Well, it’s January 1st. The first day of a whole new year. This day gives people all over the world an opportunity to hit “reset”as they make fresh plans and promises to begin, continue or cease practices they have in their life.

I am not immune to this phenomenon, but I try to steer clear of radical, giant alterations in my life course as I’ve learned over the years that what works best for me is smaller, incremental goals that can be added to over the coming days, weeks and months.

Through this gentler introduction to change I have managed to make multiple positive enhancements to my way of living that improves my emotional, physical and/or spiritual well being.

The thing is, we don’t need to wait until the beginning of a new year (or month, or week or even day) for this to be implemented. They can happen at any time, but it’s only natural as we stand on the precipice of a year full of untapped potential that we reflect on the things we should, could or would like to do better.

One of the practices that I began a few years ago was committing to write and share on this blog. It was not something I was confident or comfortable with doing, but felt that God was asking me to do it as an act of discipline for me and might potentially be an encouragement for others.

My first post was written and shared on 31st December, 2018 and for the next 2 years I was fairly regular in uploading my thoughts, usually on a Sunday evening. I even posted as we embarked on our European adventure.

That was until 2021 which brought some changes and challenges which have made it even more difficult to keep the momentum that had been in place. The curse of the blank page loomed large and I couldn’t find the creative rhythm I needed to keep regular posts. I had a back catalogue of articles previously written that I could adapt and post and would use this as a fall back where necessary.

This year has been especially problematic and the positive reinforcement I receive from any of my writing is not enough to encourage me to produce more posts. It was confronting to receive an email to say that my total posts for 2023 was 9. 9!! And most of those were some of my historical offerings.

So my resolve for this new year is to persevere with my writing. Even when I don’t feel like it. Even when I don’t have time. Even when I don’t believe I have anything worthwhile to offer.

How am I going to achieve this? Well, not by my old practice of writing in one giant chunk of time at the conclusion of a busy day or week, but more like smaller snatches of time, when the creative juices are flowing and words spill onto the page. Smaller thoughts that can be built upon until I have something more worthy of sharing. This is my goal.

I went searching for a familiar verse to share about perseverance, especially when times are tough and instead I found this one from James chapter 1 and verse 4: “Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

I want to be mature. I want to be complete. Not lacking in the things I require and so I choose to persevere in this and ask that you help keep me accountable this year. I am beginning this year as I intend to continue.

Perhaps there is something that you are needing to persevere in? I encourage you to consider the benefits on offer for when you do, and take a lesson from me … small changes are less daunting and more achievable.

Be blessed.