From faith and fitness to budgeting and habits, a personal reflection on intentional living and lessons learned through life’s seasons.
A Bit Of My History
Over the years, I have achieved many goals that I set at the beginning of a new year. I have also experienced many failures for different reasons. But now I see that those failures were lessons—steps I needed to take in order to succeed.
When I was young, I used to set many goals, and then I would quit following through with some of them, or they were so unrealistic that I was simply set up for failure. I did achieve some of my goals, but when life happened and my circumstances changed, I would fall back again.
I Had No Choice But To Follow My Goals
Over time, I noticed that I didn’t really have a choice but to follow my goals. The older I got, the more demanding my circumstances became. For example, if I wanted to feel good, I needed to exercise. It wasn’t that I liked exercising, but I had to do it to live a normal life without feeling worn out or sick all the time. My body lets me know very quickly when I am being too lazy to make an effort and do the right thing.
Another thing that has changed over the years is my habit of reading my Bible and having devotion time. From a very young age, I knew that it was vital for me to devote time to it, but especially when the children were little, I would sometimes miss my devotions for weeks. And do you know what started happening during that time? Some of my old, groundless fears came back. Things that had been forgotten and forgiven long ago started hurting again, as if they had happened just yesterday, and bad memories crept back from the past. So, in a way, I was “forced” back into my daily routine of Bible study and prayer.
My list of goal areas looks like this:
- Spiritual
- Financial
- Career
- Intellectual
- Fitness
- Family
- Social
I have a couple of goals for each of these areas of my life.
It Works For Me
Now that my life is more settled and I have developed good habits that have been strong and effective for years—or even decades—when it comes time to make New Year’s resolutions, I hardly change anything. These habits already work very well for me. Instead, I usually add just a couple of things to improve one or two areas.
Focus On Decluttering, Fasting And Baking
A couple of years ago, my priority was to declutter my house and simplify my life, which I successfully did, and I am very happy with the result. Another thing I added on a regular basis around that time was fasting, which has improved our health and positively affected our spiritual life.
Last year, I decided to dedicate myself to milling fresh flour and baking everything at home, including bread, desserts, and other baked goods. We hardly bought any bread or baked items from the store. I made everything from scratch using freshly milled flour. It was such a positive change in our diet and had a significant impact on our health. I believe that my husband and I were not sick at all throughout the entire year.
Budgeting And Trying No-Spend Month
Lately, I have been learning more about budgeting and frugal living. Although I don’t consider myself an impulse buyer, I know there is still room for improvement. I want to approach budgeting more intentionally and try it for a few months. I also want to attempt a no-spend month in February. I will plan our food and necessities in advance and see how I can avoid unnecessary purchases. I will probably have to be very creative at times, but I want to try and see what I can learn from this challenge.
After evaluating my experience with the no-spend challenge, I would like to do it again later in the year—hopefully one or two more times. I think the hardest part may be that our adult children or other people might invite us to go out, which would require spending money. That’s why planning ahead and considering family events is crucial during a no-spend month.
Still, it is worth trying. Even if we end up spending money once or twice, the experience can teach us something new and help us save money in the long run.