Carrie Baker – The Growth Collective

Photo credit ::  wordswag/pixaby
It’s always good to look back over the year… To see where you have grown, the lessons life has taught you and what you want to accomplish in this next year

Here are some of the things I learnt in 2019:

Learning to say no, is hard

“Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”. A very wise friend said this to me recently, as I as pondered giving some of my time away to another worthy cause… “Where would your time be best used… Polishing and cleaning with some lovely old ladies in their little old church , or writing and encouraging which is what you really want to be doing?”

Earlier this year, I said yes to something as a reflex action than a considered response. I felt like a deer caught in headlights and said ‘”Ummmm, yes ok!”, when what I should have said was; “I’m going to need some time to think about this”. This thing ended up being a big time commitment, and was quite stressful. When it was all over I was relieved, and I felt that I grown as a result, but I should have considered it before I committed.

Doors open and door close… Trusting God in it all

This has been a hard lesson to learn, there have been many tear and some moments when I’ve thought “I can’t do this!” 

Before the summer we were due to move into (a much needed) bigger flat. The lease was signed, the movers booked and on the weekend we were due to move, the real estate agent called to say the owner had gone and sold the property through another company. I cried more over this, than I had in a long time . 

My heart was heavy as I thought of our daughter who desperately needed to have her own room, and all of us needing more space around us.

God had closed the door, and I had many feelings about this…

Then, (after much searching online and not believing we’d find what we needed, where we wanted to live that was within our budget) I found a flat that pretty much ticked all the boxes (and more) than the one we missed out on. The door that was opened to us is so much better than the one that was closed, not perfect – but pretty great.

Another door that opened was an opportunity to take on way more responsibility in something I was already involved with.  As much as I wanted to  – I didn’t actually know if I’d be able to do it. 

I decided to trust God with it and went for it… But only with His help, and an incredible team around me, did we flourish in all that we did in the last 8 months. 

As I look back, I see every moment of stretching and growing, and I am grateful… It was not something I’d ever have thought I’d be doing, but I know I am exactly where I am supposed to be.

The need of letting go

It has been a slow progress of many different things over the last 4 years or so. But this year in particular, letting go of something I tried so hard to control for most of my life, I found really hard… My hair…*cue eye rolls

It really isn’t even about my hair, more about not trying to control every aspect of my life. I had managed to trust God and let go of so many things, but this I found hard.

I have always had unruly hair, so much so that my mother cut it really short when I was a child because neither of us knew what to do with it. In my later teens I let it be it’s natural curly self for a time, set in the firm grip of hair gel, but since then (until recently) I had straightened it daily.

I dabbled with my curls on and off before really committing to putting the straighteners away, and there have been so many bad hair days since then… But I’m learning to be ok with that. I’m learning to be ok with everything not being perfect, because that’s not real life. The unknown quantity that is curly hair, keeps life interesting as it’s never the same from one day to the next. 

Life was an unknown quantity I tried to control for so long, but it’s so much better when I trust the creator of all things, because I have more peace and life always works better when I do.

Making time for what’s important to you

For me, this is my writing. 

I haven’t been great at keeping a regular writing schedule this year. It seemed like more of a luxury than something I needed to do. I felt that I had to complete the never ending To-Do list before I could take a day out for writing, or there was someone who wanted my time…and saying no is hard!    

Over the course of this next year, I am going to use my time more efficiently and reorganise a couple of my days so I can fit in more time for writing. 

I know I waste time because I have it, and spaces of time between things, that I could actually use… I need to value my time more, it’s a precious resource I need to use well and not waste.

“Lost time is never found again”

– Benjamin Franklin

These are the things that 2019 taught me…. It’s good to reflect as there is always room for growth, and staying the same is just boring when we can be so much more.

Let’s be writers who change the world or the better… one word at a time.

What have you learnt from this past year? 

What wisdom can you share from your life?
Just. Write. It.

Carrie x