New Year Goal.

If you've followed me for very long you know I don't love New Years Resolutions. Number one, I don't like setting myself up for failure that way :) and number two I don't like the idea of waiting until the new year to change your life. If you want to change, change today, don't wait for a grand declaration, or until everyone else decides to change. Go after it! That being said, every year our family comes up with a goal or motto we want to incorporate into our lives throughout that year. Last year our goal was to live life and love it instead of waiting around for it to begin. We decided that "this is our life" what is happening every day is life, so there's no need to wait for things to settle down, or this crisis to be over, or the weather to change. We aren't waiting, we are living. You can read more about our goal and why we chose it HERE.
When we started thinking of what we want this year we came up with a lot of things that we want to change or improve on. It was overwhelming to think of everything we want to accomplish. But finally after a lot of thought we realized that while we can't do everything, we can do something, so this year our goal is going to be "Give a little more."
This means different things for each of us. For Adia it means that she is going to try to include kids who don't have as many friends into her group at school, and that she is going to have a little more patience with her brother who tends to annoy her pretty often lately. For Ethan it means that he is going to give a little more effort at school. He'll try a little harder to pay more attention, and he'll do what is asked of him without complaining. For me, it pertains to all aspects of my life. I want to try a little harder with my clients, and then if things still don't work out, I can feel confident knowing I did as much as I could for them plus a little extra. I want to give more to my kids, more of my time, more of my attention, more patience. I want to be present, I want to teach them, and learn from them, I want to have fun with them, so that when they are all grown up we can look back at this time with fondness instead of regrets. I want to give a little more to myself, recognizing that I matter too, and giving myself the time to get healthy, strengthen my relationship with God, and take the time to really listen to the messages I receive from Him. I want to give a little more to those around me. We don't have a lot, but we have sufficient for our needs. We have been very blessed, and it's time we start blessing the lives of others as well.

A scripture I've always loved is Alma 37:6 where we are reminded that...



I also love this short video that talks about this very thing.


And as I've researched it a little I found this great quote that I absolutely adore. (Is it totally lame if I admit that I have no idea who Gandalf is? I mean I know he's a character from the Hobbit/ Lord of the Rings, but other than that I don't have a clue - he seems wise though:)






So we don't have to change the world, we can just "give a little more" and though it be small, it can have a great impact on the people we hope to become as well as the people we encounter every day.
So what's your goal or resolution?