Carrie Baker – The Growth Collective

You’ve been thinking about the whole New Years resolution thing for a while now, and maybe like me, over the last few years, you haven’t set any. If you are being honest with yourself, the reason is that you’re tired of failing.

You know how it goes, that first week you do really well, and then as time passes your enthusiasm dies a slow and painful death and you realise too late, that you tried to make too many changes all at once. Then, you just give up. I hear you…

Have you ever asked yourself, why is January 1st the only time in the year when people try to make so many changes all at once? Do we do this at other times in the year? (I can safely say that I don’t.)

While setting goals for the year ahead is a great way to direct your life for the coming months, the pressure we put on ourselves to suddenly implement and stick to all these changes, isn’t.

Maybe you’ve been thinking about the goals you want to set for yourself, maybe you feel like this is your year. What if the goals you want to set, need to start on a much deeper level, than just adding a new routine into your life?

Wisdom for life

There is a verse in the bible that says “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” Proverbs 4:23

Even if you don’t have a Christian faith, the bible holds so much wisdom for life. This verse puts emphasis on our heart, the part of us that is who we are. This verse says we need to guard our heart above everything else, because everything we do comes from it. If you want to reach your goals and grow, it begins at the centre of who you are.

Think about the goals you want to set, pick one and peel back the layers to the very core of it. Take a deeper look than the surface of your goal, and ask yourself this: What is it that you actually need to work on? Ask yourself the ‘why’ behind your goals, why do you want to achieve…..?

Here are a few examples:

To lose weight and eat better… Maybe you want to lose weight because you don’t feel confident in your skin, or it could be that you put your needs at the bottom of your to list of priorities, and everything else comes first. If we peel back the layers on this, it may be that you don’t look after yourself as you need to because you don’t think you’re as important, so you don’t put value on the body that carries you around in your life. Or you don’t put value on your own time. Creating these good habits takes time out of your life to put some focus on you, and sometimes this can feel selfish – believe me, it’s not!

Quitting a bad habit… This is similar to the one above, the inner of this goal, can be not placing enough value in you, your health and your future.

Getting organised… Possibly you feel like your life is a little chaotic, or perhaps you just feel that you are always a step behind being as organised as you need to be. Are you setting a realistic goal or are you comparing your life to someone who ‘off-the-charts organised’? Is it your mind that feels a little chaotic? The core of this goal could be that you aren’t giving yourself the time you need, to put things in place to slow down and allow yourself space to put things in place.

These are just some thoughts on what could possibly be at the very core of your goals, to get you thinking, and looking deeper.

To make progress in reaching your goals, it is so important to know the why behind it. To know yourself, and to understand why you need to reach that goal is actually half the battle.

What we believe and how we think, dictates what we do.

Read that again and let it percolate for a moment. What do you think or believe about yourself?

Let’s go back to the verse in proverbs, that everything we do comes from our heart. Now look at the first part of the verse again, ‘Above all else, guard your heart…’ because that is your starting place, your heart.

Guarding your heart, means to protect it and keep it safe from anything that could cause hurt or damage. Sometimes the thing we need to guard our heart from, is ourselves. The negative self talk, or the way we put ourselves down, can cause this damage. How is your inner dialogue in relation to yourself? Are you kind in the how you think about yourself?

Maybe it’t the way we compare ourselves to others and what they have, or have achieved, or what they do. Perhaps we need to guard our heart from other people, and the hurtful things they’ve said that runs on repeat in your mind.

It matters what we allow into our heart, because everything we do comes out of it. When we sort out the heart issue, mostly, the rest will follow.

So as we head into a New Year, do your goals need to look different from past years? Do you need to begin to change things on inside, then working outward?

This year, listen to what your body needs, allow time for rest, change the language of your inner dialogue to be encouraging, protect your heart and nourish it with good words, value the person you see in the mirror, and choose to see yourself as the wonderful creation you are.

Happy New Year to you!! I hope it is blessed, and may you grow in all the ways you desire to.

Love,

Carrie xxx

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