On Making Goals

Every year for the last decade or so I’ve picked a word as my “New Year’s Resolution”. Sometimes I have a Mystery of the Rosary and its corresponding virtue instead. Just before Christmas, I realized that it was that time of the year again and immediately started feeling stressed at the prospect of choosing another word when I didn’t even remember what 2018’s word was (actually, as I’m typing this, I think I do remember). But then, instead of letting myself walk further past that stress to greet the anxiety that was awaiting me, I realized that my word for 2019 had already chosen me.

I finished 2018 with quite the bang - one that I never, ever saw coming. I got back on stage for the first time in 16 years and I played violin. It turned out to be an incredible experience: a community theater production of A Christmas Carol, set in St. Louis in the 1930s. There was an ensemble of musicians playing live bluegrass music on stage and I did what I could to fiddle around with the violin. It truly was great fun! (More on that coming next week.)

Then, as 2019 came closer and closer and was upon us, I created this blog and right there at the bottom of the first post I found the word I was looking for: brave. I was terrified to get on stage but decided that that was not a good enough reason to not do the show, so I did it anyway. I was scared to click publish on the first post of this blog but - with the same kind of motivation - did it anyway. I truly hope, as hard as it will be, that writing this blog will motivate me to do hard things in real life to give me something to write about - thus this year I need to challenge myself to be brave.

I find goals to be far less intimidating than resolutions. It seems to me that resolutions are easily failed then the maker of them says miserably that they couldn’t live up to their own expectations. Whatever. I like goals better. They sound like they have more opportunity and are better for learning in the school of life. So my goal for being brave this year? I’ll start by putting one foot in front of the other. Sometimes that’s what we call taking a leap of faith.