didn’t seem like such a snub of her genius at the time.

The hydra served me well in 2019. I kept the image from that original blog post as my laptop’s background the entire year and many times I looked at that image as I felt completely overwhelmed and wished someone would cut my head off so I could maybe scare my kids into doing my chores for me. Or maybe I was trying to attract Hercules? Who knows, but since I couldn’t stand it’s sullen middle head staring back at me, I did my best to keep the beast proud of my sad one-headed self.

Now I’m entering a new decade and I need to give my resolutions the serious thought they deserve. And as I type that I realize I probably haven’t but I’m already too invested in this post to turn back so here we go!

1. Say the rosary daily.
2. Work on lowering my blood pressure through diet.
3. Reduce outside commitments.
4. Focus on growing the Accepting the Gift apostolate.

1.I’ve really gotten out of the habit of saying the rosary, in the car or anywhere, and although I’ve tried to schedule a set prayer time in the morning, I often find myself rushing around, my mind on the next task, and completely forgetting my prayers- no matter how many reminders, notes, etc. I set for myself. But earlier attempts to get in the habit of saying the rosary when I was running errands mean I still tend to think about saying the rosary while in the car. I just haven’t been choosing to do so often enough. I think making this my goal for 2020 is reasonable because even on the days I’m not running around in the car, I like taking walks and the need to say a rosary would give me an excuse to get out and stretch my legs.

2.I have kinda high blood pressure. It’s managed by medication, but it’s always bothered me that despite not being overweight or sedentary, I have high blood pressure. Now, I also have kidney disease (which I’m not sure I’ve shared here before) and that’s why my doctors think I have blood pressure issues, however, my disease has been in remission and not caused any problems despite five pregnancies (though rising blood pressure was an issue with a few pregnancies and led to Teddy being induced early). But I’d like to see if I can lower my numbers without medicine. I’ve tried all sorts of crazy diets but I’m adopting the DASH diet this year as it’s been shown in numerous studies to reduce blood pressure. I will also start working to lower my caffeine intake as several studies I found on Pub-Med show it tends to raise blood pressure the most in people with existing high blood pressure. My goal is to start moving to half-caf coffee, before adopting decaf only over Lent. I will certainly continue to take medicine if I need to, but I’d like to try to move off of it entirely if possible. I will also resume drinking regular coffee if decaf makes me kill people.

3.I tend to take on and commit to numerous things constantly. Mind you, they’re all good things, and because of that, it can feel like God is “calling” me to do each of them, however, that can’t be the case because I’m currently stretched too thin and struggling to keep up with regular family obligations. I want to focus on things at home, and maybe one big outside thing rather that thinking I can somehow squeeze in one more leadership position, or project. I will see through all the commitments I’m currently engaged in, but I’m going to work on saying NO to a lot more stuff this year.

4.Accepting the Gift is my one big thing I want to focus on outside my family. I’m also going to try to find ways to outsource more tasks so it can grow without me doing every little thing. (I’m hoping to train my older kids in some virtual assistant type tasks to help out.) I know I need to set aside a chunk of time to plan out specific goals and action steps, but it will be a little bit before I can do that. After I turn in my revised manuscript, launch a new workbook/course, and wrap up production for our church’s dinner theater production in February, I will use my free time to fully focus on everything this apostolate needs.

My beast for 2020 is a siren. She sounds so sweet and draws unsuspecting people close to her, only for them to be bashed upon some rocks. That’s how I am with many things; “Oh, that sounds like a great idea, I’m happy to help out!” or “That would be a cool book/ project/ thing to create! How about I commit to making that for someone!” or “This thing would really bless other people, so I’m going to take charge and start it from scratch with my limited knowledge and passion!” And then BOOM, I’m slammed by some rocks wondering what happened to the beautiful music and trying to figure out how I got myself into such an uncomfortable situation. I’m going to remember the siren before every commitment. Is it really something totally awesome I need to go after RIGHT NOW, or would it be better for me to continue on my current course? Maybe going after that sweet new thing will lead to my ruin, or my friends getting turned into pigs. Maybe it’s not an opportunity for growth or whatever, maybe it’s actually some crazy lady with bird legs- I just don’t know!

2020 is the year of avoiding the siren song…and hopefully the hospital. What are your plans for the new year? Write them down and link them up below. Be sure to include a link back to this post so your readers can find the rest of the Quick Takes. I look forward to reading your posts!